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In the capital of Phnom Penh, the USAID-supported Hagar Shelter gives training to women who could be at-risk for trafficking. The shelter has space for 40 walk-in residents and 80 non-residents from the poorer areas of the city. The training in catering, industrial sewing, hairdressing and small businesses gives women supporting their families the skills they need to get jobs with decent wages or start their own businesses. In addition, the shelter teaches them about their legal rights and HIV/AIDS and provides counseling. The results speak for themselves. Six months after participating in the program, 62 percent of the women were living independently. They were maintaining a steady job, and their kids were in school. Phnom Penh is a magnet for young women and girls from the provinces. The long years of war and chaos in Cambodia destroyed many of the traditional networks of family and communities that used to take care of orphaned children or those in abusive situations. With nowhere else to turn, many girls flee to Phnom Penh in hopes of a better life. When they arrive in bus and taxi stations, would-be traffickers prey on them. Mith Samlanh/Friends, another USAID supported project in Cambodia, meets as many new arrivals as possible before the traffickers reach them. Mith Samlanh gives them information on short-term housing, employment and training opportunities. They also provide literacy and math skills training, so girls can go back to school if they wish. In addition, USAID has provided legal assistance to 126 survivors of trafficking in Cambodia, including women rescued from brothels. In a recent development, two traffickers received ten-year prison sentences and had to pay financial compensation to their victims. It is the first time in Cambodia that traffickers were found guilty and forced to compensate their victims. That trend has continued. Even more recently, in October 2003, six defendants were convicted and sentenced from 5 to 15 years in jail for trafficking related activities. Various USAID grantees helped in the stages of this trial. Educating Vulnerable Women and Girls in Rural Nepal The mountainous terrain of Nepal has left many rural communities isolated and impoverished. Women and girls from these communities are prime targets for trafficking to the larger cities. Poor families, in desperation, sometimes sell or send their children into forced labor. In other families, the women travel in search of work. India is the main destination, but recent trends show women traveling to other countries of East and South Asia and the Gulf. There they can be forced into unpaid labor. Ongoing skirmishes between the Maoists and the Government have made the problem worse by cutting off remote areas from the rest of the country. Communities in these areas are even more vulnerable to trafficking or to kidnapping from the Maoists themselves, who use children in their militias. In Nepal, USAID has focused on preventing trafficking by training NGOs and community organizations. USAID works with women and girls as well as teachers, employment agencies, local government staff and transport workers to teach them about the methods used by traffickers. USAID also trains the staff in transit homes to help survivors with psychological trauma. In an effort to help girls find other employment and gain self-esteem, USAID supports literacy training for out-of-school girls. The training has one section on trafficking. So far, the results have been positive, and participation has been high. In addition to prevention, USAID also works to protect survivors in Nepal with a program to give at-risk girls and survivors skills to find employment, so they have a way to support themselves and their families. This makes girls less vulnerable to traffickers and helps survivors rebuild their lives. Much more work remains to be done. A recently completed study of Nepal's labor and migration laws shows that the strictness of the laws, which was intended to protect women, in fact, makes them more likely to migrate illegally and be more vulnerable to exploitation. USAID is planning some advocacy activities to address this and other legal issues around trafficking. These are just three examples of countries where USAID is working to combat trafficking. In Asia, USAID has active programs in ten countries as well as regional South and East Asia initiatives. Recently, representatives from U.S. Government agencies in Washington and Asia met in Bangkok to improve the coordination of their activities in the region. Since trafficking is an issue that crosses borders, this meeting was an important step. Goals for the intensive two-day meeting included identifying the needs, gaps and priorities in trafficking programs and developing a regional anti-trafficking program that incorporates the strengths of the programs already in existence. The meeting concluded with specific steps to design a stronger regional strategic approach and establish indicators to assess progress along the way.
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