Very Young Girls screening to draw attention to child solicitation

The Eta Lambda Chapter of Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority will host a screening of "Very Young Girls," and event for the awareness of child solicitation, on Saturday March 6, 2010 at 2 p.m. in Kresge Hall at Madonna University.

"We have to do a project for at risk youth at least once a year for service," said sorority member Kelli Owens, who first saw the film last year and came up with the idea for the local event.

"I was totally impacted by it. I even wrote a paper dedicated to the issue of child solicitation, which turned out incredibly well. I kind of feel like I'm supposed to dedicate my life to this kind of work, because it is an area that could definitly use the work of people who care."

She hopes the event brings greater awareness to the issue of child trafficking. The film follows the lives of 13 and 14 year old girls in the seedy underworld of child prostitution in the U.S. Girls from local youth groups will be in attendance, Owens said. "I hope that the young girls watching can get an understanding about the importance of being a teenager and enjoying that time in their lives, " she said.

Refreshments will be served after the film. Admission will be a donation of cash and/or toiletries such as: soap, body wash, lotion, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair brushes and combs, for the nonprofit Alternatives for Girls.

"I had a very close childhood friend who was in the (Alternatives for Girls) program," Owens said. "She disappeared when we were only 14 years old and I didn't see her again until she was in the program for a while when we were 16 or 17 years old. She is a really good mother to her two children. Since I saw how the program helped her, I wanted to give back to it."

Madonna University is located at 36600 Schoolcraft Road in Livonia. A campus map is on-line at www.madonna.edu