Education > Success Stories

Trafficked Children return home

Ms Débora realized, in her words, that "women in the village occupied positions inferior to men. For example, a woman can never be chief." She advocated that girls could hold important positions if they were given the chance to attend school.

This is the story about a woman who went from a career in child trafficking to championing women's rights. She accomplished this by empowering women and girls in her community through the efforts of the USAID-funded Community Action for Girls' Education (CAGE) project. In 2001, USAID/Benin awarded World Learning, a US Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), a grant of $2,333,749 for a four-year period to promote girls' education in 91 targeted communities in the communes of Bopa, Aplahoue, Ouinhi, Zagnanado, Banikoara, Karimama, Kerou and Boukoumbe. Tokpoê, one of the six villages of the Bopa commune in southern Benin located at about 95 kilometers from Cotonou, Benin's largest city, is one of those communities. World Learning provided support by:

• conducting community sensitization programs, including meetings at the village level to raise parents', teachers', local authorities' awareness about the importance of education in general and girls' education in particular and also the evils of child trafficking;

• establishing local monitoring committees to see to the enrollment of school-aged girl students as well as their retention in school;

• offering students the opportunity to meet after classes to study.

Débora Houndessegan is a dynamic woman who was an intermediary between trafficked children's parents and the receiving families during the past 15 years in the village of Tokpoê, a small rural community of 500 inhabitants in southern Benin. The majority of trafficked children are girls between the ages of seven and twelve.

Parents would approach Débora, looking for opportunities to put their daughters to work for money. For agreeing to have a child placed, parents would receive 5,000 CFA, (about $10 USD) and a few yards of cloth. However, these trafficked children usually ended up working long hours, in poor conditions and sometimes were subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Once a child has been taken away, parents know very little of that child's whereabouts. Usually a trafficked child is provided with the minimum necessities: a place to sleep and basic food. There is no monetary compensation.

With the regular visits of two Bopa CAGE community workers to the communities and the sensitization campaigns they organized, things began to change. Débora realized that she was not working towards the development of her community. She even felt guilty and went to the CAGE community workers to confess her activities regarding child trafficking. She promised to stop her business and committed herself to bringing back home the children she had sold. Thus, she became the main advocate for girls' schooling and an influential member of the local committee created for that endeavor in Tokpoê. As a result, more people in the community became aware of the benefits of sending girls to school and renounced the practice of child trafficking. For Débora, this new way of thinking was a monumental shift. She realized, in her words that "women in the village occupied positions inferior to men. For example, a woman can never be chief." She advocated that girls could hold important positions if they were given the chance to attend school. She realized that by trafficking girls, she had contributed to increasing poverty among women. Now because of her awareness her greatest contribution would be to fight against child trafficking.

Débora helped to relocate the girls she had trafficked. She brought them back to Tokpoê, where the younger girls started school and the older girls became apprentices with a hairstylist or dressmaker. As of December 2002, more than 15 trafficked girls, and one boy, have returned to Tokpoê. Débora now actively assists the local monitoring committees put in place by the project to support its efforts by raising awareness in the community about the detrimental effects of trafficking girls. She has used her business acumen to develop a women's collective/cooperative that harvests and processes both cassava, a staple food of Benin, and palm tree products, which are major commercial items. Through her efforts, there are currently eight women involved in anti-child trafficking activities and in finding other means to become financially sufficient. Débora has been a major catalyst in changing the community of Tokpoê.

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