Human trafficking.
Student leader Emily Mitchell said she hoped the pyjama day, which raised $750, would heighten people’s understanding of the particular difficulties of trafficked persons during the global pandemic.
“It is easy to have feelings of helplessness or that as a small group in the world we cannot make a big impact,” Emily said.
“We hope this day is a great sign to the voiceless people of the world that we do ‘know’ them and we do care about what happens to them.
“We also hope that through prayer, raising awareness and advocacy activities that we will be able to build the momentum needed to stop modern slavery and together we will bring an end to the trafficking of humans.”
St Joseph’s College is a Catholic College in the Brigidine Tradition that supports ACRATH, which stands for Australian Catholic Religious against the Trafficking of Humans.
Brigidine Sisters form part of this working body that aims to educate Australians about human trafficking and advocate for the rights of people who are the victims of trafficking across the world, and in Australia.
The students decided to approach this with an educative focus — teaching people about how they can make an impact on looking out for those who are vulnerable and have no voice.
“We have a schedule of events that are designed to build an understanding of issues of social justice in our community; locally, nationally and internationally,” Emily said.
“The restrictions regarding how our school can operate at given times so far this year has meant that we have not been able to undertake as many of these events as we would have liked.
“However, we decided our community needed something fun and special to do — so this is it.”