First-Ever Michigan International Festival Aims to Curb Human Trafficking

The Saline and Ann Arbor West and North Rotary Clubs are teaming to present the first-ever Michigan International Festival this weekend to help support girls around the world who are susceptible to human trafficking and generational poverty through Rotary International’s Hope Rising program.

The event, which also celebrates Michigan’s diversity, will be held at 5 p.m. saturday, Nov. 23, at Saline High School, 1300 Campus Parkway. Performances start at 7 p.m., according to a story in The Saline Reporter. Restaurants and performers highlighting different cultures represented among Michiganders will be featured at the event.

“All of the people involved are very passionate about what they want to do and want to change the world,” Vineet Katial, president of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor West told the newspaper. “We’re trying to engage and to change lives.”

Project Hope Rising provides education and job training for girls both locally and India and Sri Lanka through partnerships with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, Earth Saviours of India and Grace Home of Sri Lanka.

The project was started by a Rotary Club member who helps girls living in a Sri Lankan orphanage, many of whom have shrapnel wounds received in an ongoing civil war. The girls there receive care, but there is no mechanism to provide education for them when they leave.

The project aims to teach them English and to become computer literate with the assistance of girls from W-A-Y Washtenaw alternative high school trained as project managers.

“In a way, they are both saving each other,” Katial said.