We shouldn’t need a World Day Against Trafficking in Persons in 2023.

Yet right now, children, women and men are being trafficked across international borders. Children like 12-year-old Ny* and 16-year-old Lalin*, who were trafficked from Cambodia into domestic servitude in Malaysia.

Do you remember your first trip abroad? The excitement of experiencing a different country and culture?

Ny and Lalin will never forget the first time they travelled to a different country.Unable to afford an education, the young friends were tricked and trafficked abroad into domestic servitude:

“My employer’s children hit me, pulled my hair and spat in my food. I felt hurt and worthless,” Lalin told us.

Imagine being trapped in a foreign country. Abused. Forced to work long hours with little food. Ny was also sexually assaulted: “I was very scared... I thought of ending my life.”

Trafficking knows no borders and can happen to anyone. Last year, Sir Mo Farah shared that he was trafficked as a child from East Africa into domestic servitude here in the UK.

Trafficking is an international crime that demands an international response. This World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, will you do something powerful?

Will you help me help IJM in their work to help end human trafficking?

There are still 40 million people who are waiting for rescue, restoration and justice. And that depends on IJM supporters—people like you & me.

So I‘m walking about 200 hundred miles in September 2023, from Coventry Cathedral to Bath Abbey, aiming to raise funds through sponsorship to help the mission of IJM – to help end slavery in our lifetime.

I'd love to raise £10 for every mile I walk.

Would you help me do this with a small contribution towards my goal?

Sponsor my walk for IJM here Thank you.

My route is a (fairly flat!) canal and river walk, starting from Coventry Cathedral, along the Coventry Canal to Hawkesbury Junction, then south on the Oxford Canal via Rugby and Banbury to Oxford Cathedral; the Thames Path will take me from Oxford through Abingdon and Pangbourne, on to Reading, where I turn west along the Kennet and Avon Canal past Hungerford, Newbury and Pewsey to Bath Abbey. Some 200 miles.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP:

- Pray. Pray, pray, pray for the work of IJM. Pray for the walk, for safety, for strength and for determination to finish and walk every single step from Coventry Cathedral to Bath Abbey.

- Provide a bed or a meal along the way. Do you live near the route? Could you pick me up from the path, drive me to your home and give me DBnB for a night? (and take me back the next morning!)

- Promenade. Join me for a day to walk. Ask others to sponsor you too for IJM for the miles you walk.

- Pledge Sponsor the miles I do by making a donation to my IJM fundraising page on JUSTGIVING: www.justgiving.com/page/coventry-bath-pilgrimage

Here’s the (almost) final itinerary:

Would you help me do this with a small contribution towards my goal?

And then together we can support IJM and their valuable work around the globe to help those who need it most and end slavery, trafficking and violence.

Thank you in advance for whatever you're able to donate. I'll be posting on my website at the end of each day's walk, so you can follow my progress there!

And do come and join me for a day of walking along the way if you'd like to - and maybe have your friends sponsor you too to add to the amount we can raise for IJM.

Sponsor my walk for IJM here Thank you.