Matewere’s passion for human rights protection attracts global attention

Maxwell Matewere’s name and the fight for human rights PROTECTION are synonymous. He has been fighting social ills and speaking up for marginalised groups of people for over three decades. Matewere’s journey begun locally when he founded Eye of the Child on February 28 1998 in response to the need for a strong advocacy organisation that work actively and holistically for the protection, care and justice for children in Malawi.

Now, that fight has attracted global attention and international news coverage following the release of his book Human Trafficking Exposed, a detailed exploration of the global crisis of modern slavery. It has been covered and reviewed by about 76 international media outlets, inclining Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC, Yahoo, AP News, Book Publisher Central, US National Times, Economic Policy Times, World Governments Watch, Today in Parenting and Global Media Watch. “They trusted a promise.

They followed a dream. And their lives were never the same,” reads part of the book. It further pulls readers inside the brutal, hidden world of modern slavery—where children are trafficked under the guise of education, women are trapped in violent sexual exploitation, and men are stripped of dignity through forced labour.

[paywall]

Renee Jones Empowerment Centre President and chief executive officer Renee Jones said rather than relying solely on statistics, the book centres on personal narratives—stories of individuals who were deceived by promises of employment, coerced by traffickers, or sold into exploitative conditions. “These accounts are interwoven with explanations of trafficking networks, recruitment methods and trafficking routes within and beyond Malawi’s borders,” he said. Jones observed that one of the book’s greatest strengths is its balance between storytelling and education.

Apostle Joseph Langa wrote on his Facebook page: “If you can read the book and not shed a tear, your heart is stone. I broke down sobbing. Human trafficking strips away humanity, proof that greed can turn people into monsters.” Drawing from 28 years of frontline experience, Matewere delivers an unflinching investigation into the lives of trafficking victims and the pervasive criminal networks exploiting them.

The author is crime prevention expert on human trafficking and smuggling of migrants and child protection in Malawi. In an interview on Tuesday, he said: “Human trafficking doesn’t thrive in the shadows alone, but it survives because it’s ignored, minimised, or normalised, especially when wealth and influence are involved.’

[/paywall]