Last Wednesday afternoon we celebrated UWC Day.  This annual event celebrates the identity of our College in Hong Kong within the global United World Colleges Movement.

Much of the afternoon was spent on a fascinating group task of looking at the character of the other UWCs and considering questions such as the appropriateness of various rules and speculating on where in the world we might locate a new UWC if we were to start one.

However, the afternoon began with something very significant, and that is what I want to highlight.  During the recent break one of our students from Nepal, Palista, visited the Esther Benjamin Trust to collect a beautiful (but quite heavy) ceramic mosaic of the UWC logo, the design and making of which had been arranged by an anonymous donor.  The Esther Benjamin Trust is a charity that tackles the issue of human trafficking in a very practical way.  Since 2004,

the Trust has rescued and rehabilitated over 300 Nepali child trafficking victims from lives of bonded labour in India’s circuses, brought them back to Nepal and trained them into employable skills.  Human trafficking such as this is one of the five focus areas that the Global Concerns Action Team (GCAT) at the College tries to address.

Having carried the mosaic all the way to the College from her home country of Nepal, Palista presented the mosaic to me on behalf of the College to begin the activities of UWC day on Wednesday.  I could not think of a more fitting way to begin our time reflecting on what UWCs mean, especially as I read aloud the note pasted to the back of the mosaic:

“This mosaic was made by a Nepalese girl who was rescued from an Indian circus by registered UK charity The Esther Benjamins Trust.  The girl has been trafficked there as a child, condemned to a life of imprisonment, abuse and exploitation - until the Trust intervened.  Safely back in

Nepal, she has been trained by us into employment within our not-for-profit business, Himalayan Mosaics.  The money she has received from making this artwork helps her to develop financial independence so that she will not be a trafficking victim ever again”.

I am very grateful to my colleague, Dave McCracken, who works with me and the Human Trafficking Project Team in GCAT, for helping to arrange the mosaic, and to Stella McCracken for co-ordinating the efforts of the UWC Linking Group in the College to organise the UWC Day activities.  After we prepare a suitable explanatory plaque, we hope to display the mosaic in the waiting area of our main office where it will provide a strong visual reminder of our UWC identity as well as highlight the importance we place on service towards others and human dignity.