By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County campus of Jefferson State Community College is asking for help collecting first aid supplies for orphans in Haiti as a part of its annual Freedom Week.

Items will be collected from Oct. 16 to 19 in the Jeff State Clanton office and in a bin in the school’s lobby.

Freedom week spotlights human trafficking awareness and efforts to end it both in the U.S. and abroad.

Associate Dean Ashley Kitchens said this is the third year the event, but the first year for the supply drive.

Items collected will be delivered to the Hands and Feet Project, which was started by music group Audio Adrenaline.

“They have a couple of orphanages down there,” Kitchens said.

She said the band learned of the harsh conditions children were living in.

“A lot of those orphanages really just take the money and keep the kids in lock down and traffic these children,” Kitchens said.

The orphanages organized Hands and Feet Project are run by American missionary families now living in Haiti.

Hands and Feet Project helps each child learn job skills and sell had made products through HAITI MADE (haitimade.com).

Kitchens said this helps the children to be able to work when they leave the orphanage rather than being homeless.

Items being collected by JCSS for the orphanage include:

Triple antibiotic cream (like Neosporin)

Antifungal cream (like Lotrimin)

Allergy medicine 10mg Cetrizine (like Zyrtec or Claritin), Diphenydramine (like Benadryl) liquid and tablets,

Acetaminophen (chewable for ages 2-6, chewable for ages 6-11and tablets for adults)

Motrin/lbuprofen (Chewable for ages 2-6, Chewable for ages 6-11 and tablets for adults)

ACE bandage wraps

Colorful/fun designed Band-Aids

Cough and cold meds for adults and children

Nasal decongestants (adults)

Cough drops/throat drops and

Shampoo with selenium sulfide (such as Head and Shoulders Intensive, Selsun, Selsun Blue)

Since the items will be delivered in the summer of 2018, all items need to have an expiration date of December 2018 or later. Kitchens will be taking the items to the orphanage herself. She said her husband and son have been in the past, but this will be her first time traveling to the orphanage.

A Freedom Week seminar will be held in the college library on Oct. 16 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

“This was started by one of our instructors named Wendy Shuffett,” Kitchens said. “She is one of the history instructors at the Shelby campus.”

Shuffett will talk about regional human trafficking concerns.

“Alabama has one of the largest trafficking routes in the nation — Interstate 20,” Kitchens said.

The seminar will also explore the links between domestic violence and human trafficking. A representative from SafeHouse with talk about the regional concerns, and a representative from Asha Kiran, a nonprofit in Huntsville that helps people from a variety of international cultural backgrounds deal with crisis situations, will speak about international domestic violence.