FARMINGTON — A four-event program on human trafficking and slavery began at the University of Maine Farmington Monday night with a concert presented by the group, “The Wrecking.”

Some members of the group are UMF alumni and presented a program on Love 146, said Katherine Thompson, a UMF Intervarsity Christian Fellowship member.

Love 146 represents hope based on the experience of a group of Christian friends who traveled to South Asia to explore the issue of human trafficking, she said. With local police they went to a brothel pretending to be customers. Each young woman had a number and acted numb, but the group saw a spark of life in a woman whose number was 146, she said.

The group is sponsoring the events as part of a Human Trafficking Awareness Week on campus that includes concerts, a movie and first-hand stories from a Lewiston woman, Jenna Stepp from Vineyard Church, who spent time in the Philippines ministering to people involved with border smuggling.

After being touched last summer by a program on Not For Sale, an organization devoted to working on human trafficking of all sorts worldwide, Chuck Ellis, a staff leader shared his experience with the 40-member campus Christian group, Thompson said.

“Some of us didn’t know it was going on . . . we were horrified and felt that everyone should know about it,” she said. “The ministry leaders became enthusiastic to doing something and it caught on like wildfire.”

The group decided to devote a week to raising awareness and opening people’s eyes to the fact that slavery goes on in America, too, she said.

In advertisements about the week, the group shares facts such as human trafficking being a $32 billion a year industry, second only to drugs, and that 200,000 people are enslaved inside the United States.

“There are things we can do to help,” she said while mentioning educating and telling other people as well as giving donations to groups such as Not For Sale.

The movie, “Taken” will be shown at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Landing in Olsen Student Center. It is free and open to the public.

First hand stories will be shared by Stepp at 7 p.m. Wednesday in North Dining Hall of the Student Center and on Thursday singer-songwriter, Brant Christopher, will sing and speak for the Not For Sale organization. This will also be held in the North Dining Hall.

The public is welcome to any of the events.

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