Human Trafficking Awareness Day – Highlights of IREX’s Efforts to Combat Trafficking
January 11, 2011
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IREX is working to make a better world through its efforts to fight human trafficking.
For more than fifteen years IREX has supported efforts to reduce human trafficking through support for civil society organizations that raise awareness and provide alternative employment opportunities, assistance to media to improve reporting on the problem of trafficking, and support for research into trafficking.
In the 1990s in Russia and Eastern Europe, IREX supported women’s crisis centers in their work to provide resources to domestic violence victims and prevent trafficking through public awareness and employment opportunities, while enhancing cross-border collaboration on victim protection and prosecution.
Recently, IREX worked with Egyptian civil society organizations, government representatives, and media to increase awareness of human trafficking and understanding of anti-trafficking activities and approaches. After 11 trainings of nearly 200 individuals, Egyptian NGOs began anti-trafficking programming, and exposed instances of abuse of women and girls in Cairo. The program also published handouts on trafficking in both English and Arabic. IREX also developed a handbook for journalists and editors covering human trafficking.
In Tajikistan, IREX implemented a year-long anti-trafficking training program for media professionals. The program included an intensive series of training courses aimed at increasing awareness of print and broadcast journalists and editors about the issues of human trafficking and equipping journalists with the skills to cover the issue impartially and sensitively. As a result of a television documentary produced as part of the IREX program, prosecutors in Tajikistan reopened a criminal investigation into a local trafficking ring. See full story.
Since 2004, IREX has provided technical assistance and support to the USAID Office of Women in Development (EGAT/WID) and USAID missions as a subcontractor to Chemonics International, Inc to combat trafficking through identifying, coordinating, and developing activities to address the problem; sharing knowledge on trafficking issues; and reviewing and assessing existing activities. Some of the key publications released through this project can be found on the EGAT/WID website.
