Greece (MNN) — Around the world, millions of people still suffer under slavery. AMG International works to help those caught up in this evil net and to prevent people from getting caught in the first place.
Tasos Ioannidis says this problem is particularly bad in Greece. “Because Greece is at the crossroads between Asia, and Europe, and Africa. So, you have a lot of people who are transported to Europe, particularly for prostitution. They include ladies that come from Asia, from Eastern Europe, from Africa, and they are enticed to come to Greece with the promise of work, or they are forcibly transported into Greece, by traffickers.”
How to fight slavery
You can help sponsor a child to make sure they get the education they desperately need. (Photo courtesy of AMG International)
Education provides a buffer against trafficking by making children and parents less vulnerable and less susceptible to severe poverty.
The best way to fight human trafficking is to prevent it before it happens. Ioannidis says, “The best way to do that is come alongside the parents, provide the children with an education, train the parents, support the parents, and support the whole community. We come alongside the local churches in those areas.”
When slavery has already happened, Ioannidis says slavery is much harder to fight. “First of all, it’s hard to rescue them in the first place. The people who are trafficking them see that as a loss of revenue for them. They will try to prevent the girls from leaving, and they will use violence.” Pray for the safety of AMG workers as they try to rescue as many as possible.
These women also face a long road psychologically, having already undergone so much trauma. They need to learn basic life skills like money management. AMG helps provide this training.
“We also try to help them with job placement and things like that.”
Pray that parents will understand the value of education and keep their kids in school. Right now, COVID-19 is making school in any setting more difficult.
Ioannidis says, “From what experts are telling us, most of the kids who leave school right now, because of COVID to earn a living, they are never going to go back to school. So that increases the risk for them. And it basically means that their future is less rosy. To put mildly, their outlook is not very good.”
Header Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
