Dressember 2015 from Dressember on Vimeo.
The thing I’m most excited to do is use this blog as a platform to talk about larger issues and then do something about them! Dressember is the perfect way to do both. I participated in Dressember last December, and plan to do the same again this year. What is Dressember? Well, it occurs in the month of December and you commit to wearing a dress every day of the entire month to raise awareness and money to fight human trafficking.
Human trafficking is a global issue happening everywhere, including the United States. It is any situation where a person is forced to work in slavery. This happens in the form of sex slavery with girls as young as 11 and 12 years old. This also happens in situations of forced labor. International Justice Mission is a non-profit working all over the world to end human trafficking. They first rescue people out of trafficking situations. Then they provide the victims with after care support and therapy to help them transition back into society. Finally, their legal team goes after the perpetrators to hopefully serve them with justice. They hire all their case workers, therapists, attorneys, etc. in the countries they work in. Those people are most likely better prepared to navigate these situations than someone from outside their culture.
It’s definitely not a small problem or one that is easy. But I believe in the work of IJM and am glad they are there for people. All the fundraising efforts of Dressember go to IJM . Each particpant has their own fundraising page with a goal they choose. For example, starting out my goal was $300. However I reached that two weeks into December, so I decided to up my fundraising goal to $500. I was wearing the dresses anyway, so why not? By the end of the month I exceeded that and raised a total of $510. This was all from reaching out to family and friends, and sharing the campaign on social media. I say this to encourage everyone that they too can do this! You can participate as an individual or as a group. This year I’m hoping to take it up a notch and have a team with a few other ladies.
Registration for Dressember 2015 begins October 1st. I hope you will consider partipating. Visit www.dressember.org to learn more. Feel free to e-mail me at aworldofdresses@gmail.com if you have any questions.
