SE BUSCA:
una esperanza para Illari
una esperanza para Illari
(WANTED: a hope for Illari) is a comic that talks about Illari an adolescent from Cusco Peru, who in her school vacations searches for a job to support her family who are struggling financially, but she gets trapped in a fake job offer and she is sent to an illegal mining camp in Madre de Dios, the region next to Cusco, where she gets sexually exploited and forced to work long hours.
The comic is based on an exhaustive investigation of more than a year. Although Illari is a fictitious character, this is the reality of many Cuzco girls who, desperate for lack of resources, fall into the hands of human trafficking mafias in the south of the country.
Since the comic SE BUSCA: una esperanza para Illari was published, three thousand copies have been printed and it is being used as support material in talks in schools in the capital to raise awareness of human trafficking; in April 2020 the comic was translated into Quechua, which will help its distribution in rural areas of Cusco.
But what will be the ''Hope'' for Illari? The comic, which is intended for all audiences, also focuses its message to address teenagers and the comic ends on a positive note, as the character of Julia is the one who denounces the exploitation of Illari and gets the police to rescue her in a clear message to the culture of denunciation by society, very necessary to combat human trafficking. Then at the end it is understood that Julia is really the main character since it is through her that the story turns around and through Julia the information is transferred to the new generations since in the final scene Julia tells her daughter ''I want to tell you the story about a girl named Illari...''.
Quechua version
This comic has been published and printed with the help of the Ministerio del Interior del Peru (MININTER) [Ministry of Internal Affairs of Peru] and is being used in schools with children and teeangers as a part of the materials for visivilization of human trafficking in the country. This material is included in the National Strategic Plan against Human trafficking in Peru. This comic has a version in Quechua that will be used in prevention campaigns in all Cusco region.
Since I started this project, never in my wildest dreams did I think that this work could be of interest to a ministry (no less!) and be published on a large scale and translated into another language. This leads me to reflect on the creative and strategic role of graphic designers today.
Volunteers from the ''Ramón Castilla Movement'' of the Ministry of the Interior used (pre-pandemic) the comic as a material in the various workshops they give in schools in Peru. Image: Ramón Castilla Movement Facebook
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Peru is planning to do an animated version of the comic to be distribubted virtually to continue raising the awareness about the issue throughout the country in the middle of the pandemic. You can see the full versions below.