Child Slavery

As the 2010 FIFA World Cup starts in South Africa today, there is a major concern about the heightened risk of trafficking and exploitation of children.

During the games, thousands of people are visiting South Africa, which is yet to put in place legislation against trafficking in persons.

World Vision and like-minded partners are concerned that in the absence of anti-trafficking legislation, vulnerable children will not be sufficiently protected. It is feared that the rate of trafficking of children may increase during the World Cup if measures to protect children are not increased.

Lack of reliable statistics due to the clandestine nature of trafficking in persons and the absence of a coordinated response to the problem in South Africa has made addressing the problem a challenge. Cases of trafficking in persons have not been recorded as such in the country because there is no specific domestic legislation on trafficking in persons.

Although there are 16 pieces of legislation in South Africa to combat trafficking, these are all fragmented and do not adequately address prevention, protection and prosecution, especially as it relates to safeguarding the rights and dignity of children.

Her story is an amazing journey to give her fellow villagers a better life and a sense of pride for the Lao weaving tradition. But Mrs. Song of Laha Sinh, a weaving company using natural dyes and materials, took her voyage further by helping out trafficked women.

In 1997, Mrs. Song was a garments factory operator who realized the business was too competitive, demanding and often led to poor working conditions due to pressing deadlines. The production of hand-woven textiles was described by many as one of the most prolific of Laos’s traditional crafts, she has seen the huge prospect that can at the same time provide income generation for communities. Other livelihood opportunities include cotton production.

By Anna Gill, student at Marietta College

I was a part of the planning team for the Human Wrong Initiative at Marietta College, which took place March 29-April 1, 2010. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sponsored the four-day event.

Several of us first saw the Human Wrong Initiative while attending the Urbana 2009 Conference. Last year, our InterVarsity group did a social justice campaign focusing on hunger awareness on our campus and we saw the fruits of that effort. We wanted to see that happen again, and the Human Wrong Initiative was a perfect fit.

We did a lot of advertising for this week. This included: a Facebook group with events, article on school website main page, article in online school newspaper, painting “the rock”, hung a sheet banner at the dining hall, a lot of posters, table tents in dining hall, emails to professors, and word of mouth.

By Brittany Peters, World Vision ACT:S Faith and Justice Fellow

Two weeks ago, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship USA, hosted a week long event at Ohio State University called The Price of Life (POL). Ohio State University is one of the largest universities in the nation, with over 55,000 students enrolled this year! World Vision ACT:S was invited to be a partner for this POL event and we gladly accepted the offer.

By James Pedrick, World Vision Senior Advocacy Associate, ACT:S National Team

With World Malaria Day around the corner, our focus over the last couple months has mainly been malaria. The response from students and churches to mobilize their communities in the fight against malaria has been outstanding! We have over 400 groups signed up to host Night of Nets events and each day the numbers increase!

In the midst of all this excitement about malaria, we continue to hear stories of students mobilizing around World Vision ACT:S’ other issues: child slavery, hunger and AIDS. It is great to see the ongoing leadership, creativity and passion of students around the country.  Keep up the great momentum and let us know what you are doing...we love to hear from you all!

Here are a couple e-mails I have received from students who have recently done events to address hunger and child slavery.

Molly from University of Delaware

Hi James!

Just wanted to thank you for all your help and resources for our campaign against world hunger.  God worked in truly incredible ways all week long at the University of Delaware.  We raised a little over $1,000 for World Vision and were able to raise awareness to literally thousands of students and faculty through out the week.  We were incredibly encouraged because we also got to present to students that Jesus is the bread of life and the one who can fill our spiritual hunger.

Thanks to your support, the Child Protection Compact Act has finally been introduced on the floor of the U.S. Senate! Senator Boxer specifically thanked the contributions of World Vision, IJM, and our many advocates - YOU! - for moving this important legislation forward! See the press release below... but our work IS NOT DONE!

Now that the bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate - we must contact all of our leaders to make this bill law! Call your elected leaders NOW to support the Child Protection Compact Act. Just ten calls will make this stopping child slavery a top priority!

BOXER, BROWNBACK AND CARDIN INTRODUCE BILL TO PREVENT CHILD TRAFFICKING
Legislation Would Aid State Department in Combating Exploitation of Children

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) yesterday introduced the Child Protection Compact Act, a bipartisan bill that would give the State Department additional tools to combat child trafficking, exploitation and enslavement.

By: Taylor Mobley, Lee University, ACT:S Mobilizer

As student advocates, if we are ever going to really make a difference, we must learn to work together. At Lee University, that is something that we have been learning over the past year. There are three social justice clubs on Lee’s campus: World Vision ACT:S/Acting on AIDS, IJM and Invisible Children. About a year ago, we realized that separating ourselves into three separate clubs with three separate agendas was actually hurting our chances of being effective in bringing about change and reaching the students on our campus about the issues of injustice.

From James Pedrick, Senior Advocacy Advisor, World Vision

Here’s a few of my notes:

InterVarsity students at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland launched their Human Wrong campaign last week. The chapter used Human Wrong t-shirts and story cards to create awareness and share the stories of children enslaved into forced labor, sexual exploitation, or child-soldiering. Sign up for these resources at the Human Wrong Initiative.