
The International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking is marked on 8th February, the feast of St Josephine Bakhita, patron saint of victims of human trafficking. The day brings together churches from around the world to pray for all victims of exploitation, standing together in solidarity and raising awareness of the issue.
Since 2015 the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking has been coordinated at the invitation of Pope Francis by Talitha Kum, an international network led by religious sisters working around the world to advocate for and support victims. This year, the theme of the day is Ambassadors of Hope: Together Against Human Trafficking. People from around the world will gather in-person and online to pray and share stories of how they are bringing hope through their work against human trafficking. On the 7th February an online vigil of prayer will be held from 11:30 to 16:30 CET.
Around the world there are an estimated 50 million people who are victims of human trafficking and living in conditions of modern slavery. The crime is becoming increasingly prevalent, intertwined with issues such as climate change, conflict, gender inequality and rising poverty levels. This creates an easy environment for slavery to thrive, often affecting the most vulnerable members of society including children, migrants, refugees, and the homeless.
Joining in with the Day:
The International Day of Prayer and Awareness emphasises the important role that churches and faith organisations have in working together against the issue, both through prayer and awareness raising. There are a number of ways in which individuals and churches can join in and mark the day; we have put together a list below:
- Join the online livestream: This year, to mark the day Talitha Kum are hosting an online webinar on 7th February- this will bring together their networks from around the world to share stories of how they have been working against the issue, through supporting victims, sharing in prayer and raising awareness. It is available to watch in English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French here: La Giornata internazionale di preghiera e sensibilizzazione contro la tratta di esseri umani
- Download our Freedom Sunday Resource: The Anglican Alliance have launched a downloadable booklet containing all the information needed for churches to hold a Sunday service raising awareness of human trafficking. It includes bible readings, a sermon outline, hymns, information and prayers focusing on the topic of human trafficking and encouraging churches to take action. Running a Sunday service could be a good first step to begin raising awareness of the issue with your church.
- Raise awareness: our partner The Clewer Initiative have a lot of resources on their website to help you raise awareness of human trafficking: https://theclewerinitiative.org/resources
- Download the “Walking in Dignity” app: The app developed by Talitha Kum, encourages people to journey together in awareness of human trafficking, by walking and collecting tokens. You can find out more about the issue and earn tokens to donate to survivor-led projects supporting victims. Find out more and download the app here: https://www.talithakum.info/en/walking-in-dignity/
- Reproduce the “Journeying in dignity” flashmob and post it on your social media using the hashtag #PrayAgainstTrafficking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzxpIoIRCPc
- Pray: one of the most important things we can do as Christians is to pray for all victims of human trafficking and those working against the issue around the world.
Since 2015, the Anglican Alliance have been working with churches and dioceses around the Anglican Communion, supporting them to act as ambassadors of hope as they respond to human trafficking. Through our work over the past ten years we have witnessed many stories of hope, including churches joining together through regional consultations around the world to consider how they can strengthen their response to trafficking; Anglican sisters in the Solomon Islands supporting victims of trafficking; and Mothers’ Union groups in Tanzania working with women who are vulnerable to being trafficked. You can read more about these examples in the Freedom Sunday Resource.
We are looking forward to joining with others around the world in prayer against human trafficking on the 8th February. We hope you will find a way to get involved in the day in some way and join us in praying for all victims of human trafficking around the world and standing together and advocating for a world without human trafficking.