After attending my second talk on “Human Trafficking” this
year and challenging my own single story about it and working to towards getting
my head around what it ‘actually’ is and how my own wrong definitions and
understanding of it has kept me in the dark.
I also realise I am not alone in my ignorance but worse that sadly
millions of people are in the “dark” as victims of a system of exploitation
that has been in play since the start of mankind on earth… and kept there by our
ignorance and judgement.
I find the need to put some of my thoughts in my blog.
I feel I have a right to do this as I have children in my
care, four to be exact who are “victims” of a dark system of drugs, booze and sexuality
that is not the beautiful thing God created it to be… a breakdown of family and
connection has been lost… and now the children are with me!
Yes, I think foster children and most orphans in South
Africa are a result of our blindness as people to a sick and dark world that is
booming and growing daily all around us and the sad part is we are refusing to
really look at it…
AND
…mostly because of our misunderstanding and judgements… our
purple stuff… our prejudice it grows like a cancer that cannot be treated. Or is there hope?!
Why are you going so hard at this Kay?
Well, mostly because I know ‘first hand’ how vulnerable
people can be. I know what women get
trapped into, what they will do to “survive” if they want to keep their
children safe… how women trying to get out of abuse keep going back… or to a different
form of it. I realise what this possibly
leads them and their children into as a result.
I am not going to go into this in depth today… but I know that undealt
with trauma and lack of connection and family lead women (I know men too… but
my experience is only women at this point) into situations with their children
that keep the dark underworld of ´trafficking’ alive.
But…
…because we think it is only happening in the inner city or
in the deep rural areas and on trucking routes and by women and men who choose
to live that way they do and because we use terms like “sex workers” and “prostitutes”
to further distance ourselves from the conversation… we miss that trafficking
could be happening in the house next door tonight and in marriages. If this confuses you and you want more
information, then let’s keep the conversation going.
RESEARCH shows and some of it having spanned forty years of
consultation with people stuck in this lifestyle proves that if people in the “work”
had their own housing and other forms of income they would not stay in the “trade”! They would not keep getting into
situations of abuse.
Trafficking is happening and it is something we need to be
talking about and I would highly encourage you if you live in South Africa that
you get Claudia Burger (https://www.facebook.com/claudia.burgerc?fref=ts) to do an event at your church, ladies group… wherever…
have a conversation and get informed. Let’s do our part to stop the need for
foster homes for children… and address the women and men caught in these situations with dignity and respect.
One way to do it, is to look at the underworld of “trafficking” and where it starts and who is
vulnerable to it.
AND …
most importantly how the church can help!
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