ONE AFTERNOON WHILE SAFIATU WAS selling fruit juice in the mining region of Sierra Leone, a woman approached her and offered to braid her hair. As a naïve and eager 10-year-old girl, she agreed and went with the woman.

Safiatu began to realize they had been driving a long way just to be going to the woman’s house. When she asked, the woman threatened her and told her to tell anyone they met that she was Safiatu’s aunt and they were traveling from a different town. Safiatu fearfully submitted to the woman’s demands. She was scared and confused, unsure of what would happen next.

While taking public transport, someone in the car accused the woman of stealing money. Safiatu and the woman were taken to the police and the woman was arrested and detained for theft. Safiatu, still scared and confused, was housed by a police officer whom believed the woman to be Safiatu’s aunt.

One night, Safiatu and the police officer were watching a film and she saw a young girl selling fruit juice in the mines. “Oh! That is something I used to do in the mines!” she exclaimed, forgetting the story the woman made her promise to tell. The police officer was confused and began to ask Safiatu questions about her past. Safiatu gave in and told the officer the truth about her situation.

When Safiatu had gone missing, her family began spreading word of her disappearance. The local Village Parent Group (VPG), community volunteers trained by WHI anti-trafficking program Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST), were notified and responded by helping the family to search for Safiatu. The VPG members contacted police offices in surrounding regions and discovered that a young girl had been found in another district with a woman arrested for theft. The investigation also exposed that this same woman was wanted in the mining district court for trafficking and selling human beings.

The woman was arrested and charged on the grounds of circumstantial evidence of human trafficking. She was convicted under the 2005 Anti-Human Trafficking Act and sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

VPG members helped Safiatu to be reunited with her family and she is now living with a relative and continuing her education.