Giving Compass' Take:

• The Aspen Institute profiles Uganda’s Immigration Training Academy head Agnes Igoye about her experiences as a child facing threats from rebels and how she is tackling the issue of human trafficking.

• What can we learn from Igoye's example? One would be to support more women of color in leadership roles, especially when it comes to important causes like this one.

• Here's why certain immigration policies may prevent human trafficking survivors from seeking help.

Agnes Igoye is Uganda’s deputy national coordinator for the prevention of trafficking in persons and heads Uganda’s Immigration Training Academy. She will speak as part of the Healthy Communities track at Spotlight Health. She’s a member of the 2018 Aspen New Voices Fellowship class. She was featured in a story about women leadership in the episode Make Way for These Changemakers in our podcast, Aspen Insight.

"In a life’s journey, how do you view your purpose? I tell people, ‘Don’t look any farther. It’s in your environment, your background, and it’s in you — just listen to yourself.’ For me, it started when the Lord’s Resistance Army attacked my village in rural Uganda. I remember we were playing when the rebels and commanders arrived. The whole village started running, but my father refused to leave. We saw the commanders dragging my cousin away. Her mother had dressed her in clothing worn by married women because the rebels were looking for virgins and young unmarried girls. To try and save his sister, my cousin’s brother came forward and lied to the commanders saying, ‘This is my wife.’ After seeing that, my father realized his family of six girls and two boys was not safe. So we fled, running in different directions. Following the crowd, you didn’t know where you were going or how long you’d be running."

Read the full article about eradicating human trafficking in Uganda by Agnes Igoye at The Aspen Institute.