How Salesian Missionaries are Protecting Youths in West Africa from Human Trafficking

The campaign, which is a collaborative effort between the Salesian-run International Voluntary Service for Development (VIS) and the Don Bosco Mission Association in Turin, Italy, “aims to prevent young migrants from becoming victims of crime and exploitation,” the Salesian Missions official has said in the July 30 report.

Through the campaign, SDB members in Mali facilitate studies for young people who are given the opportunity to follow four diploma-based courses in metalworking, electricity and solar energy, automotive and agricultural mechanics, and entrepreneurship at the Salesian Vocational Training Center.

Located in the country’s capital, Bamako, the Center also awards a secondary school diploma in automotive mechanics and metalworking.

The goal of the campaign, Ms. Gregory’s report indicates, “is to be able to offer these courses to additional youth in need,” with SDB members at the facility aiming at increasing Center’s enrollment from 433 students to 809 in the 2020 school year. 

“They also plan to roll out a system to better identify vulnerable youth and make inroads in helping them secure employment after graduation,” Ms. Gregory says in her report shared with ACI Africa, adding that “the campaign will launch agricultural training in the rural town of Moribabougou that mostly targets women.”

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In Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau, SDB members overseeing the “Stop Trafficking” campaign have launched a 15-months project, which will spearhead activities aimed at promoting development in view of reducing youth migration to other countries to escape poverty, Ms. Gregory further says in her report sent to ACI Africa.

The initiative, she says, will provide access to education through scholarships and work grants so that young people in the three West African nations are prepared for employment that will enable them meet current labor market needs.

Providing kits that will allow participants to start micro-enterprises in strategic sectors is part of the “Stop Trafficking” initiative.

“The project will work to strengthen the existing formal and informal psycho-social care that young migrants receive when they return back to their home countries to help them reintegrate into their communities,” the Salesian Missions Media Representative says in her report.

She continues, “The project will raise awareness among youth about the risks of migration. It will provide them with the resources to connect to education and employment in their own countries to reduce the need for migration.”

According to data by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) collected since 2003, there are about 225,000 victims of trafficking across the globe.

The World Day against Trafficking in Persons aims at raising “awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights.” 

This year’s theme focuses on the first responders of human trafficking who work in different sectors “identifying, supporting, counselling and seeking justice for victims of trafficking, and challenging the impunity of the traffickers.”

“Trafficking in persons still constitutes an open wound on the body of contemporary society. I offer heartfelt thanks to all those who work on behalf of the innocent victims of the commodification of the human person. Much remains to be done! #EndHumanTrafficking,” Pope Francis Tweeted Thursday, July 30.

In a joint statement marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, Caritas Internationalis and COATNET, the global umbrella body of Christian organizations against trafficking in human beings, urged governments to “intensify efforts to identify victims of trafficking and exploitation, the number of which is worryingly increasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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