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SubscribeIREX-Administered Programs Join Efforts to Empower Women and Fight Trafficking
June 2003
Trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery and a grave violation of human rights. It is also a profitable business that generates an estimated $7 billion annually for traffickers and organized crime syndicates. However, the depth of this problem is often underestimated and misunderstood by the general public, mass media, and law enforcement officials. Preventing the trafficking of women requires an elimination of the conditions of economic hardship, organized crime, and gender discrimination that foster such business practices. Because the roots of the problem are entangled in existing social structures, anti-trafficking efforts require a multifaceted approach that includes strengthening nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); providing job skills, including Internet and computer basics training for women; improving existing higher education approaches towards study of the problem; and organizing public awareness campaigns.
The diversity of IREX’s expertise areas has enabled it to supplement more traditional civil society building programs related to women’s empowerment with skills from other areas of its work. IREX programs from a range a funding sources have naturally found ways to supplement and strengthen anti-trafficking efforts. Below are highlights of some of the ways in which IREX-administered programs have joined efforts to empower women and prevent trafficking.
Higher Education
Lyudmila Erokhina, a three-time IREX alumna, having received a Regional
Scholar Exchange Programn (RSEP) grant (1996-97), an Alumni Small Grant
(2001), and an FSA Contemporary Issues (CI) fellowship (2002) -- all programs
of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department of State
(ECA), has taken a new, scholarly approach to the problem of trafficking
women. Lyudmila applies academic research methodology and places a strong
emphasis on the responsible collection of data related to the issue of
trafficking. Her academic approach has given her efforts a concrete foundation
of credibility and has galvanized anti-trafficking concerns in the region.
Her book Trafficking of Women is the first book published in Russia that
directly deals with this difficult issue. As a 2002 CI grantee, she worked
on a project entitled "Involving Children in Prostitution and Child-Sex
Tourism: an Analysis of Russian and USA Responses."
Independent Media
The Russian Independent Media Program (RIMP) and the Trafficking Prevention
and Information Dissemination (TPID) program -- both funded by the US
Agency of International Development (USAID) -- recently joined efforts
to teach the media how to report on the difficult issue of the trafficking
of women. Newspapers in the Urals sent 19 reporters to the three-day seminar
in Ekaterinburg. Experts from news organizations, the local crisis center,
and the IREX-administered programs conducted the training, helping journalists
explore the specifics of information gathering on trafficking and domestic
violence, assessing their audiences' needs and interests, and ethical
concerns when reporting on these issues. In response to the training,
one participant wrote:
"On Feb 28, our State Duma Deputy Mr. Grishankov made a visit to our town. During one of his meetings I asked him about the law draft on human trafficking. He was shocked by the fact that a journalist of Ufaleisky Rabochi, a tiny newspaper, had information about such a tough issue. Second, he was surprised by the level of background information that I had on this issue. Thus, the seminars organized by your institute make journalists more important and more confident."
Staff of an NGO in Kygryzstan that is
dedicated
to women's rights recieves
computer basics training from IATP.
Internet Development
The Internet Access and Training Program
(IATP), a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs,
Department of State (ECA), encourages the active participation of women
in the societies in which the program is active by organizing trainings,
seminars, and events dedicated to the empowerment of women. For example,
in Moldova, IATP joined forces with the Regional Empowerment Initiative
for Woman (REIW), funded by the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB)
of the US Department of Labor, to organize a three-hour educational seminar
entitled “Women in the Information Society,” for 19 girls
ages 12 to 15, and six teachers from two boarding schools in Chisinau.
The seminar focused on discussing problems related to women’s health
and empowerment, and taught participants how to locate Web resources for
women related to living a healthy lifestyle and fostering academic and
professional growth. Other ways in which IATP has worked to empower women
include providing Internet training for staff a NGO in Kyrgyzstan dedicated
to women’s rights; creating a computer basics and Internet training
seminar specifically for women in Azerbaijan; and organizing and women’s
rights seminar and Internet training session in Tajikistan. One participant
of the training session in Tajikistan wrote:
" After I looked through the websites, I found out that there are groups of women who are also working together to support other women and help them to defend their rights. This is a great support for me, and I look forward to hearing from them through the Internet."
Alumni Events
Even alumni events have found ways to address the problem of the trafficking
of women. For example, the US Embassy Alumni Resource Center in Balti
in collaboration with the Regional Empowerment Initiative for Women organized
a roundtable in December 2002 entitled “Preventing the Trafficking
in Persons.” The roundtable event allowed ECA alumni and other invited
guests to discuss the main causes of this the trafficking of women as
well as possible strategies to prevent it. The audience was composed of
ECA alumni as well as local journalists, educators, students, and NGO
leaders who work to prevent the trafficking in persons in Moldova.
Closing
The ways in which IREX-administered programs have naturally joined forces
to combat the trafficking of women illustrates how fundamental women’s
rights are to building a civil society, and demonstrates how building
civil society is the ultimate goal of every program that is administered
by IREX.
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