Signs will be posted throughout Truro this weekend shining the spotlight on a growing problem.
In keeping with Truro’s Ride For Refuge, sobering statistics and facts about human trafficking will be placed on the signs at water stations.
Some signs indicate stats, such as trafficking victims being pimped out as many as 15 to 20 times a day. Others highlight the plight of Indigenous women who constitute about half of all women who are trafficked.
“Nova Scotia is a source province and it’s a real issue here,” said Cheryl McLeod, Ride For Refuge’s event director in Truro. “It’s just to help get people aware and realize that this is a big problem in Canada and especially Nova Scotia.”
The signs which will span over 10 kilometres around Truro and will be written in a combination of red and black ink. Each message will raise awareness on an issue that isn’t getting enough attention.
McLeod said this is the first year Truro will be participating in Ride For Refuge, a national fundraiser. The event is scheduled for this Saturday, Sept. 29.
Participants have the choice to walk or bike to raise funds for groups that are vulnerable or exploited. For her part, McLeod said deciding to raise money for human trafficking victims was an easy decision.
“The more we talk about it, the safer and more educated young girls can be so they don’t fall prey to trafficking,” she said.
Similar rides are also slated to take place in Halifax and the Annapolis Valley.
McLeod hopes the event will start a conversation and in addition to the signs, a petition will be circulating asking the House of Commons to further enforce Bill C-36, an amendment to the Criminal Code which makes it illegal to purchase sex.
“There is a law there but it’s just not enforced as much as we’d like to see,” said McLeod.
All donations will be going to Trauma Recovery For Exploited Youth, an organization dedicated to helping and housing victims of human trafficking.
Truro’s Ride for Refuge opens at the Douglas Street recreation Centre, 40 Douglas St., with registration at 9:30 a.m. and participants set out at 10:30 a.m. A lunch is slated for noon.
Event details are available at rideforrefuge.org.
