A Skip and a Smile

The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally. Eighty one percent of them are trapped in forced labor. Twenty five percent of them are children. Seventy five percent are women and girls. (Polaris Project, 2019)

The International Labor Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide.

The US Department of Labor has identified 148 goods from 75 countries made by forced and child labor.

In 2017, an estimated one out of seven endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were likely child sex trafficking victims. Of those, 88 percent were in the care of social services or foster care when they ran.

Twenty two percent of a study on trafficked victims, were found to be sold by their relatives, husbands or boyfriends, 50 percent were 14 to 21 years old. (Stateva and Kozhouharova, 2004)

One mother said a United Nations peacekeeper raped her 12-year-old boy. A United Nations spokesman said that he had not heard that specific case but that there were indeed a number of new sexual abuse allegations against peacekeepers in Congo and that a team was sent in late July to investigate. (Congo: Male Rape Victims, NYT Article by Jeffrey Gettleman)

The consequences of social injustices and the stripping away of human dignity has impeached, seeped and intruded through the cracks of our apparently civil and humane society.

It is a picture of darkness, desolation and depression.

Social justice can be said to be a sufficing of peace in society. It is important to note that when we speak about peace, we are not merely using it as an ideal used for intellectual or academic aggrandisement . However, the preponderance of peace within society or a situation of social justice necessitates the fundamental dependence on the presence of human dignity.

Human dignity is aptly gauged by a person’s belief of whether or not he or she can help another person. This hypothesis pushes the traditional definitions, that a person’s dignity is determined by only tangible gauges; such us possessing access to water, food, safety, education etc.

In the course of my life I was privileged to be able to interact with a boy aged only 15 years who had come from a financial and familial background that is considered “disadvantaged” by general society standards. However, upon realising and consciously focusing on the blessings and gifts he possessed, his new found energy instantaneously solicited a response from him—“Please tell me how much it cost to take a trip to Thailand to befriend children there who are at risk of being trafficked.”

He then smiled in faith. He probably did not even fully comprehend the weight of his decision. His courage to befriend the child in Thailand was pure brand of social justice—the building of worth through the reliance on a dynamic and duality in friendship.

There has been a thriving argument that due to the intensification of the great social plights of our world, it is obligatory that we intensify our passions and the efficiency of executing our tasks. Just within India alone, there are over 1.2 Million Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) working towards the provision of social justice in one way or another.

In a personal journey of leading an organization that advocates for social justice, we have always consciously examined and re-examined our modus operandi for sustainable transformation. Compassion for others, beyond ourselves is an important fundamental that requires a conscious effort to keep our passion for social justice thoroughly connected with reality of the issue.

In our line of work, the passion and intensity amongst the youthful in our organisation grew tremendously, as it morphed from a program into a compulsion and calling on their lives. The reality of the plight of human trafficking inched fearfully close. Desperation became the new modus operandi. There was no time to waste, no time to rest! The problem is enormous and it was getting bigger. The team was engaged and involved—they were serious and never wavered in their immediate tasks.

We are passionate, we are outward-focused, we had compassion, and we were fully active. We were taking confident strides into a narrow alley that was never lit beyond the spot we were in. It looked like the perfect model; the key factors had logic yet it felt misplaced and possibly directionally false.

Now let me take you to Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, where I learned a simple lesson with profound proportions.

I learnt this lesson from a homeless African American male who had refused to allow his personal ‘logistical’ disadvantage to overwhelm his ability to help others. His philosophy was simple, (as I watched him for over an hour) it had to do with bringing peace and joy to people. His ‘office’ is a busy intersection that he had boldly albeit cheekily claimed ownership off by merely proclaiming his presence over it.

As pedestrians waited to cross the intersection, he would proclaim loud, clear and full of cheer, “Welcome to MY intersection! You either buy my magazine or you skip across the road with me!" He began skipping across the road. No one followed him. "Come ON! It's okay, you don't have to skip, why don't you just smile for me there, it doesn’t cost a thing; come on let me see that smile! If you don't, I'm going come over to tickle you!" People at the large intersection couldn't help but break into a smile. "Ah ha! There it is! Just Beautiful! Just Beautiful!"

At every single changing light he would do that, skipping and smiling. Skipping is really tiring, but it makes the journey so much more fun—that's what we often forget. When we cross the road, when we walk or cycle places, we often forget the people around us, we get so focused on the destination that we forget the ride.

I dare say that the first step to ensuring your impact and sustainability ensuring the deliverance of Social Justice is kindling that ability within your soul to uplift yourself. Do have enough strength in your spirit to carry with you the cheer and romp of a party as you advocate social justice? It is about reaching a height of joy where there is a certain sense of freedom where you can just bask in the glorious light of hope.

Skip and smile through it all noticing not only just what is right in front of you but all the moments beyond, around and below the spot you are in. These moments carry the potential for wonder.

It's about smiling with the people around you and encouraging them to do the same. We should feel sorry for forgetting the importance of the journey. It is the quality of the journey that will eventually determine the depth of your ending. In the case of advocating and the provision of social justice, there is no ending, which makes the journey an ending in itself.

It took one homeless man to deliver justice to the thousands of people with homes in Chicago with the importance of a skip and a smile. Naïve, nonsensical, childish, superficial, superfluous, ridiculous and insane are probably some of the words that have crossed your mind. Well, no one ever said social justice was going to be easy, it would require a skip and a smile!

You decide.