Disclaimer/warning: This story contains some upsetting and distressing content
Young people at a school in Ethiopia where Hope for Justice runs a Child Wellbeing Club put on a drama performance to highlight the dangers of human trafficking.
The message they were trying to convey was a serious one – the risks of child trafficking and child labour abuse. This is a performance they have delivered in their local community to try and increase awareness of exploitation.
The drama begins with a scene depicting a young child trying to persuade his parents to buy him a mobile phone. “If you do not buy this for me,” he says, “I will go to the city, to the streets, and find work there.”
A broker arrives, manipulating and deceiving the child and his parents: “If your child comes with me to the city, I will give you a comfortable life.”
He shows the family his smartphone – sadly, this is enough to tempt the family, who are living in economic hardship, and the child agrees to go with him.
The local broker reports back to a town broker, his boss. He says: “I have three children from this village who I can pass onto you. How much will you give me for the children?” The pair barter based on how much they think each child is worth.
The local broker hands over the children and receives 3,000 Birr for each child – the equivalent of about £14 or $19.
Next the town broker takes the children to the owner of a hotel in the nearest city. He pays the town broker 5,000 Birr for each child, making a profit of 2,000 Birr on each child.
Once the children are under his control, the hotel owner gives them instructions. He says: “There is only one meal per day. You cannot contact your family. Your salary has already been given to the broker, so you won’t receive any money; you can serve me for nothing.”
The children are physically abused as the broker pushes and beats them. He demands they work for him and as he leaves his property, he says: “When I come back, you must have finished doing all these jobs.”
When he has gone, we hear the children say: “We wished for a better life in the big city, with better opportunities and better clothes, but it is not what we thought it would be. Now we are suffering.”
To escape the exploitative environment, the children run away to the streets.
A typical street scene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Hope for Justice outreach workers arrive and begin speaking to the children. They say: “We will provide you with food and shelter and nutrition, and after that, we will find your family.”
Hope for Justice helps to trace the children’s families and reunite them. The young people demonstrate what a reintegration might look like. There are tears, joy, elation. Sometimes they have spent years apart.
Hope for Justice staff give advice to the children and to the parents to prevent further exploitation or re-trafficking.
The aim, the children say, is to live in a world free from human trafficking.
Drama was one schoolboy’s reality
One of the children who attends this school had experienced a very similar set of circumstances to the story told through the drama. He had been bartered for, and sold, into exploitation. He then fled to the streets, and was invited into one of Hope for Justice’s Lighthouses. Now he is back home with his family, and sharing his own experiences to try and protect others from coming to the same harm.
‘Go and tell all your friends and family’
The drama performance was also shown to members of the ConnectingHR team who visited our programmes in Ethiopia six months ago.
Neil Wain, Hope for Justice’s Senior Security and Safeguarding Advisor, who watched the performance, said: “It was a very powerful drama, demonstrating the dangers of modern slavery. They performed it so well.” Addressing the young people, he said: “Don’t forget that as much as Hope for Justice is here to help, for some people this is not available, so thank you for what you have shown us today and make sure you continue to tell all your friends and family.”
Hopes and dreams
When the team asked the young people what their hopes and dreams are for the future, they replied:
- “After my education, I wish to be here, serving my community.”
- “I want to be a pilot.”
- “I want to be a scientist.”
- “I want to be an engineer.”
- “A doctor.”
- “A social worker.”
