TRADE

Saw this on the WITNESS listserv and thought it was worth posting.

On September 28, 2007, the film TRADE, a gripping tale of the dark web of sex trafficking starring Kevin Kline, will open in theaters nationwide. Equality Now, along with three other organizations, will receive 5% of the opening week box office receipts from Roadside Attractions, the film's distributor. TRADE follows the story of a 13 year-old Mexican girl and a young Polish woman as they are kidnapped by sex traffickers in Mexico and transported for sale in the United States. It is a powerful film with the sobering message that the global sex trafficking industry operates in our own towns and cities. We need to take action and stand against those who enslave women and children as commodities in the sex trade.

As part of Equality Now's work to end the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls around the world, Equality Now recently launched the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End Sex Trafficking (Trafficking Fund). This new initiative, which is based on the successful model of our Fund for Grassroots Activism to End Female Genital Mutilation, provides grants to grassroots groups that provide critical services to trafficking victims, as well as put pressure on government officials to arrest and prosecute traffickers and others who create the demand for the commercial sex trade. Currently the Trafficking Fund has grantees in Cambodia, Iceland, India, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, and the United States.

To view a trailer of TRADE, go to www.tradethemovie.com. We encourage you to go see TRADE during the opening week and know that you will be helping Equality Now in its efforts to stop this and other human rights violations against women and girls around the world. Bring some friends with you!

If you plan on seeing TRADE and would like to take some brochures about Equality Now's new Trafficking Fund with you to hand out at the theater, please send an email to info(at)equalitynow.org and let us know how many brochures you would like and the address where they should be sent.

"TRADE allows an unflinching peek at the secret world of sex trafficking, disturbing and beautifully rendered, bravely acted and a searing experience. Anyone who fails to have their insides roiled by this film has commenced rigor mortis." —Meryl Streep