What we do: The Lent Appeal: Modern Day Slavery

Here is a short film introducing the Lent Appeal, with comments from some of our partner charities and an interview with a survivor of MDS, Garry Martinez, a Support Worker, who experienced Modern Day Slavery as a younger man.

We also hear from some volunteers of our partner charities, who tell us about their work and how it helps challenge MDS across London.

Feel free to use this in services, meetings, worship groups and show it to your colleagues, friends and parishioners.

Working to prevent child trafficking and exploitation, care for survivors and empower a growing movement. Love is the foundation.

Love146 is an international human rights organisation working to end child trafficking through prevention education and survivor care. We fill in the gaps left by other organisations. That means we work with young people trafficked into the UK from other countries, and we give them the best support we can – the same care that we’d want our own children to receive.

The number of human trafficking victims in the UK is in the tens of thousands, with one-third of that number being children. Because we’ve been working with and listening to survivors for a long time, we know that the needs of these trafficked children are complex. We meet them with a framework of specialist support, vigilant safeguards and genuine care.

Our safety plan is the foundation of our Survivor Care in the UK. It was crafted by our Director of Care, Lynne Chitty, born out of her 30 years of experience keeping children safe. It doesn’t focus on keeping young people in, but on keeping everyone else out and on breaking the strong connection between the survivor and their trafficker. Without severing this bond, young people are likely to go missing from care in the first 24 hours. In many conventional, group home or hostel settings, up to 60% of young people have been lost in this way.

Our carers, social workers and support workers are trained to handle the complex needs of trafficked young people, and Love146 UK has not lost a single young person yet.

We have had the honour of being present at birthdays, anniversaries and weddings. We have mourned with young mothers as they buried a child and we have wrapped an arm around young people devastated by a negative asylum appeal. We have walked former clients down the aisle and been their birthing partners.

Love146 journeys with survivors for as long as it takes. We care like family. And family sticks around for the long haul.

See this really inspiring short film on the Love146 Vimeo Page – A UK Survivor Story.

Information from former Charities of the Week

Hidden in plain sight

Working with the Clewer Initiative and our partner charities, we believe that the tools to end modern slavery already exist within the local community and that the Church, in the heart of all communities, has a primary responsibility in leading these efforts. To develop strategies to detect modern slavery in our communities we can identify resources, developing partnerships with others, and creating a wider network of advocates seeking to end modern slavery together.

Learn how to spot the signs of modern slavery, what to do if you encounter it and how you can report it.

What does modern slavery look like?

Victims of modern slavery can be of any age, race, or gender. There is no ‘typical’ victim. However, there are physical and behavioural indicators that may mean someone is being exploited.

Appearance

• Show signs of physical or psychological abuse and untreated injuries
• Look malnourished or unkempt, or appear withdrawn and neglected
• Seem under the control or influence of others
• Wear the same clothes every day
• Wear no safety equipment even if their work requires it

Accommodation

• Living in dirty, cramped or overcrowded accommodation
• Living and working at the same address
• Appear unfamiliar with their neighbourhood or where they work

Travel

• Rarely allowed to travel on their own
• Collected and dropped off on a regular basis early in the morning or late at night
• In a crowded minibus with other workers
• Have no control of their identification documents such as their passport

Seeking help

• Reluctant to seek help and avoid eye contact
• Appear frightened or hesitant to talk to strangers
• Fear of police, don’t know who to trust or where to get help
• Afraid of deportation, and risk of violence to them or their family

What to do

If you spot the signs or are worried that someone might be trapped in modern slavery, it is important that you report any suspicions of modern slavery to the police, as with other crimes. Do not attempt to intervene yourself, as you may put yourself and those around you – including the potential victim – in danger.

Who to contact

If there is an emergency and someone is in immediate danger, call 999.

If you would like to report any non-emergency suspicious activity in your local area then call your local police on 101 or go to your local police station.

If you need advice or support on a modern slavery issue then you can call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700. It operates 24 hour a day, 365 days a year. You can also seek guidance or ask questions through their website.

The Clewer Initiative has a individual web page specifically for helping people report their suspicions of modern slavery. It’s designed as a quick reference page for smartphones and can be saved to your phone’s home screen for fast access. Find out more on the Clewer Initiative website.

What to do

If you spot the signs or are worried that someone might be trapped in modern slavery, it is important that you report any suspicions of modern slavery to the police, as with other crimes. Do not attempt to intervene yourself, as you may put yourself and those around you – including the potential victim – in danger.

Who to contact

If there is an emergency and someone is in immediate danger, call 999.

If you would like to report any non-emergency suspicious activity in your local area then call your local police on 101 or go to your local police station.

If you need advice or support on a modern slavery issue then you can call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700. It operates 24 hour a day, 365 days a year. You can also seek guidance or ask questions through their website.

The Clewer Initiative has a individual web page specifically for helping people report their suspicions of modern slavery. It’s designed as a quick reference page for smartphones and can be saved to your phone’s home screen for fast access.

Find out more on the Clewer Initiative website.

A Church of England Project

The Clewer Initiative enables Church of England dioceses, like the Diocese of London and wider church networks to develop strategies for detecting modern slavery in their communities and help provide victim support and care.

We have been working with this initiative to highlight modern day slavery and how people in parishes and worshipping communities can spot the signs that it might be happening where they live, and what they can do to stop this and help the victims.

Angela Afzal is the Clewer Initiative link at the Diocese of London, and you can email her for more information.

Safe Car Wash

Modern slavery is hidden in plain sight on our high streets. People are being forced to work long hours, for little or no pay, and under threat of violence in hand car washes.

Many hand car washes are legitimate businesses, but some of them are not. Police raids in hand car washes in towns and cities up and down the country have unearthed victims living in horrendous conditions.

The Problem

Although law enforcement and the government are clear that this problem exists, there is no reliable data on just how widespread it is. This lack of information means that victims could be falling through the net.

The Clewer team worked with the police, the National Crime Agency and the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority about how it can work together with help them solve this and bring these hidden victims into the light.

The Safe Car Wash app

The Safe Car Wash app is a new tool that will enable the largest community intelligence gathering exercise ever attempted in the United Kingdom.

Download the free app onto your smartphone. When you are using a hand car wash, simply open the app and complete a short survey about the working conditions of the car wash.

Various resources and links are available for download on our website and there is a vast wealth of information on the Clewer Initiative website.

Get your parishes to donate to our appeal

• Online donations to the Lent Appeal 2019 can be made at https://www.give.net/lent19

• Cheques made out to the LONDON DIOCESAN FUND with Lent 2019 noted on the back can be sent to:

Lent Appeal 2019

London Diocesan House,

36 Causton Street,

London

SW1P 4AU

Once the cost of producing this Lent Appeal have been met, a donation of 10% of the total collected (upto £5,000) will be made to Capital Mass. The rest of the money received by the London Diocesan Fund for the Lent Appeal will be split equally between the 5 partner charities used towards their work supporting people who are trapped by Modern Day Slavery.

Any donations received after the Appeal has been closed will be allocated to future LDF Lent Appeal beneficiary charities.

Love146 Information Evening.

Love146 is an international human rights Charity – Delivering effective, necessary service for Trafficked Children. Founded over 15 years ago, Love146 is working to end child trafficking through Prevention Education and Survivor Care on four continents. We provide wrap around support for trafficked young people, whether they live in a Love146 placement or in a foster care accommodation. We support trafficked young people through various and often confusing stages of life once their exploitation ends.

25 March 2019, 7.30pm, St Peter’s Centre, Winstanley Road, London, SW11 2EZ. Read More…