2006 Press Releases

Community Theatre Combats Trafficking in Persons with U.S. Support

Freetown

September 20, 2006

Contact: PAO

Tel: 226481

A new play entitled “Mortal Man Nor To For Sel” to raise national awareness to combat human trafficking had its premiere in Freetown on September 20 before going on tour to 15 communities throughout Sierra Leone.  The play is produced and performed by  Pampana Communications, a community theatre group, which won an approximately 51 million Leone grant ($18,000) from the United States Department of State to inform and educate the populace about the dangers of Trafficking in Persons through songs and drama. The theater group has produced two programs previously about democracy and human rights through U.S. funds.

Launching the project, American Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Susie Pratt said, “We hope that this new show will empower audiences to question offers for employment, education, or travel that sound too good to be true.  As the performers tour and bring their important messages to vulnerable people throughout Sierra Leone, the show will become an effective tool in Sierra Leone's arsenal against traffickers.”  Ambassador Thomas N. Hull, who was also in the audience, commented favorably on the impact that this play will have in supporting the Government of Sierra Leone’s own efforts to counter Trafficking in Persons.

In FY2005, the U.S. Government obligated approximately $95 million to 266 programs in 101 countries (including Sierra Leone). These programs are working to ensure human trafficking is prevented, the survivors are protected, and the traffickers are put in jail. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice puts it, “Human Trafficking is an illicit industry of coercion, subjugating and exploiting the World’s most vulnerable people for profit and personal gains... Together, we will stop at nothing to end the debasement of our fellow men and women.”