Hello, Dumelang, Dumilani!

It is with great pleasure that I write this testimonial on our experience as Talitha Kum Botswana Youth Ambassadors. Our journey began in June 2024 with a series of online training sessions facilitated by Talitha Kum Africa. These lessons were very insightful and gave us the necessary insights to understand what human trafficking is, how it works, and how it manifests itself in our African communities, and most importantly- how to protect ourselves and raise awareness.

Upon completion of our online training sessions, we set out to run an awareness campaign, under a project we call “Prized Not Priced”. We titled our project “Prized Not Priced” as a reminder to all whom we interact with, that they are God’s precious and most prized possession. No amount of money can be tagged on the life of a human being. There is no price to humanity, we are invaluable! As such, there can be no room for human trafficking, which puts a price to humanity and degrades the dignity of mankind. This project aimed to fulfil this message by raising awareness in our local communities and the Church.

Botswana remains a source, transit and destination country for trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Human traffickers exploit domestic & foreign victims in Botswana, victims from Botswana abroad, unemployed individuals and children into sex and labour trafficking. Traffickers use social media to post false employment opportunities to recruit and exploit Batswana into sex trafficking. Some parents send their children to live/work for their wealthy relatives in the cities and/or farms in remote areas- and traffickers abuse this cultural practice to exploit the children into sex and labour trafficking. Young domestic workers may also be subjected to conditions of forced labour such as denial of basic necessities, non-payment of salaries, confinement and sexual, verbal & physical abuse. There have also been reports of missing persons being found with missing body-parts, hence were subject to organ harvesting, especially during political elections season. The Government of Botswana has however made strides to address trafficking through prosecution and conviction of traffickers, cooperating with foreign governments on trafficking investigations, stricter controls at borders and airports, as well as identification, referral and protection of victims of trafficking.

Our project was primarily an awareness campaign because we actually realized that there is a gap between the reality of human trafficking in Botswana, and what Batswana actually know and understand about human trafficking. This is the main issue in Botswana, and as such, people fall victim because of lack of awareness. Our project set out to raise awareness on human trafficking issues in Botswana, and instill that sense of knowing & believing that we are God’s most prized creation and deserve to live dignified lives in peace, joy & love, for He came to give us life to the fullest! Our role as Youth Ambassadors was to be instruments of awareness in our communities. We set out to raise awareness as a group, and as individuals wherever we go. Over the months that followed, we enlightened hundreds of children, youth and elderly people in our communities on human trafficking in Botswana, a place they call their peaceful home! We did this by executing a variety of activities, such as a panel discussion with key stakeholders and experts in the fight against trafficking, a series of online weekly lessons, parish visits, radio and TV interviews, interventions in schools, and organized an event for the International Day of Prayer & Awareness against Human Trafficking.

In conclusion, our journey in ending human trafficking has only just begun! We are a small, but mighty team of young Batswana energized with a passion for advocacy and community work, and we will continue to reach out our hands to victims in prayer, and to the community through our efforts to end human trafficking.

Yours faithfully,

Lone Botshelo
Youth Ambassadors Chairman
Talitha Kum Botswan