Fabulous Baker tackles child trafficking

TV CHEF Tom Herbert, one half of Channel 4’s The Fabulous Baker Brothers, turned up the heat on child traffickers on Sunday 25 May. He demonstrated his simple low-tech recipe for ‘sticky sticks’ at The BigChurchDayOut in Sussex to an estimated 8,000 visitors, in support of Tearfund’s No Child Taken campaign.

On a visit to Laos earlier this year, Tom, along with his 12-year-old son Milo, had taught young girls to make the doughnut-style snacks to help them gen- erate an income and lessen the lure of trafficking. The recipe uses readily available raw materials, and ingredients measured in handfuls or with bottle tops rather than high-tech digital scales.

More than 1,200 festival-goers signed up to donate to the campaign which, with further one-off gifts, will enable Tearfund to help more than 4,000 children at risk of trafficking, disease and disaster.

“As a fifth generation baker,” said Tom, “there was never any doubt as to what I would do for a living. But for the children I met in Laos, there is very little choice.” Poverty means many are sold and trafficked to work in brothels, or become trapped into menial labour, without means of escape. Tearfund’s prevention work helps to break this cycle, both by educating people about the dangers of trafficking and by equipping them to earn a living in their local communities.

In Laos Tom met 14-year-old Kalei, who was acting as mother to two younger siblings and a baby niece. Her mother and older sister left to work in Thailand, and little has been heard from them since. When food runs out the younger children look to Kalei to provide. She spends her days in the hot sun, hunting in dried up mud for tiny frogs to feed the family.

“Thank God Tearfund have found Kalei and many, many like her, before it’s too late” said Tom.

“Through their partners in Laos, Tear- fund are shining the light and the love of Jesus in a very dark place, delivering practical support, building trust and relationships that intervene to finally break a cycle that sees children born into poverty, trafficked into slavery. It was really inspiring to see so many visitors to The BigChurchDayOut supporting Tearfund’s No Child Taken campaign.”

Tearfund’s David Westlake told festival-goers: “At Tearfund we believe that God wants children in families, playgrounds and schools, not in sweatshops, rice fields and brothels.” For more information please visit

www.tearfund.org/nochildtaken