Lee County students express
evils of human trafficking

BY CRISTELA GUERRA • cguerra@news-press.
com • March 20, 2010

1:10 A.M. — Her brown eyes peruse the canvas as
she occasionally dips her paintbrush.

She outlines brown footprints around a rectangular
border. Those prints represent the journey of so
many women Adriana Serra, 16, of Four Myers has
learned about in the last month.

She feels like she knows those women - all victims
of human trafficking.

Serra, a junior at Bishop Verot High School, was
selected along with 12 other girls to be part of an
art project that focuses on trafficking.

Five Lee County schools are represented in the small
gatherings that have met every two weeks for the
past month at the Unitarian Universalist Church on
Daniels Parkway in south Fort Myers.

The project was produced through sponsorships
from the local women's group, the Zonta Club of
Sanibel/Captiva as well as Fort Myers, that provided
an estimated $3,600 and $1,000 respectively,
according to Nola Theiss, executive director of the
Human Trafficking Awareness Partnership.

The four paintings produced in the 31Ú2-hour
sessions will travel in exhibits, the first two at the
end of April, to teach others about the dangers of
trafficking.

"The definition always used is modern day slavery,

the same as 200 years ago, just as extreme, but not
as easily identified because these victims aren't
walking down the street shackled," Theiss said.

Serra's idea for the painting, which she first
sketched out, shows a clawed hand with female
figures clenched in its grasp.

"If there's one word I could use to describe this, it
would be oppression," Serra said.

"The footsteps are those of the woman trying to run
away, but she can't. In the back is the sun, a light
and a new beginning," she said.

Various incidents of trafficking hit Southwest Florida
in the past years, including one case involving a
15-year-old Immokalee girl.

"People would probably ask what talking to 12 or 13
teenagers over eight weeks can do, but it could have
a huge impact when they speak to their peers and
when people see their artwork," Theiss said.


Rosalinda Diego, 18, a junior at Dunbar High
School, worked alongside Serra on the same
painting.

She said the reality of the subject hit home, as her
own mother could have been such a victim when
she crossed the border into the U.S. from
Guatemala.

"She was pregnant with me at the time," Diego said.

"And she knows other women who have been
dragged into this lifestyle against their wishes. They
came looking for a better life and instead it turned
worse." 

The class was different than what Genelle Grant, an
immigrant advocate who worked with the girls on
their art projects, was used to.

The women with whom Grant worked in Guatemala
know firsthand what it is to be assaulted and forced
into the sex trade.

It took one friend too many being trafficked to make
Grant decide to get involved in the cause.

"It really is harsh," she said. "I've been trying to get
out of it for years. But I can't."

Now, Grant's passion for these victims has hopefully
been instilled in 12 others.

"More people need to know. I'm going to talk about
it," Serra said. "There's no question."