A Modern Open Sore: Child Trafficking

This Friday we said a moving goodbye to the five trafficked Congolese children whom we have been looking after for the past two months. They left with Mutinta*, their Social Worker, on the night bus to Lusaka for Transit Homes and eventual repatriation within a month to Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The children, 3 boys and 2 girls, ranged in age, from 5 to 10 years. Daniel was the eldest followed by John-Luke, then came Big Antoinette followed by Joseph and finally Wee Antoinette. The hardest thing was handing these children you have come to know and love back, accepting that you are only a pair of hands in the chain on their journey back, and providing a temporary refuge and place of safety, as the authorities try to trace their roots.

Over time, we managed to establish their true names and ages, get the names of their school and Church, teachers and Pastor, but they were a bit hazy about parents and home. Daniel was the most open and helpful with this. The self-portraits they drew of themselves, of home and school were sad and enlightening. The children were quite a disparate group and lacked the cohesion and care for each other you normally expect in a family unit.

None of the boys used the Swahili word 'Kaka (Brother) to each other, something you would expect. It also took some time for them to show love to each other and share and give each other food or sweets; the idea of the youngest first was an alien concept. Without our intervention the leader took first choice and the lion’s share of food and clothes. From this we believe, they came from an institution or were possibly street kids. In the early days Big Antoinette told us she had learned some English and used it to try and impress Ida - ‘Madam give me some money.’ We had told the kids to call us Papa and Maman but to begin with, Joseph kept calling Ida,  Madam, the term he had obviously used to address his previous carer. Joseph also had many of the traits of an Alcohol Syndrome child.

The children were rescued when a member of staff returning on the bus from Lusaka, became suspicious when she saw 5 silent and cowed children spread out in the bus. The Congolese adults accompanying them, a man and a women, were also sitting separately but signalled to them by hand from time to time. They received nothing to eat or drink throughout the 10 hour journey. The staff member phoned the relevant authorities who stopped the bus outside Mwandi, freed the children and arrested the man who had a refugee passport. The lady who falsely claimed later to be the children’s grandmother, temporarily evaded capture but was eventually apprehended in Sesheke, carrying a single-page, forged, travel-document for her and the children. 

The lady, who called herself Antoinette too, in a crude attempt to fabricate some family relationship with the girls, apparently had accompanied them from Lubumbashi and had the children call her Kambo (Granny) Antoinette. Papa Jean, the man had met them at Kasumbalesa Border Crossing and took them all by car to a ‘safe-house’ in Lusaka. According to the children it was composed of two rooms, a bedroom and sitting room. Papa Jean used the bedroom and they and ‘Granny’ lived, ate and slept in the sitting room. There they were frequently beaten and trained to obey without question their traffickers for the next stage of the journey. They were not allowed outside till they left for the bus station. They were fed once a day from one bowl, fish and inshima, hence the need to ensure you could eat the most in the fastest time.

Mwandi lies on the Trans-African Highway that runs from Walvis Bay to Dar-es-Salaam and this is used as a transit corridor from the DRC through Zambia, Namibia to South Africa. Our children were smuggled from Lubumbashi across the border and taken by car to the safe house in Lusaka. From there they were to be taken by bus to Sesheke and taxied over the border to Namibia. These ‘safe’ houses in Lusaka are provided by rich, violent and powerful criminals who control the business. Individual witnesses and officials are often offered tens of thousands of dollar in bribes to turn a blind eye. The women and children being trafficked are in all likelihood destined for forced labour, begging and vending or sexual exploitation, to earn income for their exploiters, under threats of violence and incurring debt-bondage. Another horrific end meets some children as they are killed and their body parts used for sorcery.

These children need counselling and a time of therapy and healing to recover from this ordeal. We are so thankful that they were discovered and spared the awful fate that probably lay in front of them. We appreciate the caring and compassionate good work in this case of our often-maligned Government Ministries. We are grateful to the Immigration Department, Social Welfare and the Judiciary for their sensitivity and professional efforts to ensure that these children are returned to their home  and that those perpetrating this evil trade can be caught, and this modern open sore, can be eliminated.

 

Any society which looks to the future and is not narrowly and selfishly obsessed with the present will give the highest priority to the welfare of its children. We cannot and should not be silent in the face of such horrible and avoidable suffering and distress endured by those children

Their happiness and welfare is of paramount importance. It is a poor reflection on humanity if we permit this evil to continue. Is it not heartbreaking that 150 years after Livingstone’s death, Scottish missionaries are still trying to help prevent trade in human-beings and children at that?

Any child should be received with gratitude and treasured with love – a joy to the parents and a welcome gift to the community. Children thrive best inside a loving family, whatever its form, a family who will promote their rights and welfare. So while the good of the family should be promoted to enable this, individual and vulnerable children like, Daniel, John-Luke, Big Antoinette, Joseph and Wee Antoinette, need our protection from exploitation and abuse.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

That they may all be one

A  Congregation of 200 from the United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada  formally came together at a joyful and moving service on Saturday, 17 October 2015 in a new partnership of worship, word and communion, fulfilling Jesus' prayer that "They may all be one”. The venue was St. Andrew's United Church in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

Rev. John C. Dorhauer,, UCC  President, said  whilst this fulfilled Christ’s prayer,  it was only the first step in faithfulness to the Gospel that can change the world.
Nora Sanders, General Secretary of the United Church of Canada, was grateful for the celebration, hospitality, fellowship and  openness they had enjoyed on the journey. Leaders from both denominations then signed an official communion document.

It was signed by Dorhauer and Sanders and by Dale Bonds, Chair of the United Church of Christ Board and the Rt. Rev. Jordan Cantwell,. Dorhauer and Cantwell then exchanged stoles as a symbol of their shared purpose to proclaim the gospel for the mending of the world in their common mission in God's world, witnessing to God's love for all."  

The agreement allows the churches to recognize each others' sacraments, the ordination and the calling of ministers; expressing the unity we know that exists through Christ, and  in these things that affirm our identity as his disciples.

Both churches belong to the family of uniting and united churches around the world and together are deepening their faith, as followers of Christ."

Later, President of the North American WCC  and Anglican Bishop Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald,  in his sermon, .said that this is just a step along the way and  he  hoped that all Christians can journey together where God is calling them to be. He saw the Niagara Falls as an image for minds and hearts, as a place of migration.

After Communion, Cantwell sent the congregation out to put the commitments and agreement into action.

Giving thanks Dorhauer said it was now time for co-missioning, and to go where God's spirit sends them in one accord.

Watch a video of the entire service, courtesy of The United Church of Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ON THE EDGE

I have just come back from a tour of the UCZ Mission Schools in Luapula, Northern and Muchinga Provinces. It is a round trip of over 3000km. It was good to meet our staff who are devoting this part of their professional careers to delivering education to children very often living at the “edge”. Our schools are generally found in remote rural areas close to Zambia’s borders with neighbours. The children are often from impoverished subsistence farming families, living on the edge, relying on rain-irrigated harvests and frequently many are underweight, undernourished and underachieving. It was good to hear of the accomplishments as well as the challenges and how working together with all the stakeholders from the community they are attempting to transform these institutional legacies from 20th Century educational management into appropriate, developing, teaching and learning communities for today and beyond.

However, the historian in me made me look back to their foundation as pioneer missions. Their rich history and strengths from the past is something they are aware of and still draw upon. 

I had not been to Mbereshi for some 15 years, so I enjoyed the drive North from Kapiri through the miombo woods along the Mwendafye Hills with the TAZARA, passed Mkushi to Serenje. Next we turned onto the Mansa road which we used to call the Chinese Road, now most roads in Zambia would qualify for that title. We passed Kasanka and the Chitambo road-end leading to the Livingstone Memorial.

 Chitambo was a former Church of Scotland Mission Station opened in 1907 by Malcolm Moffat and  Dr Hubert Wilson, both relatives of Livingstone and his wife Mary Moffat. It opened a small girls boarding school  in the 1930s and contrary to Colonial Government policy encouraged agricultural training. A teacher tells of the fathers of 3 girls being mocked in 1943 for wasting their money by sending their daughters for teacher training. Plus ca change....... Chitambo Hospital has recently reopened its School of Nursing.

Mbereshi was founded by the London Missionary Society (now Council for World Mission) in 1900.  It became a major educational centre made famous by Mable Shaw who trained at St Colm’s and pioneered girl education by opening in 1915 a school for them there. Education was closely linked with the life skills, needed for running a home and contributing to the community. Lessons took place in the morning, but the rest of school life reflected as closely as possible ordinary village life, drawing water, collecting firewood and cooking meals. The Boarding houses were vertically organised containing around 12 girls, the senior, acting as House Mother. The House Mothers settled minor disputes and looked after the younger ones. All girls learned to sew, knit, crochet and to make clothes. They grew most of their own staples and vegetables. Mothercraft and childcare were also important subjects. However, this basic education also allowed for careers in both teaching and nursing. A consequence was not only a good, trained wife, but even more importantly it meant clean, healthy and better- educated children in the following generation. There was much in the old initiation ceremonies that were useful to keep and encourage and which were integrated into the Christian instruction the girls received. Poor Mable knew all about the glass ceiling as well!

Shaw enjoyed greater autonomy  than many of her married and unmarried peers but she was still marginalised as a woman. She became an ‘honorary man’ for a while in the 1930s when appointed to the IMC Commission on Copper Belt Urbanisation. With her expertise, she was allowed to contribute to the deliberations but not the final written report. She could never become a Head of Station either and her school was eventually brought under male oversight in 1946.

Senga Hill was founded by Rev Govan Robertson  of the LMS in 1923. Its school offered education to Standard VI. It too started an Agricultural Training Centre under Norman Porritt and was well-known  at the time for its goat rearing and cassava production. It tried to meet the needs of the community it served. Another interesting feature was its interdenominational character, encompassing Church of Scotland, Plymouth Brethren, Anglicans and Congregationalists and under the Chairmanship of Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, the Laird of Shiwa Ngandu!

The Church of Scotland opened Mwenzo amongst the Winamwanga at the same time (1894) as the Livingstonia Institute at Kondowe by Rev Alexander Dewar and John Banda a Malawian evangelist. The Mission was situated on the Stevenson Road which linked Lake Malawi, Livingstonia and Lake Tanganyika. The modern Mwenzo to Mbala stretch is finally being tarred at last. Rev and Mrs Chisholm, a nurse, were next charged with helping to develop medical, educational and Church work. With new staff on site, Mwenzo Girls opened afresh in 1928. In 1912 the first Welfare Society was founded and in 1923 Rev David Kaunda, the father of the First President Dr Kenneth Kaunda,  was a prominent member. These societies were the first political outlets formed  to struggle for freedom and equality and precursors of the Trade Unions and political parties of a later date.  I met the Rev Solomon Sichalwe in his home. He is now 99 years old who had memories of Rev Fergus Macpherson and other Scottish missionaries. He was the mentor, “my boys’’, he called them to two dear Lozi ministers, the Reverends Mubita and Mulowa, both now in their 80s! It was also good to have an audience with Chieftainess Nawitwika too, another UCZ member.

In 1905 Rev David Kaunda and his wife Hellen Nyirenda were sent as missionaries from Livingstonia to undertake Church and education work in the Chinsali area, bringing into being Lubwa Mission .Rev Kaunda did a good work  developing  a strong teacher training programme , encouraging the establishment of rural middle-schools along with secondary education for the brightest pupils. Lubwa became grant-aided in 1930 and the school while grateful was nonetheless insufficient to meet increased costs and the increasing numbers of primary schools. Former pupils were President Kenneth Kaunda, Vice-President  Simon Kapepwe, UNIP Central Committtee Member Kapasa Makasa and the Speaker, Wesley Nyirenda.  A founding Headteacher Bwenbya Mushindo did much work in preserving Bemba History and Customs in writing and as well as  working with others to translate the Bible in Chi Bemba.