We continue the heroics of orphanage director Ibrahim Bangura and his tireless fight to help the children of his community and trafficking victims in Sierra Leone: He is teaching local children basic hygiene and how to wash their hands as protection against the coronavirus. Thank you to AAI members Andrea Hobart, Kate Jewell, Abeni Johnson and Kelly Dore who sent him $600 to help feed kids in the community through the Sierra Cares Foundation. See below some pictures of the grateful participants.
You can make a donation to him through our Sierra Leone Donation Page!
Here is a touching thank you video:
Ibrahim has also been a leading advocate for protecting victims of human trafficking. He first contacted AAI for help in the resue of 48 girls being trafficked to Kuwait (see story below) and when he heard about a recruitment event to lure victims, Ibrahim put himself in danger and rushed to the scene. The surprised traffickers ran away and he collected eight of their passports, which he subsequently handed over to local law enforcement.
Ibrahim arranged for all 48 of the girls he saved to meet with the 
International Organization of Migration, who opened up cases on all the girls,Most recently he assisted getting all 48 girls through an IOM sponsored business course to begin their lives anew. The traffickers he identified are in jail. Please support Ibrahim’s effort to provide food, diapers, clothing to the girls and school supplies for the orphanage he runs.
Additionally, he has made contact with local NGO’s Advocacy Network Against Irregular Migration (ANAIM) and partner African Platform for Migration and Inclusion in Health – APMIH.
We applaud is persistence that led to the freeing of 48 girls from a trafficking ring in Kuwait. Below is a picture of him meeting the first 10 girls at the airport on May 26, 2019.
Ibrahim Bangura, an Airline Ambassador member in Sierra Leone, was able to get the passports from several traffickers in video above. He contacted AAI regarding women trapped in Kuwait trafficked from Sierra Leone). He was extremely worried about the photos he has received of the women who have been severely scarred, raped and beaten. See this video of Timbu that depicts the unimaginable cruelty of human trafficking.
——transcribed audio message from Kuwait:
“Good day to our help, we are crying for help in Kuwait, we don’t want to die here help us please we are begging with tears please . We came in Kuwait 20th December 2017,the agents in our country lie to us that some of us will come and work in the hospital, hotel and supermarket and we are going to hand huge money at the end of every month. We came from very poor home /families , we came to this country to survive with our family, but the struggle is too much for us that is why we have decided to go home. The first thing they do to us in this country the sooner we arrived at the airport they took our passports in our hands, then they took us to their office and sold /sell us to work as a house made (kadama which means slavery) we suffer a lot life is not easy here with us . Some of us were raped, beating and we work with out any salary. With in 24 hours we only have 4 hour to rest, no place to sleep, no food to eat , we only have small food to eat after they finished eating (that is left over) if there is any balance food left. We are suffering you need to help us ,we don’t want to die here we want to go home, we are begging with tears, crying every day we need help in Kuwait please. God bless you all.”
Ibrahim with Anita
Ibrahim gave important information including the name and cell phone of ringleaders and recruiters of the trafficking ring offering false jobs to girls in Sierra Leone to work in Kuwait. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Kate Jewell to record a timeline and Andrea Hobart to submit information to Polaris. As a result we alerted local NGO’s IOM and Project 189 to help.
Ibrahim with Anita
The good news is that 40 girls successfully made it back to Sierra Leone see their pictures. More will follow. Ibrahim met the first group at the at the airport with this sign: welcoming them home.
Also thanks to support from Project 198 and the Sierra Leone Embassy, Timbu had successful surgery on her eye and more is scheduled. The women who have returned from Kuwait are ready to tell their trafficking stories and waiting to be interviewed. However, these women have nothing and are in need of support, jobs etc. Timbu did receive surgery for her eye and she is still waiting in Kuwait for plastic surgery on her face. See pictures of 2nd and 3rd groups returning because of our intervention. These girls are waiting to be interviewed.
2nd group of trafficked girls arrive back to Sierra Leone
Third group of victims, home from Kuwait
See this video below of all the victims gathered in Sierra Leone to warn others:
Ibrahim continues to manage the orphanage and is a tireless advocate for the trafficked women and the orphans. He is an inspiration to us all.
See riveting video below of some of the girls trying to escape their apartments in Kuwait, afraid of the police who beat them, and put them in jail.
