By Sr. Jude, O.S.B
Some wounds heal with time, but others remain open for a lifetime.
The disappearance of a loved one leaves behind a unique kind of pain because there is no
goodbye, no funeral, and no certainty of seeing that person again. It is a grief that
lives between hope and despair. This is the story of Sr. Nakello, who has spent the
last thirty years mourning her younger brother, who disappeared without a trace.
Though years have passed, Sr. Nakello still wakes up each morning with hope that
his brother will come back.
Sr. Nakello was twenty years old when her younger brother, Owiti, vanished. Owiti
was only fifteen, a tall, dark and handsome young man whose life had just started to
bloom. Like any other young man growing up, Owiti was so ambitious of the future.
His greatest priority was to take care of his aging parents when he grows up.
On that fateful day, which Sr. Nakello still remembers with watery eyes as she
narrates the story as if it were yesterday, Owiti left home for school very early in the
morning since he always wanted to be at school in time. Sr. Nakello waved at his
brother as she watched him disappear down the dark path, never imagining it would
be the last time she would see him.
When lunch time approaches, Owiti did not turn up for lunch like other pupils. At
first, no one was worried since they assumed he had stayed back to finish some
assignments as he sometimes did. However, afternoon turned into evening and
evening into night and yet Owiti was nowhere to be seen.
Fear and worry started to creep in. Their father decided to go and ask his classmate just within the
neighborhood about Owiti’s whereabouts. To his shock, he was told that Owiti was
not in school that day. The feedback from Owiti’s classmate threw the whole family
into a state of panic and confusion. Their father reported the matter to the village
elder but since it was already dark nothing much could be done.
Looking up for him started the following day and the news about Owiti’s
disappearance spread wide and far until it reached a certain old man who confessed
being in the company of Owiti on his way to school as he was also on his errands. He
stated that as they were walking towards school, a black pickup slowly pulled over
besides them, then a man rolled down the window, smiled politely and asked if he
could be given direction to Nawile Primary School (This was Owit’s school).
Owiti being a sharp boy, immediately he started pointing down the road as he gave this
man the direction. The man seemed not to be getting the direction well so he
requested Owiti to get into his car and show him the way. Before the old man could
say anything, Excitedly, Owiti jumped into the vehicle and the old man watched the
car drive away so fast leaving behind a cloud of dust that covered Owiti until today.
The days that followed were filled with heartbreak.
People offered different stories.
Some believed he had been kidnapped to join the army since by that time many
young boys were being recruited in the army by force. Others thought he had been
abducted for human sacrifice, some felt he landed in the hands of people who harvest
human organs, but none of these stories could ever be confirmed. Eventually, the
search grew cold and after two years the family decided to burry a banana stem which in their culture was to signify that Owiti died and that closed the chapter of searching.
Sr. Nakello states that u p to today she still carries the pain of losing a
brother and the pain of seeing her parents die in a state of loneliness with many
unanswered questions about the disappearance of their son.
Sr. Nakello’s story has made me realize that human trafficking started way back and
it is a global problem that takes many forms, including labour exploitation, sexual
exploitation, military conscription, forced marriage, forced begging, and trafficking
in organs. Owit’s disappearance being one of our living examples of a form of human
trafficking. My interaction with Sr. Nakello made me realize that sometime we
concentrate more on the direct victims of not bearing in what the family of these
victims go through.
However, sometimes we sit and judge the victims of human trafficking claiming that
sometimes they fall prey to these traffickers themselves, but we should bear in mind
that there are certain conditions that push some individuals become more vulnerable
to being trafficked. These conditions are known as push factors because they push
people to leave their homes or seek opportunities elsewhere, often making them
targets for traffickers. Some of these factors are poverty, unemployment, low level of
education, domestic violence and lack of employable skills.
Instead of judging, let us take a challenge of preventing trafficking by creating public
awareness by educating people, make sure all employment agencies are legitimate,
the government should enact and enforce strong anti-trafficking laws and finally
bearing in mind Sr. Nakello’s story, parents, teachers and guardians should guide
and protect children, while community leaders should encourage people to report
suspicious activities to the relevant authorities, supporting vulnerable groups,
including children, women and people living in poverty, to reduce their risk of
exploitation.