This Human Trafficking Awareness Month has made me pause and remember the first time the horror of human trafficking hit me hardest.
It was years ago, when I first visited Lake Volta — the hub of Ghana’s fishing industry — and my own sons were just 4 and 7 years old. While much of IJM’s work centers on girls and women, what I saw on the lake shook me to my core: young boys similar in age to my little ones being forced into dangerous labor on dark waters.
I’ll never forget one child enslaved on a passing boat. His little hands entwined in rough fishing nets. His hollow eyes, devoid of hope. His trembling body, absent of strength. He could have been one of my sons.
At the time, there was nothing we could do to rescue the boy from the boatowner who blatantly boasted about the children he forced to work for him. Back then, IJM had not launched our presence in Ghana, but we certainly did soon after.
If I could, I would take you to that lake, at that time, so you could see the danger. So you could smell the dirt and the fish, and feel the helplessness. So you could hear the silence of the children, broken intermittently by the harsh yelling of the traffickers.
Thanks to our supporters, IJM is conducting rescue operations on the lake right now, pulling children out of suffering. I feel so grateful to be doing this work of justice. I’d be even more grateful for your support.
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