A panel discussion on human trafficking and child sex slaves ended with a message of hope on Saturday.
Mission of Mercy Canada’s Rachel Hansen spoke of a girl, not yet 10, who was rescued after being trafficked for sex in India.
Her horrific ordeal had left her so mentally unbalanced she had to be shackled and was finally turned over to a mercy centre by her village, which did not know what to do with her.
There, the other rescued children “literally spoke life into this child again,” said Hansen.
Later, when asked what life at the centre had done for her, the young girl said I will show you. She put on some music and began to dance.
“A child, who had to be shackled, danced for me. That is the power of hope,” Hansen told the audience of about 70 who had stayed to hear the panel discussion following a performance of Red Deer playwright Andrew Kooman’s She Has a Name at the Scott Block.
To never give up despite the depressing magnitude of the human trafficking plague was the message from the four-person panel.
And the scale of the problem is enormous. Hansen said it is estimated 200 woman and children are trafficked every day in India. “Most of them will be forgotten.”
And that is only one nation among many that are part of a $52 billion a year trafficking industry.
Brian McConaghy, who is with Ratanak, which focuses on the rescue and rehabilitation of children in Cambodia, said the victims as young as seven are considered torture victims.
“This is slavery, alive and well.” Despite the depressing enormity of the problem, McConaghy said society can’t give up trying to help, even if it is only one life at a time.
The campaign to end slavery took decades, he said. “We need to have that kind of response.”
A panel member who asked to be identified only as Norma was working the streets as a prostitute at 12 years old and was trafficked by Grim Reapers motorcycle gang.
She is now helping others escape from the street as a member of Edmonton’s Committee to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE).
She too says we must never give up pressuring the government, police and all Canadians to do something about human trafficking and save others from experiencing what she did before she broke free.
“What is hope? I’m hope.”
Angie Redecopp, of International Justice Mission of Canada, a human rights organization that seeks justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression, said while saving one life at a time is important bigger scale, long-term solutions must also be sought.
One such effort in the Philippines was able to noticeably reduce the amount of child sex trafficking, she said.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com