Prevention

We have asked the survivors in our programs, and the counselors that work with them, what are the factors that contributed to them being trafficked into slavery.  Their answers included:

- Death of a Parent

- Minority or Caste Status - ethnic minorities, lower castes, and tribal groups are much more vulnerable to trafficking because of discrimination, lack of citizenship, etc.  For example,  Romany gypsies in the Balkans, hill tribe minorities in Burma and Thailand, and Vietnamese girls in Cambodia make up a disproportionate number of trafficking victims in those regions

- Child Marriage (girls was first put into a marriage at a very young age, then moved to a bigger city away from extended family, and then trafficked into sexual exploitation by a neighbor, landlord, or by the husband)

- War: Boys are trafficked as soldiers and girls both as soldiers and for sexual exploitation .  This has been an serious problem in Uganda, Sudan and Sierra Leone, as well as parts of Latin America.

- Civil unrest and instability - long periods of social and political instability (such as the Maoist insurgency in Nepal or the unrest in the former Soviet republics following the breakdown of the Soviet Union) divert law enforcement resources away from trafficking, break down educational systems and destroy livelihoods, creating fertile ground for traffickers

- Environmental devastation: deforestation and degradation of natural resources forces young people to move away from subsistence farms to the big cities, where they find themselves without resources, skills or any safety net, and often fall prey to traffickers.  That is why TEN has such a strong commitment to environmental stewardship - we carry many green products and are building a renewable energy facility for survivors in Mumbai.

- Lack of Education

POVERTY and LACK OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY was cited as a factor in trafficking in every one of these cases, which is why our prevention efforts always include economic empowerment.

We offer intensive prevention programs in very high risk areas in Nepal, India, and Thailand.  For example at GWP in rural Nepal near the Indian border, rural womens self help groups (including survivors and very high risk girls) use revenues from TEN's handmade paper purchases to buy livestock, seeds, or micro-enterprises such as small shops, which provides livelihood to their entire families, preventing younger sisters from being trafficked.  The group also broadcasts a weekly radio show including  trafficking and AIDS prevention information for the entire community.

At DEPDC in Northern Thailand near Burma, the handicrafts program is offered not just to survivors and high risk kids at the boarding school, but to their  mothers and others int he community, as an incentive to keep the kids in school.

At Apne Aap, in the red light district of Calcutta, we offer education, medical care, and therapeutic arts  for kids born into brothels, and dignified work to their mothers.  Apne Aap runs a drop in center providing nonformal education, counseling, a night shelter, and other interventions to prevent these children from being trafficked into prostitution alongside their mothers. 

If Prevention is important to you, you can support these efforts by earmarking a donation for 'Prevention' or by purchasing a product from one of these partners.  Check out these favorites at our webstore:

Paper gifts from GWP support prevention in Nepal   Bags & Scarves support prevention at DEPDC Thailand      Barmir purse supports prevention in India