Gallery Update

GEORGE NEWS - The A21 Walk For Freedom that was held last Saturday, 19 October, is an annual event hosted to pay tribute to all the victims and survivors of human trafficking. This is according to the organisers, the George A-Team.

The organisation A21 performs three main functions - awareness, rescue and restoring, but the A-Team chooses to concentrate on creating awareness of this social scourge, because of the danger connected with the other functions.

Ancel Marais, one of the team members, says it is a shocking fact that South Africa is among the top 10 countries when it comes to modern-day slavery. This is because South Africa is used to source or recruit victims, to traffic through to other countries and as a destination for victims from other countries.

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Marais says they had a great session with almost 500 participants on Saturday, informing them of the signs and types of slavery and how easy it is to become a victim. "It happens here in George under our noses. And all we need to be is aware, to know the signs - even if it just to rather be safe than sorry." 

They do a Stranger Danger talk with the children and go around to schools as well to talk about safety.

Young and old took part in the A21 Walk for Freedom awareness campaign.
Photo provided

While they have had family members of victims come and share their experiences in the past, this year the A-Team focused on creating awareness to help stop human trafficking, the use of people for their bodies and for labour. There are five types of trafficking: sex, forced labour, bonded labour, involuntary domestic service and child soldiers. 

To get their victims, traffickers use methods like false job advertisements, abduction, friends, love interests or false immigration. It also happens that people are sold into slavery by their families.

The George A-Team warns young girls and boys to be careful what they publish on social media, because this is used by traffickers to recruit their victims with the promise of a better life or a job opportunity.

The organisers want to spark conversations with friends and family, and create platforms for preventing slavery from happening to families. There also is a hotline the public can use to give tips, and people are strongly encouraged to use it to report anything that looks out of place.

You can get more information at info.sa@A21.org or report anything suspicious to the hotline on 0800 222 777.

To be aware is the first step. Photo: Salette Cloete