On a quest to end human trafficking
Calgarian joins Freedom to Walk trek in Bangkok
Canada and the United States.”
McManus says human trafficking is linked to countless other industries, including garment production, mining, fishing, agriculture and domestic work.
The International Labour Organization estimates 20.9-million people globally are victims of forced labour, with the numbers split almost evenly between men and women. Five million are children.
“The real root of trafficking is poverty and lack of economic opportunities,” says McManus.
The Freedom to Walk campaign was conceptualized by two 23-year-old women, Ali Weiner, an American, and Tanny Chiengtang, a Thai. The two met while volunteering for victims of Thailand’s devastating floods in 2011.
McManus found out about the initiative through her friend Weiner, whom she had worked with at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York two summers ago.
“We kept in touch and one day Ali Skyped me and was telling me about the walk, and it all just fell into place and I was able to participate.”
The Freedom to Walk initiative incorporated three main goals — to raise at least $100,000 US, to educate a corps of walkers and to catalyze specific action after the walk.
Participants raised all monies for travel and also raised funds for five organizations on five continents that fight and educate about human trafficking.
Participants walked more than 370 kilometres, battling sweltering temperatures, high humidity and severe pollution. Along the way, the core group of 22 was joined by various political figures and celebrities, as well as survivors of human trafficking.
“It took us five days just to walk out of Bangkok — it is so sprawling. We were walking along the highway and it was loud and polluted — the fumes were in your face and it was hot, close to 34 C and humid,” recalls McManus.
The walkers rose early — around 5 a.m. — and walked an
On Nov. 3, 22-year-old Samantha McManus took her first steps toward combating the inhumanity of human trafficking. She, along with 22 other walkers representing 12 countries around the world, began a 15-day trek from Bangkok, Thailand, to the Myanmar border in support of the Freedom to Walk initiative. The campaign raises both awareness for human trafficking issues and funds to assist those men, women and children whose lives have been affected by the atrocities of forced labour and sex.
“Human trafficking is a really complex issue and there really isn’t an easy solution,” says McManus, a Calgarian who recently earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in international management from McGill University and will soon be starting law school at Columbia University.
“When I started looking into it I realized that everything that I thought that I knew about it was a misconception. It’s common when you hear the word trafficking to think women and children and the sex industry, and you think that it only happens in developing countries — but it’s young boys, it’s men, it’s women, it’s girls, it’s sex and labour and it happens everywhere, including average of 25 kilometres per day, finishing up in the early afternoon before the heat of the day set in. Afternoons and evenings were dedicated to education.
“We would have material to read in the afternoon and then a discussion in the evening and a Skype call with an expert in the field,” says McManus, adding that the goal was to educate a core group of people who could then return to their countries and spread the word.
The walking route ran west and then north of Bangkok to the Thai/Burma border. To celebrate the last day of the walk, several children from the DREAM house, a Thai organization that provides shelter and safety to stateless children (most of whom have crossed the border into Thailand from Burma) and who are at risk of being trafficked or who are survivors of trafficking, joined the walk.
“It was pretty amazing. They are a very talented group of kids — full of life and very cheerful and optimistic even though a lot of them have been separated from their families or orphaned or victims of trafficking and have escaped,” says McManus, adding that the youngest guest at the DREAM house is two. “She and her brother, who is four, were found by border guards just wandering around. Her brother was carrying her in his arms.”
The campaign was a huge success. “We exceeded our financial goal and raised over $126,000,” says McManus, adding that onefifth of those funds will go to the DREAM house so that it can build new lodging for the children.
The walk also represented a fulfilling personal experience for McManus, who learned a great deal about the issues surrounding human trafficking and is now committed to making a difference by sharing knowledge and information to increase awareness. “I will always be involved in some way with human rights, whether it is on a volunteer basis or through my career,” says McManus.
For more information on the Freedom to Walk campaign or to make a donation, please visit www.freedomtowalk.org.