At St Julians Baptist Church this year we have been actively supporting the STOP THE TRAFFIK campaign.
STOP THE TRAFFIK, is a global coalition of organisations working together to fight against people trafficking; by raising awareness on a subject that is little known or understood STOP THE TRAFFIK will call for change and freedom.
March 25th 2007 was the 200th anniversary of The abolition of the Slave Trade Act and Stop The Traffik chose to centre it's campaign around this day, labelling it as Freedom Day and asking member organisations to organise events on that day.
At St Julians we held a concert featuring a variety of local musicians, we used the event to highlight the plight of people who are still in slavery today and gave people the opportunity to sign a global declaration asking the UN to make more concentrated efforts in the fight against slavery.
A few weeks later, on Easter Sunday, we focussed specifically on the issue of children who work in slavery on cocoa plantations. We used an online book called "Chaga And The Chocolate Factory" by Bob Hartman to highlight this issue and we took photos of the whole church and Sunday school as they held up a mask depicting the face of Chaga the Trafficked child.
Organisations all over the world took part in this and we have been encouraged to post these pictures on our website and other sites such as The Stop The Traffik site and various worldwide blogging sites.
STOP THE TRAFFIK is calling for people everywhere of all ages to force the chocolate companies to give a guarantee that their chocolate is Traffik Free. Will they commit to print a 'Traffik Free Guarantee' on chocolate bars so we can choose to buy chocolate that is not made through trafficked labour.
For more information on the chocolate campaign and the whole Stop The Traffik campaign please go to www.stopthetraffik.org
50th Anniversary
St Julians is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2008. There is a series of special events planned for the coming year. Those with a previous association with the church are encouraged to get in touch. If you were dedicated, baptised or married here, or were a member of the youth activities, please contact us You can also participate in discussions about the celebrations, reminisce about events or share old photos on our forum.