Tuesday, October 2, 2012

C. is back home


I just recovered our girl C. who was with a lady from Chókwe who had taken the girl from her aunt’s house, under the pretence of getting her a job in the city of Maputo. It was not easy to recover C. because no one knew exactly where she was taken to.

Today, when I was at school, in the After School Support room (Sponsored by ALG) , I noticed the absence of the little girl and I asked her friends if they knew anything about her; if she was ill or something but they did not know anything about her. Then I asked a girl, who is her neighbour and she told me that C. had gone to Maputo with a lady to get a job. Immediately, a million thoughts went through my mind because these days there are so many cases of young people being “sold” under the idea that they are going to work when, in fact, they are going to be traded as sexual slaves, mainly in South Africa. 

I rushed to the girl’s house and I found the aunt who told me they had taken her but that they would speak to the mother, which they didn’t. Afterwards, I tried to track down the people who had taken the girl, and I was told they had gone to an area close to the military headquarters, after the last village, 10 km from Manjangue. I went from house to house trying to find out what happened and then someone gave me directions to find the lady who had taken C.

Then I took the girl’s aunt and someone from Manjangue with me to find C. and to have witnesses in case I had to inform the police. When I arrived to Chókwe we looked all over the neighbourhood, where the lady who took C. lived. The aunt had already given up and left because it was getting late to return to Manjangue. I continued looking and, by chance, we passed by a house where I saw the girl. I only found her around 21h. I told the lady to deliver the girl to me and thus... I’m here with C. in Chókwe and tomorrow she will be back to Manjangue."

By Mano Silvestre

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