LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the International Labor Organization, in 2012 there were an estimated 5.5 million children in the trafficking industry. Yet, the U.S. Department of State estimates that only 0.4% of trafficking victims have been identified. Redlight Traffic, a program of the Seattle Kiwanis Memorial Fund, is launching an app for smartphones on November 1st that features crowdsourcing to enable individuals and communities to help identify and locate victims and traffickers.
On Friday, October 18th Redlight Traffic’s first mobile app will be unveiled at the inaugural Dignity Gala at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The charity dinner, sponsored by Kineta Inc. and CTP Media Partners, Inc., will honor those who continuously fight to end human trafficking. The evening will include a cocktail reception, dinner, silent auction and featured musical performance by Demi Lovato.
Honorees are: Bryan Taylor, SeaTac Police Department; Joel Banks, Detective of King County Sheriff Department, and the Association for the Recovery of Children. Speakers include Rachel Lloyd, survivor and founder of GEMS and Deborah Polston, Florida’s Human Trafficking Advocate. Proceeds from the gala will help Redlight Traffic research groundbreaking new approaches using technology and social media to accelerate the end of human trafficking and bring new strategies to recover human trafficking victims as quickly as possible.
Redlight Traffic is the brainchild of Amin Haq, President of the Kiwanis Club of Downtown Seattle and fierce advocate for children. Redlight Traffic aims to enable the broader community in a process of Recognize, Report, Recover, and Release. The mobile app empowers engaged community members in the first two steps of Recognize and Report while providing coordinated data to law enforcement and connected services organizations to aid them with Recover and Release.
“It made sense to me to create an app that would help communities engage in the issue and increase up-to-date, actionable data,” explains Haq. “Next, we connect individuals, communities, experts, and organizations with each other and with more resources to help victims of trafficking. That’s what will make the most impact."
To request an invitation for the Dignity Gala or to donate, please visit www.RedlightTraffic.org.
