Where awareness grows, protection begins
About prevention and the current reality in 2026.
Just as society constantly changes its structure, human trafficking also continually changes its forms.
New technologies, social media and digital contact create new forms of human trafficking and, consequently, new forms of vulnerability.
That is why prevention remains necessary.
Risks do not begin with major warning signs, but with small steps: lack of information, peer pressure, online influence, misplaced trust and, very often, ignorance.
Who needs prevention?
Especially children and adolescents, then young adults and, not least, parents.
Children and adolescents need clear conversations about boundaries, safety and personal value. Since young people also need such conversations, prevention remains one of the most important ways to protect the society in which we live.
Prevention means more than warning or simple journalistic information.
In particular, prevention means that children, adolescents, young adults and parents learn to recognize the warning signs of trafficking, understand ways of protection, develop the courage to ask questions and create space for honest dialogue.
Where awareness grows, protection always begins.
That is why investment in education, dialogue and early recognition of every form of trafficking remains important in 2026.
Sometimes one honest conversation prevents more than we will later see.
“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.”
Proverbs 22:3a (NLT)
A woman’s value does not begin with what she does
On International Women’s Day, people often speak about strength, talent and dedication.
These are valuable, yet the deepest value of a woman does not begin with what is visible.
Not with achievements.
Not with roles.
Not with the expectations of others.
A woman’s value lies deeper — in her dignity as a human being, in her identity, in the fact that she is known and loved by God.
In a time when many women carry much, combine many responsibilities and often demand much from themselves, one truth remains important: value does not need to be earned.
Vulnerability does not diminish dignity.
A woman does not need to prove everything in order to be precious.
Perhaps true rest begins where someone rediscovers: I am not valuable because of everything I do, but even in stillness, I remain precious.
„Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it”. NLT
Psalm 139:14
Where justice is absent, vulnerability grows
On the International Day of Social Justice, the world reflects on inequality, exclusion and injustice.
Social justice often begins not with large words, but with the question whether people are truly seen in their dignity.
Where justice is absent, vulnerability often grows.
This is visible also in the fight against human trafficking.
People who experience little protection, limited opportunities or whose voices are not heard often face a greater risk of exploitation.
That is why prevention means more than simply giving information.
Prevention also means building awareness, safety and human dignity.
Justice sometimes begins in small places:
where someone listens, where boundaries are taken seriously, where truth may be spoken.
Even small choices can create space for protection.
Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
Isaiah 1:17 (NLT)
Why prayer remains part of the fight against human trafficking
The international day of prayer against human trafficking finds its origin in the life story of Josephine Bakhita.
As a child, she was kidnapped in Sudan, sold into slavery and exposed for years to violence, humiliation and the loss of freedom.
Later she arrived in Italy, where her life took a new direction. She found faith, freedom, and eventually became a sign of hope for many.
Her life reminds us that behind human trafficking there are always real lives — marked by deep pain, but also by the longing for restoration.
Even today, human trafficking remains one of the most hidden forms of injustice.
Behind statistics and reports there are people with names, memories and wounds.
That is why prevention remains essential.
Education, awareness and honest conversations help to recognize warning signs earlier and reduce vulnerability.
But alongside prevention, prayer also remains important.
Because not everything is visible.
Because much of the struggle remains hidden.
Because restoration often takes time.
Prayer does not only change circumstances; it also opens hearts, gives wisdom and protects those who work for restoration and hope.
„Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute”.
Proverbs 31:8 NIV
Her name remains connected with hope where freedom once seemed lost.
Have the courage to dream BIG
The state of our societies leads many young people to live a mediocre life.
The problem is that we have often been trained and brainwashed by our societies to have limited dreams, limited thoughts, limited expectations and do nothing too great. When we compare what we see in the “real world” to our own dreams, our visions seem unrealistic and will eventually fade.
The fact that teens and young people are not encouraged to have great dreams or to express the dreams or great visions they have, causes most of them to remain in a state of mediocrity. And I am not referring to the fact that their grades will not be good at school or that they will not go to college. What I want to say is that their self-esteem is low, and that their audacity is limited by the way society acts today. And when you finally have the courage to say “I want to do something more in this life than work, have a car and a house” you will be ridiculed and the people around you will mock you, saying: “Yeh, you have been coming now to change the world! “
The truth is, yes, you came into this world to bring change. The mentality and purpose of the lives of the people around you can be changed, if you have the courage to say “I want more, I want to overcome my condition.”
This is one of the methods by which we can fight as a society against modern slavery.
That means, to have the courage to say: I don’t want to be exploited in work, I don’t want my feelings and body to be exploited, I don’t want to be an object of consumption, I want to be more than that. It is up to you whether you will allow your dreams to come into the light or not.
God has given us, both as a society and as an individual, the tools we need to get out of any kind of unfortunate circumstance. Reading this article you might say: “But there are so many poor people who need more and can’t get it or can’t get out of their poverty.” You are right when you say this, but if they have the courage to look beyond the wall of their circumstance, they will see that the possibilities of life are multiple without having to accept any form of manipulation and exploitation.
I remember the movie “The Giver” – only that one teenager, who had the courage to cross the wall behind which they lived as a community, discovered the true beauty of the world that they were just watching from the roof of the house. The others agreed to believe the lies they were told. If you look around, you will find that a majority of people live this way.
We are surrounded by the walls of our circumstances, we can see beyond these walls, we marvel when we hear that some have passed those walls and succeeded. We envy them for this fact, but we are afraid to follow their example. Why? Because society teaches us not to believe in our dreams, in our potential. In this type of society, trafficking of human beings could unhindered develop more and more.
These traffickers who grew up so quickly, enter those “communities” of people who do not have the courage to fight for their dreams, and offer them the easy solution of having what they think will bring them happiness: money, homes, cars. Yes, each of us wants to have these things that provide stability and comfort. They offer a temporary happiness, and those who accept to pay such an expensive price, will sooner or later realize that it was not worth the humiliation, disdain, physical and emotional degradation they were subjected to.
Teenagers and young people generally want it all in a very short time, extremely short even … and traffickers offer just that – they promise to get material happiness in an extremely short time.
When somebody looks at the image of well-being presented by a trafficker, when he or she listens to his success stories, and allows to be wrapped up in the words of love and fulfillment and absolute freedom, it sounds so attractive. They forget about their dreams, forget about their hopes, forget about the purpose for which they are on this earth. They no longer remember their aspirations to change something in this world and they settle for … “having a house, a car and some money …” which, sadly, won’t be theirs at all. Only the one exploiting them will enjoy the material wealth he promised them … the one who offered them the “mirage of well-being” – the trafficker, no matter which category of human trafficking he is in.
What I want to teach you is to have the courage to be you and to have the courage to fight for your dreams. Even if your efforts need to be greater, even if you have to work harder and harder for it, your satisfaction in the end will be much greater.
What I mean is like preparing two pieces of meat, one in the microwave and the other one in the oven. The one in the oven will need 3 hours to be tender and tasty, while the one in the microwave will be ready in 10 minutes. At the end when you taste them both, you will realize the taste of the meat from the oven surpasses the taste of meat from the microwave by far.
It is the same with obtaining the desired well-being in a short or a longer period of time.
Just as you’ll throw away the flavorless meat from the microwave, and prepare another tasty one in the oven, so it is in life.
If you choose the option of pursuing welfare in a short time, for example, the option offered by these groups of traffickers, you can be sure that it will never happen, and even worse: you run the risk to lose the chance to get things right ever.
No one can choose for you, teenagers and young people. All we can do is teach you to dream big. Trust your dreams and fight for them. Have the courage to say: “It is no accident that I am on this earth. I want to do something great, to leave something behind to humanity.”