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A 540-piece blanket that illustrates the complexity of human trafficking (3 photos)

The blanket is on display at Guelph-Wellington Women In Crisis and will be taken to other agencies and Guelph General Hospital for people to see

For Human Trafficking Awareness Day, Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis assembled a 12-by-20-foot knitted blanket composed of 540 pieces to illustrate the complexity of human trafficking.

Since October the ‘It Takes a Knitwork’ initiative has asked people to donate knitted or crochetted pieces 8 inches by 8 inches that made up 15 smaller blankets that were then pieced together to make the large blanket.

The blanket symbolizes the elaborate complexity of the issue and the use of knits symbolizes the warmth and connectivity the community needs to provide for the survivors.

“It was inspired by one of the women that I support who was really drawn to knitted things and I had a knitted blanket in my office and she said this is the anthesis of a hotel,” said Women in Crisis anti-human trafficking counsellor Emma Callon.

From police data collected between 2009 and 2016, a total of 1,099 violations of human trafficking took place in Canada and 723 of those cases took place in Ontario. Five of them took place in Guelph.

But that number is not entirely accurate because human trafficking is always underreported because of its complexity. Victims are coerced, abused psychologically and physically in a situation that is difficult for an outsider to detect.

“Sometimes Guelph is just a stop for people, other times people are recruited from Guelph to Toronto. It is underreported for a lot of reasons,” said Callon.

“The whole point of the project is also to illustrate that one person, one organization alone cannot fully support or meet the needs or survivors so it takes a real community knitwork to do that.”

Designer Robin Baird Lewis from the Guelph Arts Council helped coordinate and arrange the patterns for the blanket.

“We wanted colours that were bright and cheerful and some that were warm and comforting and we gave them names,” said Lewis.

"We have enough to make another one and more."

Lewis says the response from the community was overwhelming when the word of the initiative got out.

Responses crossed the borders of Guelph.

“We would get little packages in the mail,” said executive director Sly Castaldi speaking of knits that came from across Ontario and out of the province.

“I hope that somebody who has been trafficked will look at this blanket and they'll be amazed and they'll feel an awe that all of these people in our community knit these squares with the intention that it would contribute to this project," said Callon.

"I hope a survivor would look at it and be overwhelmed and feel like this is a place where we can support survivors. It's hopeful. Usually when we talk about trafficking it's dark.”

Callon says the blanket will be travelling around for people to see to places such as Second Chance Employment Counselling, Family Counselling and Support Services and Guelph General Hosptial.


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Anam Khan

About the Author: Anam Khan

Anam Khan is a journalist who covers numerous beats in Guelph and Wellington County that include politics, crime, features, environment and social justice
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