Nthatuoa Koeshe
ONLINE radio Sky Alpha HD presenter Mathobatsi Sekoere aka Toby, has set out to educate models on ways to be wary of human trafficking since they are one of the most prone groups.
Toby’s Atobyevent Events Management Company has partnered with Braykthru Media and Beautiful Dream Society to host a series of activities which are in preparation for a Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign event. This will be held in commemoration of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July 2019.
The activities will start on 28 June and run until 30 July. The United Nations commemorates the day on 30 July annually.
The activities will include artistic initiatives like online video and picture campaigns.
Toby told the Xpress People that the sessions will comprise of a fire side panel discussion with relevant stakeholders such as the police, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Beautiful Dream Society.
Toby said there will be a presentation of tools to aid potential victims in online sensitisation on jobs offered from the American Corner and one from the Ministry of Home Affairs, a viewing of a short documentary and testimonials from victims who survived human trafficking. She added that the campaign will target models to equip them to be wary of human trafficking since they are prone to danger.
She said prior to the main event, they are planning to approach different local brands, non-governmental organisations, media houses, businesses and relevant ministries to partner them and give input into the campaign.
“There will be an online campaign comprising of a number of short videos, pictures and text content prior to the sit down sessions,” Toby said.
She noted that post the sessions, they will frequently discuss the matter on social media and occasionally flight print and radio adverts.
“These sessions will be separate consecutive sessions in which models and the unemployed youths will be the audience,” she said. She added that the information on what human trafficking is, how and why it happens and who it affects will be disseminated.
She said this information will be provided along with information on what to do when it happens, how to do it and where to get such assistance.
Toby said thousands of men, women and children end up in the hands of traffickers annually, often through being tricked and misled to believe that they are being taken to work which will improve their fortunes. She said others are also taken forcefully through kidnapping while some extreme circumstances are of poor families who sell their children in order to survive.
She said they are holding the campaign after the realisation that a large number of people in Lesotho are unaware what human trafficking is therefore are prone to falling prey to traffickers.
“People are uninformed on how to protect themselves and others against being trafficked. They do not know what to do or where to go in cases where a person has been trafficked. There is an increasing rate of reported cases of human trafficking being reported and a lot more that are unreported.”
She said their objective is to inform Basotho about what human trafficking is and also to inform them of the available tools and or the relevant entities they can contact when they suspect human trafficking has occurred.
Toby said human trafficking and modern day slavery is a massive worldwide problem and a few countries are immune to human trafficking.
“We are riding on the UN’s thought process of raising awareness and increasing prevention,” Toby said.
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