Justice – Page 2 – Andrew Kooman
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Andrew Kooman writes about the legacy of his Malaysian friend who influenced stories in Hope In Action, a woman who was willing to let her life be interrupted by the needs of others and who showed valiant kindness to the vulnerable.

Shocking stories of human rights abuses in South East Asia have now been heard around the world. Hope in Action gives an up-close look at the lives of migrants and refugees as they come to Malaysia. HOPE IN ACTION portrays an honest and eye-opening account of their experiences.

The tears trailed across Noor’s face, wove quietly into his narrative when he told us that his family – siblings, a mother, and two sons – were still in the camp. In this place where horrors were not only conveyed in dreams of the night. In this place that he fled. Still living, forever just sitting there, away from their country and, worse, away from him. His wife had run. He had no knowledge of her whereabouts.

It was an exciting week on the She Has A Name front with a series of interviews and stories in the media and a reading from act one of the play in Calgary at Mount Royal University. I’m grateful to the people giving the play airtime, for our PR Wizard who is helping us to get the word out, and for people on the ground locally who are picking up the story because they believe in it, and want to see us succeed.

Two things have clearly crystalized through the process of bringing this story to life: we want produce great theatre and we want to lead people in a response. The play is the dramatic telling of an imagined story placed in a plausible setting of a fictional trafficking case. It is meant to shine light on the real world of trafficking, to ask big questions, and dare I say, make some suggestions.

I sat close to the seven men, shook their hands, prayed for them under my breath as Ellen took what information she needed from them in order to get them out of detention. The young man I spoke with, his English simple but clear, told me a little about life in the detention centre.

As she drove we talked. I peppered her with questions about the Detention Centres and her work ministering to Vietnamese workers who by some ironic twist of fate, or a bad decision, and usually because of forces outside their own power, arrive in Malaysia legally on contracts, but become illegal in the process.

Some of the other men, like him sold to the syndicate, weren’t so lucky. Had no money at all. And after phone calls to what friends they had in Malaysia, or back home in Burma, or to Bangladesh, when they still were unable to come up with funds – RM 1600, about 500 USD, to pay the men who now owned them for freedom – the pistol whipping, the cutting, the punches and bruising ensued.

Raise Their Voice exists to raise awareness about injustice, to help those who experience injustice, and to equip others to address injustice.We’re inspired by the words of a wise woman, the mother of a King who lived more that 3000 years ago who advised her son to: Speak up for those who cannot speak themselves,for