Last year’s Red Sand Project saw participation from county officials, township police, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (in red coat) and Councilwoman Fozia Janjua.
Assemblywoman Carol Murphy will proclaim January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month by raising awareness of the issue with her annual project on Saturday.
Murphy will again hold the Red Sand Project at Laurel Acres Park to raise awareness about vulnerabilities that can lead to human trafficking and exploitation. The project involves participatory artwork created in 2014 by Molly Gochman, an experimental artist and activist.
Sidewalk interventions – or filling in sidewalk cracks – and earthwork installations create opportunities for people to question, connect and take action against vulnerabilities that can lead to human trafficking and exploitation.
Murphy has made human trafficking awareness a focal point of her legislative work, joining advocacy groups and writing legislation to assist trafficking victims and prevent others from becoming one. Red Sand Project actions have occurred in all 50 states and in 70 countries, with more than one million participants.
The local project is simple: Murphy will welcome those in attendance on South Church Street at 10 a.m. Saturday, then participants will spread out at Laurel Acres Park and place biodegradable red sand into its sidewalk cracks as a symbol of closing the cracks – or holes – in human trafficking measures.
“I think it’s important that we all work together to combat this,” Murphy said.
She cited the frequency of human trafficking as one reason for people to be urgent about the issue. The assemblywoman – also the Democratic state director for female legislators – first learned of the Red Sand Project when she attended a 2018 conference in San Antonio, Texas. She decided she wanted to bring the idea to South Jersey.
“It’s about making the community aware, having a second set of eyes and hopefully developing a consentive community,” Murphy explained, “(so) it will get reported before another human trafficking victim goes missing.
“I think that’s what the important part of this is, making our community aware, and that’s what this is all about.”
For more information about the project, visit www.redsandproject.org.
