Local school’s anti-slavery campaign goes global

AN ANTI-SLAVERY campaign driven by the AGS Kerk Sonder Mure and the Arboretum Primary school, attracted global attention when the CNN Freedom Project shared the front page photo of the Zululand Observer on its Facebook page.

The photo of 1 200 learners forming a red cross was also shared on the #Endit movement’s Facebook page, where it was liked almost 8 000 times by amongst others the International Justice Mission and shared hundreds of times around the world.

The children are in excellent company, brandishing their cross with American singer, songwriter and actress Carrie Underwood and her husband Mike Fisher, a Canadian professional ice hockey player and member of the Nashville Predators. The power couple also participated in the Shine a Light on Slavery Day.

Also on the page is US Senator Bob Corker, anti-slavery champion for legislation aimed at creating a $1.5-billion global fund to combat human trafficking.

The End Modern Day Slavery Initiative Act recently won unanimous approval at the Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Corker, only two days after it was tabled.

The Bill is set to centralise initiatives against the clandestine syndicates responsible for an estimated 27 million people enslaved in about 160 countries around the world.

The International Justice Mission (IJM), the world’s largest anti-slavery organisation, applaud the Bill, which by means of the End Modern Day Slavery Initiative Foundation, will pump money into slashing the global figure down with at least 50%.

Traffickers earn billions of profit each year and the entry cost is relatively low, attracting large numbers of smaller syndicates.

The global fund must contribute to the rescuing and recovery of victims, the prevention of slavery and the apprehension, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators.

Slavery include sex and child trafficking, forced and bonded labour, debt bondage, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labour and child soldiers.