I knew all the facts.
I'd read all of the statistics.
I'd seen as many documentaries as I could get my hands on.
Nothing prepared me for the first time I worked with a trafficked child.
It wasn't a twelve year old girl in a brothel.
Instead, it was an 8 year old boy who had been brought to us because his religious leaders were making his condition worse.
In Senegal and West Africa in general, there is a system in place in which families send their boys to the local marabout (religious leader) to learn the Qur'an and about Islam. It is very similar to the Old Testament, when the young men would leave their families and go and learn at the temple to become good Jewish men.
The talibe system is a very old system in Senegal. It serves a few key purposes: it raises up the next generation of young Muslim men, the marabouts receive money from the boys’ parents and they also receive the money that the boys get for begging. Also, while the boys are begging, those that give to the boys fulfill one of the pillars of Islam--alms giving.
Life in West Africa is hard in general, but for a talibe boy it is almost intentionally difficult. They are left to beg day in and day out, and while they are supposed to be protected by their marabout, they are not always. Many die of malaria, waterborne diseases and malnutrition.
All that I had read about the system had been written by those on the outside, tracing the history of the system, how it needed to be removed, etc. All the things that had been written seemed like “good” things--who wants children to be treated poorly? Who wants young boys out on the street for the most important years of their lives? No decent human being, surely.
That being the only opinion I knew about the society of Senegal, I accepted it. And I wrestled with it a little the first few months I was there.
Until a friend showed up on our door, asking us to help a boy who had been from Gambia. Our friend told us that he had been in Senegal a month. His parents had sent him to receive an education and learn more about the Qur’an. He had pink eye, which is something like an epidemic in rural Senegal. If one child gets it, all 47 of them do and It. Is. A. Mess.
This little boy had been at the marabout’s for 9 days getting “treatment”. A few times a day, the marabout would write Qur’anic verses on a tablet, and then wash them into his eyes (mind you, the ink alone is made up of much of the things that are found in cigarettes), destroying the skin around his eyes and possibly permanently damaging his eyesight.
Thankfully, we were able to treat him with proper medication, 5 times a day for 7 days. During that process my eyes were opened to this situation: this boy was every definition was trafficked. But it was his family that sent him, in the name of religion, for a better life. That makes things harder. It's a lot easier to demonize a man that buys women and abuses them. It's more difficult to do that when it's a family doing something that their religion says is necessary for the benefit of their son.
It was during that process that I came to a conclusion:
Human trafficking is a church issue.
It’s not a human rights issue.
It’s not a philanthropic issue.
It’s a matter of the people who proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior loving justice and mercy, interceding on behalf of those who don’t know Him, and treating others as more than themselves.
It’s a matter of the church taking up what the Bible says seriously, and living it out.
It’s a matter of believers realizing their position before the High King--as an heir, as one with power greater than that of Christ that has unlimited potential to build the kingdom of God.
It’s a matter of engaging the least of these, and those who live in the margins of society.
We can talk awareness, and raise money and all of those good things all day long. I’ve done that. I felt good about doing that. There is a PLACE for that. If that’s all that we are doing, we’ve missed it.
Orphan Sunday, Human Trafficking Day, both are wonderful things. What good do those do if the next day, you buy clothing that enslaves someone, or neglect the broken children you see around you.
Being aware is important--knowing what choices you make impact others. (If you're interested in companies that make clothing, chocolate, coffee and other goods at a fair price for their workers, go to free2work.com to learn more information.)
A few years ago, International Justice Mission had a slogan: “I AM AN ADVOCATE FOR THE OPPRESSED.”
The only way that we can plead on behalf of others is by knowing their actual situation.
Taking the talibe boy system out of Senegal wouldn’t fix anything--it would make their society fall in on itself. That does NOT mean that the church cannot engage there and be Jesus to those who are around them.
