A “modern slavery garden” is on displayed in London as an exhibit in the city's annual Chelsea Flower Show and aims to bring awareness to the issue of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
The garden is the brainchild of Mirabelle Galvin who says that God revealed the idea to her in a dream.
"(God) literally spoke to me about slavery in a dream, and so then I said, 'What can I do, how can I best serve in this area?’ I also had another dream—I believe in a God who speaks through dreams—and He gave me a dream about a garden that spoke about modern slavery,” she told CBN News.
The garden was designed by Juliet Sargeant and features a number of upright doors, to draw attention to the fact that modern-day slavery is hidden.
"I wanted to emphasize the fact that modern slavery is a crime that is hidden, whereas in old slavery it was acceptable for one person to own another person. These days it is illegal, so it is a hidden crime behind closed doors,” said Sargeant.
"And I thought the easiest way to show that was simply to have some doors in the garden," she continued. "So there are front doors, typical English front doors, standing upright in the garden and they are brightly colored with lovely planting around the front of them. But then behind those doors in the center of the garden it represents the captive space of modern slaves, so it is dark and there is no plant life.”
Mirabelle and Sergeant hope that the garden will encourage visitors to take action to help the 27 million people who are enslaved around the world today.
Publication date: June 7, 2016
