The curtain was raised on a new play to raise awareness of human
trafficking amongst the Mozambican community living in South Africa
at a theatre in Johannesburg to coincide with  a 16 day
international campaign against violence against women and children.

Produced by IOM’s Southern Africa Counter Trafficking
Programme (SACTAP), together with Community Media for Development,
a private company working to strengthen the use of media and drama
for development, the play - Khuluma Afrika - tells the story of two
sisters trafficked from Mozambique to South Africa. Separated,
desperate and exploited, the two girls seek solace in letters to
one another that express their hardships, hopes and dreams of
home.

IOM estimates that at least 1,000 women are trafficked into
South Africa from Mozambique each year, with poverty a huge factor
in their susceptibility to promises made by traffickers. Once in
South Africa, trafficked Mozambican women may find themselves
working in Johannesburg’s sex industry or sold in mining
areas as “wives” and forced to work as domestic
servants and sex slaves without remuneration.

The Portuguese-language play will tour Gauteng’s mining
areas and community venues in Johannesburg, as well as key transit
points for Mozambican migrants in South Africa. It is hoped that
the production will encourage whistle blowers to report suspected
cases through the IOM national toll-free helpline number: 0800 555
999.

The theatre project will be followed by a nationwide information
campaign targeting both trafficked women and potential
whistle-blowers using posters, billboards and other materials in
areas with a heavy concentration of trafficked women, such as
Johannesburg’s Hillbrow district.

For more information, please contact:

Karen Blackman

IOM Pretoria

Tel: +27 12 342 11 20

E-mail: "mailto:kblackman@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">kblackman@iom.int