A Catholic ministry decided to host their annual thank you dinner for donors at a local restaurant. Upon receiving the invite, one donor was familiar with the Slave Map – a tool designed by Not For Sale president, David Batstone to combat modern human slavery (www.slaverymap.org). The donor checked the map to discover this restaurant continued to use slave labour even though they had been caught and fined twice. He shared this information with the head of the Catholic ministry who was not aware of the Slave Map nor the restaurants’ use of slave labour. She immediately called the restaurant and cancelled their event. Through this process, the restaurant owner became aware he was on the Slave Map. He then called the Not For Sale office to find out what he had to do to get off it. Realizing he was actually going to lose business, he was now motivated to stop using slave labour.

Dozens of Youth With A Mission teams are involved in the abolition of slavery and human trafficking, an issue which has attracted the attention of a growing number of young adults passionate to see justice done. YWAM is already working in many cities where trafficking is widespread and through our Discipleship Training Schools, we recruit thousands of people each year who are eager to engage in acts of mercy and justice.

Several YWAM leaders involved with launching the Global Compassion Network at the Call2All event in Hong Kong this spring, gathered together with David Batstone to discuss how YWAM and Not For Sale could partner together to end human trafficking and slavery. Already some YWAM teams have been involved with Not For Sale initiatives such as “Call and Response” which trains investigators to recognise slavery in action and act wisely to prevent or end it in their own cities. All agreed that a partnership between NFS and YWAM could significantly impact human trafficking in all of its forms and also dramatically increase the multiplication of investigators.

To that end, a training academy has been set up to equip those who desire to act against the crime of modern slavery. Attendees of the two week seminar will be educated on how to properly record, document, and map all of the various types of human trafficking through practical education, training, and meetings with experts in the field. They will learn how to identify probable cases of human trafficking, how to properly record cases of human trafficking, and how to effectively confront slavery in supply chains. By certification, attendees will be equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to become investigators of modern slavery in their own backyards.

YWAMers are being invited to learn how to train others in the investigation of slavery and run these academies in local contexts to help expose and end this injustice. The first academy will be held in San Francisco in January. After that, mobile academies will be hosted in some of the major cities for human trafficking like, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Capetown.

For more information about human trafficking and how you can be involved in stopping it, please contact: www.notforsalecampaign.org. For information on training seminars for YWAMers please contact : ywammmi@loxinfo.co.th