PLAINFIELD — Slavery is not over.

That’s the message a group of students at Plainfield High School wanted to get out to their classmates and teachers last week during Slavery Awareness Day.

The students were led by Nate Waterfill and Kaitlyn Baker, both seniors at the school. The pair began the Students for Global Impact Club (SGI) at the school last year and have been holding awareness events throughout the year.

“We started the club as an open service, to do fundraisers without the administration getting in the way,” Waterfill said.

The event they held recently was to alert people to the fact that slavery still exists in the world, as at least 27 million people are being held captive today. To help represent that to their classmates, 27 club members had their arms bound together with rope so they were unable to use their hands or arms for the day.

“We had rope and made T-shirts, and it was difficult to maneuver sometimes,” Waterfill said. “Everyone wants to know, you tell kids about it and they say ‘slavery is over’ or ‘what slavery?’”

Though there are varying forms of slavery going on in the world, sex slavery is the one that has hit close to home for Waterfill.

“I had a foster sister from Kazakhstan and we were close,” he said. “But she is now believed to be in sex slavery. She was never adopted (as was arranged for her). She lived with us for a couple weeks. Ksusha was her name. She had to go back for paperwork and it is believed that she was sold into slavery.”

Waterfill was only 12 or 13 when Ksusha was taken.

“At that age, I didn’t understand it, it was really unclear,” he said. “And still today, it’s something you try to understand and can’t. All you do is react. We just want other people to know that it’s a very real and terrible thing, but we have the ability to change that.”

Waterfill said the club does a fundraiser and awareness event for a different group each quarter of the school year. Money raised at this event went to Free the Slaves, a non-profit organization that works to remove those in slavery situations and help them return home. The group also hosted a bike-a-thon earlier in the month and raised $400 for Free the Slaves.

Earlier in the year, the group helped to raise more than $3,000 for Rapha House, which provides safehomes and aftercare programs for young girls who have been rescued out of slavery and exploitative situations.

The group will also hold events for Save Darfur and Invisible Children.

“The world is bigger than Plainfield,” Waterfill said. “I think everyone has a responsibility to help someone else. I’d like to see other kids from other schools do things like this.”

Baker also has a passion to help those who are and have been victims of human trafficking.

“I am a strong advocate against sex trafficking,” she said. “Through my church youth group I learned about it and Rapha House is (my) big one. We got a lot of puzzled looks (during the day with our arms tied) and still a lot of the time kids can’t see past Plainfield, so this is eye-opening.”

The group showed a video about slavery and sex trafficking after school to about 100 students and teachers, which is more than Waterfill and Baker were expecting.

One of those students in attendance was sophomore Lauren Fetner.

“When I heard about slavery day, I didn’t really think about it,” she said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like (to be a slave).”

Merriam Al-jundub, a sophomore, also called the event “eye-opening.”

“People don’t realize what’s going on,” Al-jundub said. “A lot of people need to be educated and it’s best to do it at high schools.”

The group has a donation jar in their school store year-round to collect money for the groups they support. Proceeds raised from this event will go directly to Free the Slaves, which ironically has to “buy” captive people out of slavery for about $90 each.

For more information on Free the Slaves, visit the website at www.freetheslaves.net.

charlee.beasor@flyergroup.com