Jewish women say no to human trafficking

DURING Women’s Month, the Union of Jewish Women (UJW) South Africa joined A21, an NGO dedicated to abolishing human trafficking, in its prevention campaign and to help raise awareness about human trafficking across the country.

As A21 is based in Johannesburg, members from the UJW in Durban did their bit to create awareness about this national project, by hanging up posters at Musgrave Library and at local schools. Throughout the country, UJW placed hundreds of posters at taxi-ranks, stations, shopping centres and women’s shelters , and also distributed posters in Namibia and Kenya.

“Human trafficking is defined as ‘the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation. Sixteen words expressed so unemotionally, but descriptive of one of the most vile of actions – trading humans for money, robbing them of their dignity and their identity, violating their human rights, threatening or abusing them, exploiting and coercing them into acts of prostitution, forced labour and slavery and the removal of vital organs to be sold for profit. Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world,” said Tanya Altshuler, UJW representative.

A21 provides statistics to show that there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in human history, with an estimated 27 million in bondage across the globe.

“UJW is dedicated to bettering the lives of the underprivileged, the disadvantaged, the weak and the vulnerable. For 84 years the UJW has worked tirelessly to make South Africa a safer place, and by joining forces with A21, the UJW commits itself, not only during Women’s Month, but also thereafter, to try to help remove the scourge of human trafficking from South Africa and our neighbouring countries,” she said.