CNN #MYFREEDOMDAY
Mar 9-12, 2020
During the week of the 11th of March, the MUN Impact group focused on CNN’s #MyFreedomDay, an international movement to highlight modern slavery and celebrate freedom. We worked on this under the lens of UN SDG 8.7, which is to combat modern slavery.
At the start of the week, several members of our school community wrote one form of modern slavery that they knew about, and added it to a chain, which we placed on a tree in the center of our campus. MUN Impact members discussed with participants about the various forms of modern-day slavery that we come across but usually cannot take action in India, such as child labor, sex trafficking, and domestic servitude. MUN Impact members also created a chalk drawing on our blackboards to represent the ultimate breaking of the chain.
We wore blue and passed out blue wristbands with #MyFreedomDay written on them! MUN Impact members created interactive boards with information about how our school community can become involved in the cause by watching videos and supporting us in our upcoming lap-a-thon.
We also invited Kranti, an NGO in Bombay supporting and guiding women from Bombay’s red-light district, to talk to our Social Studies classes. Two girls who had overcome domestic work and dangerous family situations who are now in prestigious universities and careers chatted with us via Skype. Students were very intrigued and touched by the girls’ resilience and confidence amidst extreme adversity.
Finally, it was time for our lap-a-thon! We invited the entire school to participate, and all proceeds went directly to Kranti. At the start of the lap-a-thon, we ran through the chains which we had created a few days before, to represent the removal of the barriers which restrict people from escaping modern slavery. Parents, students, and faculty ran or walked!
During the Skype calls, the Kranti girls informed us about their unfortunate housing situation. Because they are from a generally marginalized part of society in India, every landlord that found out about their mission forced them to leave the houses, leaving them with a restricted amount of money in an increasingly expensive city. MUN Impact’s donation to Kranti has helped them now afford a few months of housing, so that they can focus on helping the girls who have experienced modern day slavery achieve exceptional educations, break the status quo, and make a difference in the world.