If silence were to speak.

When the World Cup was awarded to Qatar, the country and neighbouring nations in the Middle East opened themselves to welcoming many workers from Africa and Asia. Many girls from East Africa were lured by criminal gangs and sex traffickers to countries in the Middle East — the main route for these trafficking rings running through Kenya.

This latest manifestation of the sexual exploitation and trafficking of African girls is only a continuation of a terrible pattern of violation that was prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s, when African girls were trafficked and sexually enslaved across European countries. In the many wars in Africa — particularly in Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Northern Uganda, and the Central African Republic — young girls have been forced into marriages with warlords, raped, killed, and discarded.

We also have the cases of young girls brought from rural areas to work as domestic servants in cities like Nairobi and Mombasa, who end up being sexually abused and violated by those entrusted with their care.

Challenged by these sad realities, PACTPAN is committed to fighting for these girls — helping to rehabilitate them, heal their hidden wounds, teach them new skills for re-entry into society, and restore their dignity and humanity. This is a fight being waged against powerful interest groups and criminal networks. Unless we stop the abuse and violation of our young people in Africa, there is no future for the continent.