Marieke Venter, PhD

Affiliation: The Salvation Army

Commissioner (Dr) Marieke Venter is a Salvation Army Officer serving in the Netherlands. She initiated The Salvation Army’s response to modern slavery and human trafficking in South Africa in 2009. During this time, she commenced her research with the South African Theological Seminary. Her thesis was entitled: “A practical theological response to human trafficking in South Africa: a Salvation Army perspective”, and she was awarded a PhD in practical theology in 2019. Her article “Human Trafficking and the Church: Towards a Biblical and Practical Christian Response” was published in the SATS publication Conspectus, in 2020. Marieke has special interests in social issues and has been involved in responding to modern slavery and human trafficking in South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. During 2017-2019 she initiated the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking response for The Salvation Army in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Middle East). Marieke serves on The Salvation Army’s international Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking response council.

Research Interests:

• Modern slavery and human trafficking

• The role of faith-based communities in preventing and combating modern slavery and human trafficking

• Civil society and modern slavery: how anyone can make a difference

• Modern slavery and domestic service

• Addressing the root causes of modern slavery and human trafficking