Closer to the Pacific Ocean than the Volga River, the Russian Far East is home to astounding natural beauty, but local unemployment and the region’s proximity to international borders put job-seekers at risk for human trafficking. Determined to raise awareness of the issue, UGRAD [9] alumnus Ivan Pechorin organized a series of training workshops for over 75 university students and faculty in the Russian Far East.
According to the US Department of State, Russia is a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. Men and women from the Russian Far East are trafficked to China, Japan, the Middle East, and South Korea for sexual exploitation and forced labor.* Ivan’s project, funded by an IREX-administered ECA Alumni Small Grant and by the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), aimed to spread knowledge among local residents about the risks of both human trafficking and domestic violence.
Ivan collaborated with Dianne Post, senior staff attorney at ABA ROLI, to provide students with information on these issues and to supply them with the skills to educate others in their home communities of Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok. Discussing both American and Russian approaches, participants examined a number of different best practices for fighting domestic violence and human trafficking. Interactive group exercises, games, and role-playing scenarios introduced both the subject matter and new teaching techniques participants could use in future training sessions of their own. “There are still examples of a stigmatized attitude in society, in relation to these issues,” Ivan said. “However, participants were very receptive to new ideas, skills and knowledge.”
As a result of the three successful workshops, the team of trainers developed and published a training manual for future use, entitled International and Russian Best Practices in Preventing Gender-Based Violence and Human Trafficking. The project has since expanded to Sakhalin Island, where an additional training was funded by ABA ROLI.
Ivan continues to receive invitations to conduct training-of-trainers workshops at other universities and sees his contributions as part of larger efforts to decrease domestic violence and human trafficking in the region. “There are helplines being set up, counseling centers, and even shelters being opened up in some regions,” he said. “A positive trend in changing this situation can be seen on the personal/family level, civil society level and state/regional government level.”
To learn more about ABA ROLI programs around the world, visit www.abarol.org [10].
*Source: Embassy of the United States, Moscow, Trafficking in Persons Report-2008, [11]
