GORHAM – Human trafficking, or modern-day slavery, has been called the second largest social problem in the world, just behind drugs.

The website of a California-based group that fights human trafficking, Not For Sale, reports 30 million slaves in the world today, the most ever.

“This topic is really terrible,” said Gabrielle Kempton, a 2007 Gorham High School graduate who will speak on the situation this week in a local church.

Kempton, who helps victims of human trafficking in Lithuania, where she is continuing her education, is a guest speaker at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25, in a program at South Gorham Baptist Church, 53 County Road (Route 22), in Gorham. The public is welcome to attend the supper meeting.

Human trafficking involves men, women and children forced into labor or prostitution. The website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that sexual exploitation represented 79 percent of human trafficking cases and forced labor 18 percent.

Kempton, who is home on a break from graduate studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, is seeking a graduate degree in social work. She was urged by a professor at the university to study human trafficking and she is writing her thesis about the issue.

As an intern, she joined an organization helping women in Lithuania. Kempton counsels victims who have been rescued in Lithuania, an eastern European country bordering the Baltic Sea. The country was once part of the former Soviet bloc.

“Trafficking touches every part of the world,” Kempton said. “It touches even Portland.”

Kempton, who volunteered in Portland shelters this month during her school break, said homeless girls in Portland “sell themselves” for food and shelter.

“This sort of thing can happen anywhere,” Kempton said and added there is no typical victim.

The FBI website reported on Jan. 20 there are thousands of victims in the United States. Since 2009, an FBI report said, its pending human trafficking cases increased from 167 to 459 by the end of fiscal year 2012.

Citing a United Nations report, Kempton said that even human organs are sometimes harvested from victims.

With talks aimed at raising awareness of the issue, the South Gorham Baptist Church hosts a monthly meal, called Potluck With a Purpose. Speakers have included Portland police officers and a missionary. In one supper meeting last year, a Portland woman told of being rescued from human trafficking. But still fearful, she forbade the church from releasing her name or any information about her.

“Our greatest shock is that human trafficking is happening right under our noses in Maine,” Cindy Elder of Windham, who heads up a church effort, said Tuesday.

The Rev. Peter Beckwith, the church pastor, said Tuesday the human trafficking problem is widespread.

“We feel called to inform and take action,” Beckwith said.

Beckwith said police, social service agencies and religious organizations are involved “to stand for justice.”

The FBI works with local and state law enforcement departments, as well as other federal agencies in addressing, human trafficking.

“We are aware of the initiative,” Gorham Police Chief Ronald Shepard said Tuesday.

Shepard didn’t recall any case in Gorham.

Elder said she felt inspired by God to do something. She got her idea for the potluck suppers and talks while watching a TV program in Florida featuring women raising money for benefits.

Her idea received the blessing of the board at South Gorham Baptist Church. Elder said a team is now forming at the church to share responsibilities in a crusade focusing on human trafficking.

Elder said money generated from offerings at the suppers goes to support groups combating the human trafficking problem. The Gorham group will contribute to Kempton’s work with human trafficking victims in Lithuania.

“We want to make a difference to people who have no voice,” Elder said.

Kempton, who earned a degree in psychology from Eastern University in Pennsylvania, said poor women are often targeted by traffickers. Kempton said some women promised jobs in other countries see it as an opportunity to help their poverty-stricken families.

Kempton said in Lithuania, some women get grabbed off the streets, but more often they are lured by promises of jobs. Once in countries where they are transported, the women often find themselves without language skills, no money, no hope and fear.

Those trafficking, she said, have a pattern of beating down women.

“It’s hard to escape,” Kempton said.

While she hasn’t helped with escapes, Kempton does counsel rescued victims in Lithuania to empower them to enter society.

“Many victims have difficulty taking care of themselves,” Kempton said.

Kempton said young American girls are exploited, too.

“But you would never know because you don’t see them on the streets,” Kempton said. “Traffickers know how to fly under the radar.”

Soon, Kempton will return to Kaunas, the city where she lives. There she will resume her studies and continue working with victims.

Her dream to work in Europe took shape after she first went to Lithuania to study abroad as a senior in college.

“I fell in love with it,” Kempton said. “I’m interested in preemptive work. Stop people from being victimized.”

Gabrielle Kempton pictured at the eternal flame in Kaunas, Lithuania, is a graduate student there and counsels victims of human trafficking. She speaks on the issue at the South Gorham Baptist Church on Friday, Jan. 25.