Skip to content

UFV to host human trafficking and slavery awareness event

The event is hosted by the UFV Global Development Institute and the local advocacy group I Am End

The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) is hosting FREE ME, a day-long symposium on issues of slavery, human and organ trafficking and forced prostitution on Saturday, April 6.

FREE ME is a human trafficking and slavery awareness event hosted by the UFV Global Development Institute and the local advocacy group I Am End. The purpose of the event is to educate people throughout the region about the scope and extent of human trafficking and awareness and to encourage them to resist these attacks on the vulnerable in British Columbia as well as in the rest of the world.

I Am End is a group with a mandate of ending human slavery and trafficking that has a chapter based in Abbotsford. UFV’s Global Development Institute is working the group to organize the symposium.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and it is open to students, professionals, and the general public. The event consists of three segments of the hard-hitting documentary Half the Sky, discussions and questions with a panel of experts, a catered lunch, and the opportunity to attend two workshops facilitated by the panelists.

The panelists include Michele Giordano, from the local NGO the Warm Zone, Catherine Dawson, a researcher who specializes in the use of the internet in exploitation of children, Jassy Bindra, the RCMP Pacific Human Trafficking Coordinator, Gwen Bollant, on the trafficking of human organs, and Tamara O’Doherty, a specialist in sex work industry.

Students can attend the symposium for a $20 fee; the cost for others is $101.

The Global Development Institute is a UFV research institute comprised of faculty and staff who promote and encourage research on sustainable human and community development in order to facilitate positive change for those living in vulnerable conditions.

To register or for more information please contact:

Danira Sehomerovic at danira.sehomerovic@student.ufv.ca    or

Garry Fehr at garry.fehr@ufv.ca