American family donates books to Likuni Girls

An American family, Pam and Thom Smith on Monday donated 100 copies of a book on Trafficking in Persons (TIPs) titled Human Trafficking in Malawi by Maxwell Matewere to Likuni Girls Secondary School in Lilongwe.

Matewere, who works as the United Nations Drugs and Crime (Unodc) national project officer, said young girls should know about TIP issues such as recruitment, transportation and what happens at the end.

“We can achieve this if the girls have access to the book and read documented cases,” he said.

Matewere said some of the survivors were victim of drug trafficking, organ removal, forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced marriages.

He believes that rescue missions for TIP victims are expensive, therefore, prevention is the best way.

Matewere commended the American couple that bought the 100 books at K5 000 a copy and selected Likuni Girls Secondary as the first beneficiary.

The school’s head teacher Mary Njewa said the books will offer TIP knowledge to students.

She thanked the American couple for donating the books to the school.

“The students will know the dangers of TIP,” she said.

A Form Four student, Grace Kuliyanjali, said she will share the information in the book with others.