In 2005, Myanmar passed an anti-trafficking law, but trafficking is still rampant in the conflict-affected state, especially in the northern region, where it borders China.
A UN Women programme is supporting local partner, Htoi Gender and Development Foundation, in providing legal support and vocational training to survivors. According to Htoi, in 8 out of 10 cases, women are trafficked as brides and another 20 percent are trafficked to birth babies.
Htoi provides rescued women and girls with legal aid, psychosocial counseling, referrals to services, skills training for their economic recovery and human trafficking awareness training. Eight three-day training workshops have been organized since April 2018, covering 13 townships and engaging 165 participants. To further spread the messages locally, 35 community mobilizers were identified among those taking the training and given additional training, posters and leaflets to distribute locally.
It’s all part of a project on preventing and mitigating the impacts of trafficking through women’s empowerment and livelihood training, supported by UN Women and funded by the Government of Japan.
In less than a year, the programme has already trained 125 trafficking survivors, women in at-risk communities and in Internally Displaced Peoples camps and villages, imparting financial management and marketing skills, linking beneficiaries to training centres and markets, and providing business start-up grants once training is complete.
Original source: UN Women
Published on 3 January 2019
