‘IF you watch pornography, you promote the market for human trafficking.
‘A small percentage of people participate in the production of pornography out of their own free will. The rest are victims.’So said Pastor Caroline Pitout, speaking to high school pupils at Grantleigh School, drumming up support against human slavery and urging young people to take a stand against the atrocities of commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, farm labour and the child sex tourism industry.
Not mincing words, Pitout dispelled the myth that smoking cannabis is harmless, branding it instead as a gateway to a living hell.
‘Did you know that weed is a gateway drug and a strategy used by traffickers to get you hooked on drugs, so that they can sell your body for sex so you can get more drugs?
‘Did you know that if you are sold into prostitution, you are raped up to 20 times a day by different people?’ she asked.
Pastor Pitout and her team brought their message home by involving the young audience in a mock auction where she ‘sold off volunteers’, shoved to the front by giggling peers for qualities such as good looks.
The laughter soon stopped with a short but shocking role play portraying the reality of women being sold for sex, after being lured into the trap with bait of job opportunities, travelling and modelling work.
Traffickers are also know to spike women’s drinks before abducting and raping them, often while they are being filmed.
The material is later used as blackmail material.
Pitout, also an ex-pupil of the school, urged those who heard the message to rise to the challenge and be mentored to make a difference.
‘This generation will bring the change. You must raise the morals and set the standard.
‘God has a purpose for your life and you can impact your parents, your school and your country.’
Statistics on the human trafficking industry in South Africa is virtually non-existent and inaccurate.
