Day Three 16 days - Exploited

Exploitation: "the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work"

The exploitation of women and girls represents the ultimate outcome of multiple layers of inequality. Women and girls are more likely to be in poverty, less likely to have an education, more likely to have suffered abuse at the hands of family members. Girls who have no access to school but need to work end up with no autonomy over workplace so are more vulnerable to being exploited by 'recruiters'. They are therefore disproportionately represented in modern slavery - 99% of victims of sexual exploitation are women and girls.

One of the reasons modern slavery continues to proliferate is the gendered power imbalance which is upheld by patriarchal structures globally. Culture, some religious beliefs, laws, societal norms and gender roles all contribute to this power imbalance and this is clearly demonstrated in human trafficking where women are dehumanised to the extent that they ARE labour, not humans to be paid fairly for a day's work.

Power imbalances have been warned about in the bible through the tragic stories of Tamar and Bathsheba, both in 2 Samuel. Tamar had a voice in her story, Bathsheba didn't. Both were unheard by the powerful men in the narrative who took what they wanted and the women bore the immediate price with Bathsheba losing her husband, her dignity and her firstborn son. Both David and Amnon bore consequences but in Bathsheba's story we see that while she was unheard by David, the prophet Nathan advocated for her, bringing David to repentance, her son Solomon became king and finally Bathsheba had a mention in the genealogy of Jesus - "Solomon, whose mother was the wife of Uriah" - David's rape of Bathsheba was not legitimised. The power imbalance and David's sin is there for all to see. God is a God of restoration and Bathsheba's story resonates across the centuries and offers direction for us today. We must advocate for those without a voice, expose the sin and evil which caused it and restore and lift up those who have suffered.

Bramber Bakehouse does just this. The work they do with those who have suffered exploitation is phenomenal. Providing training to help women reclaim autonomy of their own lives and a way forward with dignity is quite simply life saving work.

All this week, all donations via this link will be doubled.