Givers of Hope
Bernice Morrell's Story
Owner of: Morrells Boutique Estate
Co Founder of: Fresh Start in Life
During a trip to the Kruger National Park, Bernice Morrell found a book, inappropriately placed in the children's section, of the Skukuza camp tourist shop, entitled 'From Playground To Prostitute'. Intrigued, Bernice bought the book and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Elanie Kruger's story of being sold as a sex slave in Bloemfontein at the tender age of sixteen reveals that the horrors of human trafficking is no longer a foreign problem, but one that exists on our doorsteps, and in some cases, right under our noses. In the back of the book, Bernice found an e-mail address and wrote to Elanie. Within an hour, Elanie replied, and she and Bernice met two days later. A plan that had been in Elanie's heart for over nine years - to create a sanctuary of restoration and skills training for survivors of sex slavery - was born.
Our mission at Fresh Start is not only to create a haven of healing and restoration for survivors of sex slavery, but also to support, where possible, the various safe houses that already exist in South Africa. A trafficked victim suffers immense and unique trauma that cannot be dealt with efficiently in a facility aimed more generally at abused women. Without proper care, rehabilitation can be extremely challenging and, in some cases, impossible. The suicide rate is high among victims of human trafficking, and many who do not receive suitable help and counselling find themselves once again ensnared by prostitution.
Darren Peens' Story
Co Founder of: Digby and the Lullaby
A few years ago, we were watching a young woman from America talk about her efforts against Human Trafficking, we saw a spine chilling video of young Indian girls being rescued from what appeared to be a basement under a building, there must have been at twenty girls surfacing from this "hole in the ground"
We were so moved by this that it inspired a song called The Edge Of Darkness, a song from a girls perspective, it's angry at the way these girls are being treated.
Jump ahead to 2016, we'd kind of shelved the song, not really knowing what to do with it, Bernice from Morrells books us to play a show at her Boutique Hotel and we end up chatting after the show about a video she's involved in making, a video about Human Trafficking, Bernice says she'd like us to do a cover of a Michael W Smith song for the video and we immediately remember the song we'd written. We grab an acoustic guitar, show her and the production team and the agree it's the right song.
We're happy to have found a home for the song, it's pretty in your face and not what we normally do as artists. We're also super honored to be part of something like this, we've never wanted to just be entertainment, there's more to art than just entertainment, it should get used to move people to take action against atrocities like this.
Amy Loureth and Luke Worster
Making a public service announcement (PSA) video for Fresh Start has been a deeply moving and eye-opening process for us. Before Fresh Start approached us, we had no idea just how bad the human trafficking industry was in South Africa. The statistics are staggering, and it’s sometimes difficult to imagine as many as 10,000 young girls trapped in sex slavery in Johannesburg alone.
Often, the aspect of the tragedy that is obscured by the overwhelmingly large numbers, is the fact that each of these young women and girls is an individual with unique life experiences, personalities, dreams, and hopes for the future. Blinded by figures in the thousands, hundreds of thousands, and, on a global scale, millions, we forget that every single digit culminating in those astounding figures is a real human being. This is what we hoped to capture in our video.
Although it may feel like a hopeless situation that is totally out of control, we believe that every person can contribute to bringing down this heinous trade. By using your unique talents, connections and/or resources, you can make a difference. Our skills lie in filming and editing, and so we have contributed to Fresh Start by making them a video, pro bono. It is our hope that this video will spread awareness about human trafficking, and also reach people who are able to assist Fresh Start in different ways.