Men doing sponsored walks around Croydon wearing stilettos, women processing from Purley to North End, all chained together – it all seems to be working.

Some of the participants in Saturday’s Chain Walk: people are beginning to take notice

Having forced the local newspapers to stop profiting from prostitution and drop their tawdry ads from their classified pages, and even seeing the party conferences over the past fortnight discussing slavery, instead of the rather more euphemistic “human trafficking”, the tireless and valuable work of organisations such as Croydon Community Against Trafficking, or CCAT, is having an impact.

CCAT’s annual sponsored walk took place on Saturday, with a small group of women walking more than six miles from Purley to Croydon’s North End to raise awareness about victims of human trafficking – often young children who come to this country looking for a better life and find themselves forced into prostitution, living in sub-Dickensian conditions.

Anna Arthur, one of this year’s walk organisers, said, “I definitely notice a difference in the public attitude towards us.

“Five years ago, people disputed the existence of trafficked people and insisted that the girls ‘loved it’. Now many people respond with, ‘Oh yes I’ve heard about this’. So awareness is much greater.”

Donations towards CCAT’s work can be made here: www.justgiving.com/chainwalk

For further information contact: Anna Arthur 07733 221949

Coming to Croydon

• Tea at Five at the Spread Eagle: Oct 2-4
• Minster’s musical celebration for Silver Sunday: Oct 6
• Rent at the Secombe Theatre: Oct 9-12
• Debate the future of arts in Croydon: Oct 10
• Stanley Lives – open day in South Norwood: Oct 12
• PJ’s enterprising look at Black History Month: Oct 29

• Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough – 262,183 page views (Jan-Jun 2013)
  
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Related articles

• Council faces massive compensation bill over housing failings (insidecroydon.com)
• ‘Human trafficking is a global concern’ (thehindu.com)