By Ben Ros

The concert benefit for the Red Thread Movement at the Horn this Friday will feature five Kenyon acts to support Nepalese victims of sex trafficking. The Movement is an initiative of a larger organization, Eternal Threads, which works toward improving the lives of women and children most at risk of extreme poverty, trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Red Thread specifically serves Nepal, raising awareness of sex trafficking, funding safe houses and providing a fair trade income for rescued victims.

Raquel Zanoni 14, who arranged the concert with the help of Ellen Hoffman 14 and Tim Jurney 15, has been involved with issues concerning human rights for quite a while. With Claire Dutton 14, she has worked for the Not For Sale Campaign, another organization that fights human trafficking on a global scale.

[Modern-day human trafficking is] an issue that Im passionate about. I had no idea about it before I came to Kenyon, Zanoni said. Besides just running a club in college, I wanted to look for the real world applications of the work Im doing.

Zanoni first learned of The Red Thread Movement as a summer intern at the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in Washington, D.C. There, she met Britney Partridge, who founded the Movement in her first year at Abilene Christian University, where she majored in political science. [Partridge] has a personal connection to the women who are doing this. So, I trust that my efforts are going to the right cause, Zanoni said.

The Horn Gallery doors open at 9:00 p.m. this Friday, April 12. A Red Thread bracelet ($3) is required for admission.

The concert will feature musical acts French Club, Willows, Townships, Mary Allen and Jay Leung. For more information on how to help prevent sex trafficking both domestic and abroad, see notforsalecampaign.org or redthreadmovement.org.

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