Freedom from Slavery! - #PoemsforChange - #NaPoWriMo - #MovementIndia

Here are two poems I have written as my tribute to the victims and survivors of human trafficking. As human beings there is a thread that connects us with others so much so that we can feel the pain that someone else is going through. Some of us empathize and some sympathize with those who are going through trying times and pain.   

Did you know that 40 million people are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery worldwide?

• 1 in 4 of them are children.
• Almost three quarters (71%) are women and girls.

"Modern slavery takes many forms. The most common are:

Human trafficking. The use of violence, threats or coercion to transport, recruit or harbour people in order to exploit them for purposes such as forced prostitution, labour, criminality, marriage or organ removal.
Forced labour. Any work or services people are forced to do against their will under threat of punishment.
Debt bondage/bonded labour. The world’s most widespread form of slavery. People trapped in poverty borrow money and are forced to work to pay off the debt, losing control over both their employment conditions and the debt.
Descent–based slavery. Most traditional form, where people are treated as property, and their “slave” status was passed down the maternal line.
Slavery of children. When a child is exploited for someone else’s gain. This can include child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage and child domestic slavery.
Forced and early marriage. When someone is married against their will and cannot leave. Most child marriages can be considered slavery." [Source: antislavery.org]

Source: Kwamikagami.

In 1948 the U.N. declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which meant that every type of slavery is prohibited. It is a shame that 74 years have gone by and we have still not eradicated slavery! It continues in some form or another in violation of the basic human rights of millions of people around the world.

Don't you think it is high time, slavery ends? 

Here is a poem I wrote that speaks for a person who is suffering trauma and the never ending pain caused by slavery. 

Broken 

My spirit crushed, I lay there dying

I could hear me breathe though I quit trying

No joyful memory for many years

Every night I fought my tears.

 

They beat my spirit down

Their words like a whip

Cut my heart to the core

Left me to bleed and die.

 

I searched for help, but there was none

Hidden in plain sight, no one saw me

No one saw my tears or felt my pain

I wish I could disappear.

 

Life is a burden without any hope

There’s no freedom, only pain

They treat me as a slave and not a person

I have lost all my faith in men.

 

O what I would give for a glimmer of hope!

For a reason to live and a reason to smile

O how much I long that someone would care

And I too could find a place to call ‘home.’

- by Henrietta Decruz

Here is a poem I have written that speaks for a child who never had the chance to really be a 'child' and enjoy childhood like normal children do.  

I am just a child 

 

I was never sent to school

My hands have worked all day

Photo: Bharat Patel | Source: antislavery.org/

Since the time I was a little child

When my parents sent me away.

 

They make me work long hours

With barely any rest and hardly any food

I can count all my bones

Yet I pray I won’t fall sick.

 

Those who resist work are beaten

Those who fight are made to work harder still

I had some fight in me but I gave up

When they locked me up and beat me every day.

 

Please don’t say you are sorry for my plight

Don’t say a few words and disappear

Support my cause and fight for me

Just as you would fight for your own child. 

 

I lost my childhood, lost every dream

I cried so much, my tears have dried

I pray for hope, I yearn for new life

Will my prayer be heard?

- by Henrietta Decruz  

Let's do our bit to change the life of someone who is suffering due to modern slavery today. 

Slavery free | Source: vinciworks.com