By Usha Reddi, president, Rotary Club of Community Action Against Human Trafficking
As a teacher, I have heard about children in my school as young as six years old being sexually exploited for money, and I felt powerless to do anything about it. This was happening within families as a business and to support drug habits. Children would be removed from a household for a couple of days but would be placed back again with the same family.
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Champion School students fix a soccer goal and clean up a practice field.
Muyi Yang
Muyi Yang, Rotary Peace Fellow, Uppsala University, 2019-21
If you told me ten years ago that I would be running a non-profit school in a post-conflict country, I would have laughed out loud. At the time, I was working as a business representative for a commodity trading company, visiting clients and inspecting their coal mines.
Visiting one client, colleagues and I found several unbelievably young workers at several mines. Some of them looked even under 10 years old. The client admitted to us that the workers were indeed below the legal age to be working in the mines, but they were keeping it secret because, “what else can we do?” Continue reading
Chiang’s class at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.
By Mina Chiang, Rotary Global Grant Scholar to University of Sussex, 2017-18
I will never forget the miracle that changed my life. I call it a miracle because the sheer chance of it happening is close to zero.
I was living in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, at the time supporting the establishment of a new science university for a local Catholic church. There was a small museum next to the university that tells the story of the town’s role as a major port and central hub during the slave trade centuries ago. I have always had a passion for helping the vulnerable and deprived, and had secured master’s degree offers from some of the best International Development programs in the world. But my family and I lacked the resources for me to pursue an advanced degree. Continue reading
By Megan Ferringer, Rotary staff
It is estimated that human trafficking generates $40 billion annually. That’s more than McDonald’s, Google’s, and Wal-mart’s profits combined.
Human trafficking, especially the commercial sexual exploitation of children, is a major problem. Continue reading
Rotary Voices 