Realities of life

I remember the days I was blipping my house renovations and now I have 20kg of luggage, a bed, chair and desk ... couldn't be happier. It is home. It is safe.

My South African housemate came to me tonight and asked me to pray about her niece. She has trained as a designer and saw a job advertised in a local paper so went along to an interview. The interview was held in a hotel and she was offered a job in fashion design in the USA. The company was named 'mcorporation' and their website is very dodgy indeed.

We (my housemate and I) had the same suspicion that it could in fact be a trafficking scam.

This is the reality of life in Africa. Unemployment is a huge problem and people are desperate for work. Sex traffickers set up shoddy business offers and young girls end up thousands of miles from home trapped in slavery.

It was something I supported and campaigned about in the UK but the realities of it here meet you face to face. We do some work in the inner city reaching out to the prostitutes, building friendships, offering help and hope and partner with a charity that help get ladies into rehab and alternative work.

Walking the streets I have met girls who look no older than 13 who were kidnapped from their home or tricked into a 'job' offer, locked away and 'broken' until they are trapped in a life of fear. A friend told me of a how she had visited a flat that was nothing more than dirty beds separated by curtains.

In any one year 40,000 children are trafficked into prostitution within South Africa. They estimate the same number will be trafficked to London for the Olympics next year. 55% of all trafficked people are African children.

Evil realities of life.