South African churches warn of human trafficking at 2010 World Cup

A South African Lutheran church leader says human trafficking is one of the greatest challenges for local churches during the next World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in June - July 2010.

Speaking at the recent 17th International AIDS Conference held in Mexico City, 3 - 8 August, Bishop Joe Ramashapa of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA) indicated that South African churches were already preparing themselves to deal with the issue of human trafficking.

He said ELCSA intends to work intensively on awareness-building in congregations, particularly with regard to so-called "passive human trafficking".

He said FIFA was promoting the event by claiming the World Cup would benefit the entire African continent economically, and went on to explain the passive involvement.

"Then [a] mother tells [her] daughter ... 'Can't you try and find out how we can be involved in these FIFA activities.'" The girl might then fall into the hands of human traffickers and into forced prostitution. "So, the mother has been a passive trafficker," he said. "We'll be dealing with such issues, in order to make people aware that poverty can drive you into this kind of situation."

The churches in South Africa are already organising consultations among themselves and with other faith communities to develop a common strategy to tackle the problem. A major focus will be advocacy work with the government.

In the past, churches have not been pro-active, Ramashapa admitted. For 2010, however, the churches will come up with a very concrete programme of activities.

Addressing the global Lutheran communion, Ramashapa said, "We are saying that our pain in South Africa should be the pain of all Lutherans, our joy in celebrating 2010 should be the joy of all Lutherans, and therefore our concerns - our ethical concerns - should be the concerns of all the Lutherans in the world. We need both human and material support."

[Source: by Julia Heyde at Lutheran World Information, printed with permission]