Monthly Archives: March 2014

1-year Results, Advocacy, Asia and Pacific, Girl, Human trafficking, Labor exploitation, Nepal, Project, Violence against women

Stop exploitation in Nepal through photography

50 stories, five cities, and one cause: putting a face to the injustices of human trafficking and exploitation.

Why we care: Every year, 12,000 Nepali children become sex workers in India. Today, 40,000 girls are working in the industry in Kathmandu alone. The exploitation and trafficking of girls and women in Nepal is increasing despite efforts to stop this practice.

How we’re solving this: By creating a photo exhibition that tells the stories of trafficked girls and women in Nepal. Exhibition from the perspective of survivors will help the survivors themselves escape from their isolation and encourage others in the community to realize the impacts of human trafficking on society.

Your support will allow us to cover the costs of five exhibitions, secure the materials to produce and edit the collection of stories and photos, and to recruit a project manager. We’ll select and produce the images and stories of these women taken by photographer and human rights activist, Natalie de Oliveira. The photos will be displayed at exhibitions travelling through Nepal, from Kathmandu to other districts that are most affected by trafficking.

The project portrays the stories of 50 girls and women, the majority of whom are victims of human trafficking. Others are activists involved in Nepali organizations for the defense and protection of human trafficking victims and exploitation.

Through this photographic journey, taking place in five cities in Nepal, we’ll share the lives and stories of young women exploited by the human trafficking trade. Nepal is widely affected by human trafficking but little information is given on schemes and tricks to lure the vulnerable people. At Planète Enfants, we believe that exposing the truths about human sex trafficking through sharing stories helps to create awareness and reform.

We plan to stop the abuses and exploitation of girls and women by combining the power of photography and the vivid accounts of victims. This campaign targets the people who can make a difference through actions in their everyday lives – fathers, brothers, uncles, officials, and community members. By making them aware of the stories of victims and how it could impact them and their family, we hope that instead of pushing their daughters and sisters to leave and earn money, they will choose to reinforce protection against potential traffickers.

Three groups of people will be directly affected: the visitors of the exhibitions, our NGO partners, and the social workers and stakeholders. The NGO partners are amongst the four most prominent organizations involved in human trafficking in Nepal – Planète Enfants, Saathi, Shakti Samuha, and Cap Nepal.

Together, let’s enlarge the conversations about the causes of trafficking and possible solutions, which will forge dialogues with others in the victims’ communities. 

Advocacy, Croatia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia, High-risk projects, Human trafficking, Project, Woman

Women’s groups work together to end sex trafficking

Groups in Croatia pool their resources together to prevent sex trafficking and support women survivors in the Balkans.

Why we care: Sex trafficking is putting women’s human rights at risk in the Balkans.They are recruited and transported within and across country lines by force and deception for sexual exploitation.

How we’re solving this: We’re coordinating the actions and advocacy of women’s organizations to provide support to survivors of trafficking and protect women who are at risk.

For a world without slavery to become reality, the most pressing issue to be eradicated is trade in humans, affecting over 25 million women, men, and children globally each year. The problem is widespread in the Balkans, and women are particularly susceptible.

PETRA Network builds alliances with women’s rights organizations against trafficking in Croatia and the Balkans. The network reaches out to women at risk of being trafficked with information and publications, advocates for gender-sensitive anti-trafficking laws and policies, and increases awareness of trafficking through meetings and panels with local and national officials. In the meetings, the women’s groups highlight trafficking’s risk factors, causes, and prevention mechanisms across the region.

Since 2002, PETRA Network has provided legal help, counseling, and a free and anonymous helpline to survivors, as well as advocated for laws and policies that protect women from trafficking. With your support, PETRA Network will organize public campaigns, workshops in local communities, street actions, and advocacy targeting decision makers. PETRA and its members will hold in person meetings with local stakeholders, create and distribute publications, and push for sex trafficking prevention and protection of survivors’ rights.

By building alliances with women’s rights organizations and networks against sex trafficking in Croatia and the Balkans, PETRA Network leverages the knowledge and experience of its members to create and implement strong programs to prevent sex trafficking and support the rights of survivors.

More specifically, PETRA will be able to:

  • Host public panel meetings with officials,
  • Conduct two annual member gatherings,
  • Support staff salaries,
  • Maintain the Network’s website, and
  • Publish informational materials to survivors of sex trafficking.
1-year Results, Advocacy, Human trafficking, Ireland, Project, Western and Central Europe, Woman

Give trafficking survivors an advocate

Legal support enables women and girls survivors of trafficking to access their rights.

Why we care: In 2012 alone, 48 trafficking survivors were identified. 23 were children.

How we’re solving this: By providing legal representation to women and girls, survivors of trafficking.

We’ll hire a full-time Anti-Trafficking officer for 6 months to provide holistic work with women and girls who have survived human trafficking, which will include advocacy for enhanced protection and access to legal rights and assistance of the legal team at our Independent Law Centre.

The work of the anti-trafficking officer will provide the vital link between the knowledge from the individual legal cases and advocacy work based on this knowledge.

Our project will be supported by a robust communications strategy, reaching out to press, radio, television, and social media outlets. We’ll issue press releases, for example on Anti-Trafficking Day in October, to highlight the issues and engage with the media to spread these messages.

We know that this issue disproportionately affects women and girls of migrant origin. They are at heightened risk of sexual violence, unplanned pregnancies, and other psychological disorders.

These women and girls are deceived by false promises of new lives in Western Europe, only to discover later that their new reality is bleak. They need our help.

We’ve been assisting victims of trafficking since 2001. Our work has a long-lasting impact as we assist and represent victims of trafficking in Ireland. Through our advocacy and communications work, we continue to change lives by providing legal representation to survivors of trafficking in Ireland.

 

1-year Results, Economic security, Education & training, Food & water, Girl, Latin America & Caribbean, Peru, Project

Hungry students can’t learn

Education is the most promising way out of poverty, hunger, inequality and oppression for future generations of women.
 
Why we care: Uneducated girls are at constant risk of hunger, abuse, early motherhood and lifelong poverty. Education with school meals = sharp minds.
 
How we are solving this: Our school provides 100 girls with free primary education, including daily hot nutritious meals to awaken hungry minds and allow girls to learn.
 
For our students, going to school is the impossible dream that most poor girls abandon early.
 
“Only boys are smart enough to go to school.”
 
Chicuchas Wasi Free School for Girls was created for indigenous girls in Cusco, Peru. With good nutrition, our students are enthusiastic and focused learners and recognize that education is the path to pursue opportunities that their mothers and grandmothers were denied. Educated girls will educate their families and communities and become future leaders for gender equality in their society.
 
But first, hunger must be addressed. We need your help!
 
Our students are born into stark poverty and most lack basic services and adequate food. Hunger is a daily companion for them and they believe they are destined to suffer a life of poverty, abuse and oppression.
 
In the school’s first month, we recognized undernourished students couldn’t stay awake or focus, and displayed mental dullness, lethargy and exhaustion due to hunger. This was quickly remedied with the addition of a meal program, resulting in alert students, who were engaged and able to develop intellectually.
 
Education will lift girls out of poverty, but full bellies are needed for sharp minds and healthy bodies. Your financial help will provide the following school meal program for 100 students across the 2014 school year:
  • Hot nutritious oatmeal drink and bread upon arrival to school
  • Hot nutritious meal includes: meat, vegetables, legumes, milk and more
These meals are prepared in our fully equipped school kitchen by two cooks and served in the school’s dining room in two shifts.
1-year Results, Education & training, Maternal health, Mother, Project, Sweden, Western and Central Europe

Keep Somali moms healthy in Sweden

Help women navigate the health care system in Sweden.

Why we care: Immigrant women underutilize maternal health care, mostly due to lack of information in their own language and not having a tradition of preventive health care.

How we’re solving this: By working with the Somali immigrant community to educate families about maternal health services via workshops, meetings, films, and distributing materials in their own language.

The Somali population in Sweden has increased by 300% in recent years and there are now approximately 50,000 Somalis in Sweden. Of those, 10,000 live in the Stockholm area.

We’ll increase awareness and understanding about the challenges that immigrant Somali women face among 100 Swedish doctors, midwives, and other health workers over 12 months. In addition, we’ll offer maternal healthcare classes to support 500 immigrant Somali women on their rights to access post and pre natal care.

We’ll distribute leaflets and posters in Arabic on maternal health care to hospitals and community centers. Somali women who have been in Sweden over the long-term will host discussion groups, information meetings, and knowledge exercises in Somali dialects.

We recognize that some Somali women may be apprehensive to attend healthcare classes due to cultural restrictions or fear. Also, to overcome language barriers, we’ll host discussion groups by offering Arabic translations and using pictorial diagrams.

At the end of our project, we’ll conduct surveys to capture how knowledge about health care and rights has changed. We aim to increase understanding and knowledge levels by at least 10%. We’ll also survey Swedish health workers to analyze whether or not they are more aware of the challenges Somali women face.

Arts, Education & training, France, Media, Project, Teen, Western and Central Europe

12-15 years old: Growing up in equality

Interactive theater and comics promote equality between girls and boys.

Why we care: Teenagers often lack information, but also self-confidence, when it comes to the developing healthy and equal relationships.

How we’re solving this: By establishing an interactive dialogue with teens to help them grow up in gender equality.

We’re creating an interactive theatre piece specifically designed for 12-15 year olds called “Girls and boys: between us”. In addition, we’re contributing to an innovative comic series “For you Sandra,” directed by one of the most famous comic creators in Europe, Derib, and distribute over 1,000 copies.

The 5 pilot productions of the play will take place at schools in the following French provinces: Essonne, Nord, Calvados, Paris, and hauts de Seine. The comic, including the new educational packet, will be distributed all over France through the 30 offices of Mouvement du Nid.

We’re addressing key challenges faced by teens when it comes to developing healthy friendships and relationships, such as a lack of information, fear of being judged, and peer pressure.

Each year, Mouvement du Nid reaches more than 15,000 girls and boys. This new theatre piece and comic series will be at the center of our reach-out. We’ve developed strong partnerships with schools across France, and 40 of our well-trained volunteers will carry out these workshops.

With your support, we’ll foster young girls and boys to become actors of change, respect, and equality in their schools, families, and communities. Help us give teens and the professionals working with them the interactive tools to develop equal and healthy relationships.