Women are safer when they know their rights: Human trafficking survivor on initiative to protect others

Favor left her parents' household at a very young age due to bad living conditions. She went to live with an aunt hoping for a better life, unaware that it was just the beginning of her suffering.

When she was only 15 years old, her aunt sent her to work as a vendor on the streets where she faced many hardships, including sexual harassment and rape on multiple occasions. Naturally, she became angry and bitter, and suffered severe emotional damage that resulted in depression.

She had no one to talk to about her problems back home, and was a lonely child with no friends. Her aunt added heavy house chores and verbal abuse to her already overwhelming situation. Eventually, Favor couldn't take it anymore and went back home.

Francisca Awah Mbuli is one of 10 individuals from around the world who was recognised for her efforts to fight against human trafficking, at the U.S. Department of State on June 28, 2018. Photo/Flickr

On her way, she met Francisca Awah Mbuli, whom she opened up to, was consoled, and promised support. Mbuli narrates Favor's story with so much passion, “I went through similar hardships myself, so I understood her the moment I met her.”

On the first day of the Commonwealth Women Forum which took place in Kigali on June 20, Mbuli was one of the over 5000 people in Rwanda attending the 26th edition of the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting (CHOGM).

Mbuli, a Cameroon national, dreams of a violence-free world where women are able to live and prosper with no fear of abuse. “A world where they are able to enjoy financial independence, good education and others, rightfully and peacefully,” she says.

Mbuli is a survivor of sex and labour trafficking, and was almost a victim of organ trafficking. She was trafficked to Kuwait in 2015 and managed to escape after months of domestic servitude and other forms of abuse.

The organisation helps resettle returning victims of human trafficking and rights abuse by giving them a new lease of life and creating business opportunities for them. Photo/SurvivorsNetwork

Determined to fight against any form of human trafficking, she now leads a female survivors anti-trafficking organisation. Her hard work has been recognised on multiple occasions.

She was named the 18th out of 50 most influential Cameroonian youth in 2018, and she received the African Dream Achievers Award, the World Pulse Story Award, the Trafficking in Persons Hero Award, Obama Africa Leader 2018 inaugural class, and Global Freedom Exchange Fellow in the same year.

She also became the Ibrahim Governance Weekend Fellow 2019, participated in the Obama Foundation Summit 2019 in Chicago, and was an Akina Mama Wa Afrika Fellow in Ghana 2020.

As a survivor, Mbuli uses her experience to educate and protect others in Cameroon from human trafficking. She does this through Survivors' Network, a Cameroonian NGO composed of trafficking survivors that raises awareness, helps victims escape their situations, and offers temporary housing, vocational training, and other essential services that survivors need for successful reintegration.

Since 2015, her organisation has helped 28 women from West and Central Africa free themselves from situations of forced labour, including debt bondage, among other things. They rescued 28 women from Kuwait to Africa, 12 to Ghana, 12 to Cameroon, two to Nigeria and two to Senegal.

They have provided guidance to more than 2000 victims of trafficking, and helped create economic opportunities for survivors across Cameroon by providing micro-financing to small businesses and income-generating projects, as well as job and small business training. “First step is to raise awareness on the dehumanising effects of human trafficking currently being perpetuated locally, or at national and international levels, with the aim of making brisk cash out of the trade,” she notes.

Survivors' Network acts as a forum to educate the public on the devastating effects of human trafficking and human rights abuse to the victims and their families, to facilitate reintegration.

“We give past victims a new lease of life by giving them vocational training like sewing, computer studies, carpentry, hair dressing, wielding, etc., create business opportunities for them as well as legal assistance, so that their traffickers can be brought to justice,” Mbuli says.

“I am a lot of things, among them is a voice to these women. I do myself justice in the process as well,” she says, emphasising that women are safer when they know their rights which is why she focuses on raising awareness first and foremost.

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