The Toekomsrus police’s Victim Friendly Room (VFR) hosted a march on July 26 against human trafficking to create awareness in the community.
The march was held in collaboration with various stakeholders to alert people to the dangers of the crime.
Francina Julius, the social auxiliary worker at the VFR, explained their responsibilities include helping victims of GBV and trying to assist families with keeping the peace. They work hand-in-hand with the police and offer counselling for couples, trauma victims and even substance abusers where they work with Westview Clinic.
She noted not many people are aware of the crime. In many cases, there is substance abuse involved and victims are used for sex exploitations, they are used to sell drugs and they can’t escape.
Young women going to job interviews are also at risk and in the case of organ trafficking, older residents are at risk.
They also reach out to schools to educate children as many children are grabbed at school.
“We need to look out for each other. As the saying goes ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. We need to take care of the children in our community.
“The human traffickers will identify a child they want to grab and a ‘spotter’ will proceed to find out everything about the child, their family and their schedule. Identifying the spotter is also a difficult task as there are many people in the surroundings.
“People need to be aware and they have to be careful.”
She added they hope the law will become stronger to fight these crimes and the punishment for perpetrators will be harsher.
“We will fight, we will continue our awareness and we will continue educating children to be careful.”
Vincent Shoroma, another social worker at the VFR, added, “The aim is to warn perpetrators to stop human trafficking, we cannot tolerate it any longer. We want to keep the community informed and alert.”
He mentioned they invited the Justice Department, Department of Social Development, the Rand West Municipality, the Department of Health, the police, Community Safety, LifeLine, The Bethany House Trust, and The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to join in on the march.
