The Martin de Porres Center, 2330 Airport Road, Columbus, OH, will be the site of the 2018 “SOAP UP COLUMBUS” event, a human trafficking prevention outreach sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Peace and ADAMH, the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County.
SOAP UP COLUMBUS will be held on Saturday, February 17 from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm.
SOAP (Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution) is an outreach designed to fight human trafficking at large events. The Columbus SOAP eventis usually held a few weeks before an annual sports and fitness show that draws nearly 200,000 people to the city.
“Events like this draw so many men who are looking for sex,” said Sr. Nadine Buchanan, a Dominican Sister of Peace who has been recognized for her work with trafficked women. “Hundreds of women and girls – as young as 12 or 13 – are bussed in to answer that demand. We are trying to help them find a way out of this life.”
Volunteers will take part in an educational presentation about human trafficking, then assist in wrapping hotel-size soaps with bright red wrappers printed with the phone number for the National Human Trafficking Helpline. Volunteers may also distribute the wrapped soaps, along with posters of missing girls who may be involved in sex trafficking, to local hotels and motels.
SOAP UP COLUMBUS is supported by a grant from ADAMH, the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County.
For more information or to register for SOAP UP COLUMBUS, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/soap-up-the-arnold-classic-2018-tickets-41824586464.