Introduction
Human trafficking is defined as the forceful and violent process of trading on humans and their body parts for individual financial gains or satisfaction. Human trafficking awareness is the attempt to create knowledge and understanding amongst one another about human traffickers and ensuring the safety of endangered individuals, especially vulnerable girls and women who may be rape and abduction victims. This paper presents the methodologies on how artwork can be used to create awareness about human trafficking.
It is important to note that the primary victims of human trafficking are those in vulnerable situations such as financial debts, domestic violence, and those who engage in romantic affairs with the traffickers (Gerge & Pedersen, 2017). As such, the traffickers always make some fake promises to their targets to manipulate them into doing whatever they may ask for. Human trafficking perpetrates the feeling of trauma and vulnerability among the affected individuals (Kometiani & Farmer, 2020). However, it has been noted that arts could play an essential role in raising awareness of human trafficking through eradicating trauma and related vulnerability causes among the victims.
What is Art?The artwork is an all-round activity involved in the attempt to embrace nature through the dissemination of aesthetics such as painting and decoration, architecture, film, music, theatres, among other performing arts (Burkholder et al., 2019). As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and Art is the most excellent ideal method of creating awareness in the case of crucial information like human trafficking that has been in existence amongst people in the society. Art becomes the best method of transmitting information from one another within and without a locality as it is what individuals interact with daily.
How Art is used to Creating Human Trafficking Awareness
Art uses the architectural work, films, and music to voice vulnerable individuals, such as women and girls, to seek attention from the able state government officials and those responsible for protecting the rights of individuals. Artworks enhance widespread information t the global audience mainly to find a solution to the problem at hand, human trafficking.
That involves galvanizing public awareness campaigns, community-based education, films, and series production and creative problem-solving opportunities to enable the entire community to find solutions to human trafficking. Art is also used by victims themselves in creating awareness of what they are undergoing. They are certain countries where they have been sold for slavery, the pain they suffer, the torture, and all kinds of ill-treatment from human traffickers.
Arts have often been used both in the assessment and the therapy for traumatized children. For instance, techniques provide both the youths and the adults with the platform for expressing and exploring images of self that are resilient-focused and strength-based (Kometiani & Farmer, 2020). Again research has indicated that arts play a significant role in breaking the silence in children, reducing the trauma and related stress that predisposes them to human trafficking.
Art in Healing Trauma
Individual victims who survive abduction and sale for slavers get traumatized and therefore need various ways of rehabilitation. Art plays a significant role in healing trauma amongst children and adult victims as well. The technique is popularly used in therapy with traumatized children. Injury is the painful experience that a young person is trying to cope with and live with. Artistic work enables children to access and externalize the memories, visual images, and sensations that may have been shaped by trauma. Psychologists such as Margaret was an early pioneer of applying Art in the exploration of trauma and conflict in adolescents and children. According to Steele and Kuban 2015, Art provides youth with a medium to express and explore images of self that are strength-based and resilience-focused. An activity such as simple Christmas drawing enables many children to feel secure within a particular place (Kuban, 2015). The trauma associated with human trafficking could be addressed by allowing survivors to participate in a supportive environment so that they can regain their self-esteem.
Emotional and physical sensations imprinted in youth's brains are not only memories but also physical feelings that disrupt them. Steele and Kuban 2015 stipulate that Art reduces the hyper-arousal of trauma by engaging the body's relation response hence giving them overwhelming sensation. However, participating in such art activities as drawing engages youths inactive role-playing in their healing, which is a way of youth empowerment.
Art therapy for the survivors has been considered valuable for trauma treatment (Gerge & Pedersen, 2017). It is essential to note that although it could be challenging to describe trauma verbally, art therapy can access the section of the brain in which trauma resides, thereby allowing for some non-verbal processing as well as reconnection to the experience of trauma within a safe environment. Again, it is worth noting that art therapy in the affected survivors facilitates the creation of a sense of understanding among the survivors, mainly through physical sensation, emotional awareness as well as experience of cognitions.
Art therapy, through revisiting the trauma, help improve coping skills and stabilize the nervous system's responses. It allows for improved brain functioning, particularly from negative concepts of injury to a positive verification (Kometiani & Farmer, 2020). Various findings indicate that art therapy could significantly reduce trauma symptoms in several individuals. Most fundamentally, art therapy has studied successfully to facilitate the achievement of success among the trauma survivors.
Importance of Art Therapy and Various Initiated Artists
It has noted by several researchers that art therapy is also successful for victims who have experienced domestic and sexual violence (Parrish, 2018). In such scenarios, art therapy could provide a chance for making meaning as well as enhancing adaptability (Kuban, 2015). It is noteworthy that the benefits of art therapy in enhancing resilience following human trafficking are immense.
Furthermore, arts and art therapy provide the best platform for communicating whatever is challenging to visualize. Hence, it gives some form of confidential non-verbal communication for individuals who experience human trafficking abuse (Kuban, 2015). Again, art therapy allows the individual who have gone human trafficking and other traumatizing situations to recover even without a feeling of self-blame (Kometiani & Farmer, 2020). Art therapy is a way of creating awareness of human trafficking as well as sexual abuse.
It is also important to note that art therapy provides the trafficked survivors with an environment in which increased focus and positive self-worth could occur, thus promoting the reconnection with self, connection with others, and personal empowerment. Research indicates that art therapy could be used as a mechanism of aiding human trafficking survivors through the recollection of some personal narratives.
Moreover, expressive art therapies that could be adopted to the survivors of human trafficking include several Medias such as music, movement, drama as well as poetry. It is vital to note that the multi-media art therapy approach allows for natural expression and self-examination. As such, the survivor could share their trauma experiences through expressive art therapies. Again, art therapy is valuable for the treatment of trauma since it provides self-regulation opportunities while at the same time, allowing for trauma re-examination and processing.
Most significantly, the survivors of human trafficking always experience a sense of understanding for their wholeness through emotional awareness, physical sensation, and the feeling of cognition through the adoption of art therapy (Small, 2012). Revising the trauma through art therapy can stabilize the nervous system and improve the coping skills, thus permitting the brain's normal functioning (Gerge & Pedersen, 2017). Various researches indicate that art therapy is more successful in significantly reducing the symptoms of trauma in the affected individuals.
Concisely, human trafficking threatens the personal safety of various affected individuals. It results in destructions to communities and different damages to the survivors in a variety of ways (Gerge & Pedersen, 2017). Art therapy, combined with other supportive services, could create an atmosphere in which the survivors can recapture the power from within what was lost or stolen. As such, it could be used to raise awareness of the adverse effects of human trafficking.
Illustrations 1
The first illustration of the trauma victim is Maria, who experienced multiple traumas at her tender age of 16 years. These included sexual assault, abuse, neglect, and the death of her young son. Her drawing of the experiences consists of a stuffed image of an animal that reminds her of her son. Even though the loss is painful, the picture serves as a comforting memory for her. That helps in her healing and youth empowerment in curbing and healing trauma using Art. Being part of the trauma treatment group helped Maria more so when she started coloring as she listens to music. According to Wheeler 2015, music and art therapy have demonstrated a reduction in autonomic responses like rate of heartbeat, blood pressure, and respiration since Maria has become more self-regulated when taking part in artistic work of coloring and listening to music.
Illustration 2
Another trauma case is seen in Reggie, a 14 year- old boy who is traumatized by neighborhood violence and gang involvement. He uses drawing as a way of goals, future management plans, and overwhelming feelings. Anger that was his trauma theme became more controlled as a result of his expression in drawing. That became therapeutic and healing to his trauma.
Conclusion
Human trafficking is the forceful and violent process of trading on humans and their body parts for individual financial gains or satisfaction. Human trafficking awareness is the attempt of creating knowledge and understanding amongst one another about the existence of human traffickers and ensuring the safety of vulnerable individuals. Emotional and physical sensations imprinted in youth's brains are not only memories but also physical feelings that disrupt them. However, Art has played a significant role in creating awareness of Human Trafficking. Art provides vulnerable individuals and youths with a medium to express and explore images of self that are strength-based and resilience-focused. An activity such as simple Christmas drawing enables many children to feel secure within a particular place. Trauma associated with human trafficking could be addressed by allowing survivors to participate in a supportive environment so that they can regain their self-esteem.
