It’s our birthday – we’re celebrating five years of tackling human trafficking in Glasgow.
All we knew when we started Restore Glasgow, back in 2018, was that human trafficking was happening in Glasgow, that it was horrific but we could do something about it if we could get other people to join in.
So, five years on, it was great to be able to celebrate our birthday with a roomful of people at SOHTIS’ office! It happened to be Refugee Week, so SOHTIS was hosting a beautiful exhibition of original artwork by Linda Hoskins who seeks justice through her paintings.
Songs of freedom
Our birthday followed a ‘Freedom Festival’ at Newton Mearns Baptist Church where their community choir sang songs of freedom and we were asked to deliver a Spot the Signs seminar. Involving the choir turned what could have been a depressing event (and a hard sell on a summer Saturday afternoon) into an uplifting and empowering experience.
This all got us talking about the importance of creativity in bringing others with us in our mission to make Glasgow an inhospitable place to human traffickers. You might remember our Hope Restored launch event and week of poetry back in January. Using prompts to write poems during the week gave us all the chance to wrestle with the issue of trafficking and to be honest about our response to it.
Joining together
We ran it with Foolproof Creative, and partnering with other agencies, groups and individuals is key our effectiveness. Restore Glasgow is tiny – but I think that’s one of our superpowers as it forces us to seek out others to learn from and collaborate with.
We’ll be looking for more ways to weave justice with creativity as we plan the year to come – and for more people to partner with, learn from and collaborate with.
Five years ago we didn’t really know what we were doing – and in many ways we still don’t! Back then IJM’s advice was to pray and build a team – so we did, and here we are! We remain grateful to IJM for their support, and to all the people who have prayed with us (and for us), hosted our events, donated financially and collaborated with us.
Learn more
Join in with us as we look ahead to reaching a decade of tackling human trafficking in Glasgow.
Watch Development Officer Joy explain more about Restore Glasgow’s origins in the red light district of Mumbai.
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