Selcourt Methodist Church raises awareness on human trafficking

During Women’s Month, the Selcourt Methodist Church focused on issues that mostly affect women and children.
Human trafficking was deemed an underrated topic in communities.
On August 7, the church hosted co-founder and chairperson of Awareness for Child Trafficking (ACT) Africa, Hillary Leong, to be part of the discussion on human trafficking as a way to raise awareness and education.
Leong explained that two criteria have to be fulfilled to determine that trafficking has taken place, which is what is done and how it was done.
In the talk, Leong shared with the congregation that South Africa has been declared a hotspot for human trafficking and within SA, Gauteng is a target area.
“SA is a transit, a destination and a source which means that all forms of transport modes in regards to trafficking that takes place in SA,” said Leong.
“It’s a problem that our borders are quite porous but recently there have been certain changes made to the borders in terms of security. More forces are deployed to our borders to tighten up security.”

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Leong said that child trafficking is the fastest money-making industry worldwide currently and on the East Rand, Springs is a hotspot for child trafficking.
Rev James Headbush, from the church, said he was astounded to find out that human trafficking is much broader than people think.
“You may be passing human trafficking victims on the street or you see victims at the back of a van and just not realise it,” he said.
From what he gathered from the talk, he said human trafficking is all about money and described it as a commodity.
“It’s a trade where human beings are exchanged for money. This means that the person would have lost their dignity as a human but has been made to be a thing to make money,” said Headbush.
James hopes that the community may come together to engage on issues that focus on gender sensitivity, equality and equity.
The church has uploaded a video of the discussions to its Facebook page.

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