By Rylee Leighton
Special to the Aroostook Republican
FORT KENT — Students from the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s Chi Alpha Christian Campus Ministry recently sold handmade bracelets in support of efforts to prevent human trafficking.
Threads of Hope, a non-profit organization, provided the bracelets they sold on the campus.
An American man and his wife created Threads of Hope after visiting the Philippines. There, they saw how some poor families struggling to provide for their families made the decision to sell their children into the sex slave trade.
Alex Kuhlow and his wife wanted to help. They saw how the Philippine families made bracelets to sell to tourists for money and this gave them an idea.
They bought $100 worth of bracelets to sell in America. They sold the bracelets for $1 each and made $1000 to give to the families back in the Philippines.
They decided to turn this into an organization that would continue to sell these bracelets for the Philippine families so their economic situation no longer forced them to sell their children for money.
Alisha Cote and Kelsey Dubois, two students at UMFK, heard of the organization and decided they wanted to help. they brought information about the program to the Chi Alpha Ministry, which took up the cause.
UMFK students sold the bracelets in front of the student lounge for three hours and in those short three hours they sold over 60 bracelets and made over $100 for the organization.
Philippine families made the bracelets by hand and they come in a vast variety of colors. Bracelets flash colorful threads that are pink, yellow, black and every color in-between.
Customers found bracelets in many different designs. Persons interested in the cause can still purchase items from the website such as necklaces, bookmarks and bracelets in which the Philippine families have woven beads.
For more information go to www.threadsofhope.com.pn.
Rylee Leighton, a native of Limestone is a sophomore student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Her article originally appeared in the Fiddlehead Focus.
