Praying For Vulnerable Children - Human Traffickingনমুনা

When five things are present, children are better protected from people trying to hurt them. Here’s the third key:

Education for the Community

Be devoted to one another in love. That’s the challenge Paul gives us in the verses we read today. These verses are paired with a list of commands that, when taken together, paint a picture of a Christian life fully sacrificed to God. The unifying theme shares that we’re to set ourselves aside in order to effectively love and serve the Lord. We know of a great example of selfless love. Meet Henry…

Henry Tetteh Amanor, a Compassion center director in Ghana, is committed to educating children, parents and community leaders about the lies and deceit of traffickers. On his days off work, he travels to teach public classes on ways to combat trafficking in his community.

“Child trafficking is a poverty issue,” explains Henry Tetteh Amanor, the director for the New Ningo Good Shepherd Methodist Child Development Center in Ghana. Henry has dedicated much of his life to child protection. This is a critical cause. Experts estimate that nearly 25 million people across the globe are victims of forced labor and trafficking. Of these victims, at least 25 percent are children.

Henry’s education begins with helping families understand recruitment techniques. Traffickers pretend to show interest in the welfare of the family. They promise the caregiver a lot of good things—such as enrolling the child in school and assuring families the children will be brought back to visit. They often claim that they will send money to the family every month. These are all false claims. In reality, the children are forced into hard labor or sold for sex.

Henry shares, “On many occasions, some of these children die without their parents even knowing. This is too gruesome. Because of my love for children and my passion to protect them, I want to be an active contributor in educating caregivers on the activities of the human traffickers so that caregivers will be aware of these traffickers and refrain from giving out their children to people they hardly know anything about. I want to be instrumental in curbing this bad practice of child trafficking.”

“Child trafficking is a poverty issue. In my experience, this is what about 99.5 percent of parents who give their children away say. They will tell you that if they have three children who are not in school because of lack of funds and someone takes one away to be put into school and even gives you money with which you can register the other two in school, why won’t they do it?

And so caregivers give their children away for an amount as little as 300 cedis, about 78 U.S. dollars.”

“I was part of the Christian Council of Ghana when it successfully carried out a pilot project on children’s rights focusing on child trafficking in select communities in the southern and northern parts of Ghana. In that venture, 182 boys working as fishermen and 40 girls in sexual servitude were rescued. These children are currently reunited with their families and are in the process of reintegration.”

Henry conducts caregivers’ meetings where he trains them on child trafficking and child protection. He also teaches the young people about their rights and involve them in the trainings. He trains them to be each other’s keeper! 

What a great example of the selfless love Paul described in our verses for today. Are you an advocate for someone in need? Pray and ask God to use you.

Suggested prayer:

Heavenly Father, Thank You for advocates like Henry. Raise up others to join him in his goal of educating parents and caregivers to these issues. May communities stand together to ward off traffickers. Raise me up as an advocate too. As Your Word says, may I never be lacking in zeal, but keep my spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. May I be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. In Jesus’ name, amen.