The solutions to human trafficking can be surprising. In a little town (Kimana) near the Kenya-Tanzania border, we spent a few days with our rescue partners who use clean water to fight trafficking. And it’s working.
It’s the sort of solution that comes from a deep knowledge of their community’s unique challenges. Fighting human trafficking is complicated work with complicated solutions. But as our team spent more time with theirs, we began to see how clean water creates freedom for the people who receive it.
It means less orphaned children forced to find their own way, alone. It means less sick days away from school, and more healthy days learning. It means less money used to treat disease, and more money invested in new businesses, safer homes, and better futures.
Clean water means educated children grow up to be educated adults with the means to break cycles of poverty. It means that young girls who would have learned to sell themselves have instead learned how to build themselves a life of freedom and joy. Clean water means fewer parents becoming sick and unable to care for their children. It means more kids with both dad and mom around to keep them safe. It means a lot.
In that little town near the border, we joined a group of moms sitting together in the shade. They were enjoying the cleanest, clearest water they had ever tasted in their lives. They smiled and laughed, and talked about sharing the water with their children. Looking around that circle, it was so clear to me that this fight doesn’t always look the way we expect; sometimes it’s providing clean water. Sometimes it’s providing media materials for the rescuers. But whatever the solution and whatever our role, we know it’s worth it to keep fighting.
We wanted to pass on this informative blog post from a team member who went with us this past summer to Kenya. Jordan Maahs works for Unseen, an amazing organization that has partnered with Just One Africa for over a year. Please consider how creating solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges can be surprisingly different than what we might think. We are so very thankful for the entire team at Unseen and their support.
The original article was written by Jordan Maahs on August 14, 2017: https://weareunseen.org/…/14/types-solutions-make-big-impacts
Learn more about the critical work Unseen is doing to fight trafficking throughout the world at weareunseen.org
