USAID and The Asia Foundation Expand Counter-Trafficking Program in Vietnam's

New Project Will Reach 40,000 Students through Education and Training

HANOI, Vietnam, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, The Asia Foundation announced a new grant of $500,000 from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a two-year project to strengthen the Government of Vietnam's ongoing anti-trafficking efforts in the Mekong Delta.

Through an integrated, multi-sectoral, victim-centered approach, the USAID-supported project seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities in the Mekong Delta to human trafficking by increasing awareness of safe migration strategies and increasing the quality of care and support available to victims of trafficking, drawing on best practices from other countries in the region.

To help prevent trafficking, The Asia Foundation and its partner, the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences under the Ministry of Education and Training, will build upon and further refine an earlier school-based safe migration program in An Giang and Can Tho provinces - major trafficking hotspots near the Cambodia-Vietnam border - to reach 40,000 students from at-risk communities. Trainings for teachers and school officials will focus on messages and techniques that can be replicated in other schools and communities. Outreach efforts will incorporate successful materials developed under recent pilot projects such as the Safe Migration for a Better Life handbook and guidelines on how to find a job in major urban centers.

"The Asia Foundation-led safe migration pilot program was practical and useful for students, and information provided through the activities has helped to guide them to safe migration and safe employment," said Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, director of the An Giang Provincial Education and Training Department.

To assist victims of trafficking, another program priority will focus on improving the rehabilitation process. Given that many victims are in a vulnerable psychological state, there is significant potential for re-traumatization after they are rescued. The Asia Foundation will work with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and service providers - including police, legal professionals, social workers, and health care workers - to draft a policy document that defines a victim's basic rights as well as outlines best practices for ensuring a minimum standard of care. The Foundation will draw on its experience working with the Cambodian government to develop the recently-released Policy and Minimum Standard for the Protection of the Rights of Victims of Human Trafficking. To draft a victim assistance manual that is appropriate in the context of Vietnam, The Asia Foundation will facilitate consultations among key stakeholders and practitioners. Once the draft is approved by MOLISA, the Foundation will conduct training workshops to implement the new policy.

Trafficking in persons is a high priority issue for the Foundation. In Vietnam, the Foundation has supported a comprehensive counter-trafficking program since 2002 to address both the underlying causes and consequences of trafficking. Programs are implemented to empower young people to better protect themselves from sexual and labor exploitation as they look for ways out of poverty by providing safe migration and legal rights information as well as with interventions to improve their economic position.

About USAID
USAID is a U.S. government agency that provides economic, development, and humanitarian assistance around the world. Through its activities in Vietnam since 2000, USAID has worked with the Government of Vietnam to help speed up the country's transition to an open, market-based economy, increase prevention and treat cases of HIV/AIDS, improve vulnerable groups' access to educational and other social services, and ensure that environmental governance progresses along with economic and social development. In total, USAID has contributed over $200 million for relief and development activities in Vietnam. Read more about USAID in Vietnam.

About The Asia Foundation
The Asia Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports programs in Asia that help improve governance, law, and civil society; women's empowerment; economic reform and development; and international relations. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, exchanges, and policy research.

With offices throughout Asia, an office in Washington, D.C., and its headquarters in San Francisco, the Foundation addresses these issues on both a country and regional level. In 2008, the Foundation provided more than $87 million in program support and distributed over one million books and educational materials valued at $41 million throughout Asia. For more information, visit www.asiafoundation.org.

SOURCE The Asia Foundation

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/usaid-and-the-asia-foundation-expand-counter-trafficking-program-in-vietnams-mekong-delta-63572472.html



USAID and The Asia Foundation Expand Counter-Trafficking Program in Vietnam's

UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu raises awareness of child trafficking

© USAID/2009

US Fund for UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lucy Liu speaks out against child trafficking at a symposium organized by the US Agency for International Development in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON DC, 18 September 2009 – US Fund for UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lucy Liu delivered an impassioned speech here this week to raise awareness about the estimated 1.2 million children who are trafficked worldwide every year.

The internationally acclaimed actress and humanitarian activist spoke at a symposium organized by the US Agency for International Development on 16 September.

Ms. Liu has become increasingly involved in efforts to end child trafficking since her appointment as a Goodwill Ambassador in 2004. She recently produced a documentary film, ‘Red Light’, which focuses on the issue of trafficking in Cambodia.

Effects on women and girls
At the USAID event, Ms. Liu described girls’ experience of being trafficked, both globally and in the United States.

“With no options and not enough protection,” she said, “the world’s poorest children are being recruited more and more into a gruesome array of practices that include trafficking for sex, soldiering, begging, scavenging, working in factories and on farms, and domestic servitude.”

As Ms. Liu pointed out, the most common form of human trafficking, by far, is for sexual exploitation, whose victims are predominantly women and girls. Trafficking for forced labour is the next most common form.
Creating a ‘protective environment’
Other speakers at the trafficking symposium included USAID Acting Administrator Alonzo Fulgham, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca and Carlson Companies CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson.

The participants noted that statistics on trafficking are difficult to gather and often unreliable. Children trafficked into domestic work, for example, are hard to document because servitude in private homes is often hidden from public view and unregulated.

UNICEF’s efforts to protect children from trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse focus on creating a ‘protective environment’ for them. In such an environment, people at all levels of society work to enforce protective laws. They also educate children, educators and social service providers about how to prevent and respond to abuse, and challenge discrimination.
“I truly believe there is hope,” said Ms. Liu. “I believe this because of devoted workers and individuals around the world in organizations like UNICEF and USAID.”

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