Aberdeen brothers raise money for slavery charity during holidays
Kyle and Jonah Ross walked, ran and cycled 300km over 30 days during their Summer break to raise cash for International Justice Mission
Two Aberdeen school boys have raised over two thousand pounds over their Summer holidays to help tackle modern slavery.
Kyle and Jonah Ross, aged 14 and 12, have walked, run and cycled 300km over 30 days in support of the 40.3 million people trapped in slavery in the world today.
The cause that has become even more important during the pandemic, with millions more people estimated to have become vulnerable to trafficking - especially children.
The money will go to one of the world’s largest anti-slavery organisations, International Justice Mission.
Kyle and Jonah were inspired to take up the challenge after gaining some freedom back after the winter lockdown.
The boys have shared some incredible feats during their 30-day adventure, which finished with scaling the 3,789 feet of Lochnagar, their first Munro.
Kyle says this was actually the hardest part of the challenge: “the night before I had had a sore stomach, was drained and up throughout the night. The start of the climb was really hard, but I felt better as I went on and was really glad we stuck with it.”
There have been moments of exhilaration, too – Jonah describes the 20k cycle between Formartine and Buchan Way as a particular highlight, because “it’s long, straight and fast!”
Kyle and Jonah’s fundraising has come at an important time, as the pandemic has made the fight to end human trafficking even more urgent. UN Secretary General António Guterres has recently stated that ‘many millions’ more people have been made vulnerable – with children at particular risk.
Having been out of school and lacking some of their usual safeguards, they are at increased risk of online sexual exploitation, and increasingly at risk of labour trafficking too, with abusers looking to exploit desperate families.
And large numbers of adults risk similar exploitation, with a reported 1.6 billion informal workers expected to lose their work because of the COVID crisis (source: CGAP), putting them in a precarious position. With many criminal justice systems under major stress, traffickers see more opportunity to exploit people and a lesser likelihood of being held to account – a dangerous combination.
The boys chose to support International Justice Mission because – in their words – “it’s a cause everyone can get behind.” IJM works alongside local authorities and communities to bring victims of slavery to safety, provide survivors with trauma-informed aftercare and help them secure justice by seeing perpetrators held to account.
IJM UK was delighted to hear of Kyle and Jonah’s incredible challenge, with CEO David Westlake commenting: “Well done Kyle and Jonah! What an amazing achievement. We are so grateful for the generosity of supporters like Kyle and Jonah – they are a key part of the movement to see slavery and trafficking ended for good. We’re so encouraged to see the next generation already starting to champion an end to slavery and violence.”
In 2020 alone, IJM worked with authorities to bring 8,671 people to safety from slavery and violence.
For example, one operation in June of this year brought three boys aged ten, twelve and sixteen to safety from trafficking in Ghana, where they had been trafficked to work for a fisherman: mending nets, scooping water from boats and pulling in nets with the day’s catch.
All three children are now safe and receiving aftercare, and one trafficker has already been sentenced. By ensuring justice for survivors of exploitation, IJM has seen amazing change in the areas where it works, with reductions in slavery of up to 86%.