TACKLING HUMAN TRAFFICKING THROUGH ART & COMMUNITY GUARDIANS IN ARMENIA
Reuters Alert
/wvmeero/ace786ed70cdbce2bc66e711ed804cdc.htm
Dec 2 2009
Source: World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe/ Central Asia office
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this
article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are
the author’s alone.
The majority of victims of trafficking in Armenia are aged 15 to 32
World Vision MEERO, Human trafficking
isn’t a likely topic for school art, but more than 1,000 students
in 22 schools across Armenia will participate in art events to learn
about and share the risks of human trafficking – a form of modern-day
slavery that is an increasing threat in Armenia and other Caucasus
and Balkans countries.
The majority of victims of trafficking in Armenia are aged 15 to 32
and originate primarily from poor areas where people are challenged
to earn a living – any way possible.
Often people fall prey to trafficking through a close relative, friend
or a neighbour who promises them the chance to escape miserable living
conditions to start a better life.
With few organisations engaged in trafficking prevention in Armenia,
World Vision is harnessing its well established Area Development
Programmes (ADPs) in 10 communities in Yerevan, Gyumri, Stepanavan
and Alaverdi, to strengthen prevention mechanisms.
Youth in Armenia is World Vision’s primary target group, explains
its Anti-trafficking Project Coordinator, Tamara Barbakadze. The art
events in 22 schools, among them one boarding school and one child
care centre, will not only give the youth the chance to learn about
trafficking, but also the opportunity to voice their perspectives
and concerns through the creative activities, such as drawing, essay
writing, singing or performing.
Meanwhile, World Vision is also equipping social workers with relevant
knowledge about trafficking, who in turn inform active people with
some authority in their communities.
These ‘Community Guardians’ share their knowledge with other community
members through training sessions, followed by discussions, reading
materials and debates around videos.
‘When we started the training of Community Guardians I thought it
would simply be an awareness-raising exercise for our villagers. But
it appeared we were late with our preventive actions because many have
faced and are still facing different forms of slavery and trafficking’,
said Sona Vardumyan, Social Worker in Stepanavan ADP.
‘Unfortunately the victims do not share their horrible experience with
their peers. Our training courses are needed to prevent new cases’,
she continued.
Vardumyan and another social worker visited the Simonyan family*
as soon as they heard that the parents planned to hand over their
five-year-old son to a couple who came to Armenia from Europe.
‘We are not abandoning our child. It is a very nice couple. First they
will take our son and then all of us will join them. They promised
to find a good job for us and assure a proper living and education
for our five children’, explained the mother of the family.
When the social workers asked the parents if they had any contact
information or details about the couple, they saw the potential
disaster in relinquishing their son to complete strangers. ‘It means
we would lose our child if not you’, said the mother to the social
workers.
Over the past decade, Armenia has seen an unprecedented movement
of persons, often in the form of economic migration stimulated by
unemployment, growing poverty, economic instability, and geopolitical
conflicts. All this has motivated people to leave their homes in
search of greater stability. It is estimated that 800,000 people have
left Armenia since the fall of the Soviet Union, giving Armenia a
net migration rate of -5.72 per 1,000 people.
Lack of knowledge of human rights, incomplete migration management
mechanisms, incomplete legislation, absence of open public discussions,
media and general awareness of how people are vulnerable increase
the risk of Armenian children and families being trafficked.
But adults – mothers and fathers – are also vulnerable to being
trafficked, as the accounts of social workers like Sona Vardumyan
reveal.
When a 40-year-old man called Mher*, in desperate need of work to
support his family was offered a construction job in Samara, in the
Russian Federation, he grasped the opportunity, she shared. He left
his wife, two young children and retired parents to work in Russia
for several months. But upon arrival, the ‘friend’ that organised the
job took his passport justifying that a stamp was needed to allow him
to live and work in Samara legally. He also took his phone to change
the phone card.
Mher was kept in a small room and was only given bread and water. He
would go to the construction site and back without permission to
communicate with the other workers. Any attempt to talk to others
would result in a beating.
Several anxious calls by Mher’s relatives frightened Mher’s ‘friend’
and he gave him the chance to speak to his relatives. Mher didn’t
waste the opportunity and called for help.
Mher’s relatives found him with the help of other Armenians working
in the area. They helped him to recover the passport, buy a ticket
and return home.
Mher will refer to organisations that offer psychological, medical,
and legal support to victims. But it is difficult to offer support
to Armenian men who are often ashamed to ask for help.
‘There are so many cases in the region. Our role now is to motivate
people to talk and then we can report these cases through the National
Identification and Referral Mechanism. We can also provide consultation
when and how the victims can apply to police, court or other relevant
government bodies’, said the social worker.
Few parents would leave their children to work abroad if they
could earn a decent income at home. But while there are so few job
opportunities in Armenia, both children and adults are vulnerable
to trafficking. For this reason, World Vision is strengthening its
projects in the economic development sector and providing employment
opportunities to people in remote communities – to help keep parents
at home and children in school – nurturing safe communities where
everyone can thrive.
World Vision is also focusing on boosting the capacity of the media
to highlight the risks of trafficking by organising round table
discussions and other initiatives for willing journalists.
For more information about Human Trafficking in Armenia and other
countries across the Caucasus, Balkans, Middle East and Central Asia
please visit:
-Ends-
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not of Reuters. ]
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