Prevention of Trafficking of Vulnerable Women in Hai Duong Province

Since 2006, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has been working with the 8 March Employment Centre of the Hai Duong Women's Union in implementing a program aimed at educating the public about trafficking in women and supporting the victims of this heinous trade. The 8 March Employment Centre is named for International Women’s Day and has significant experience in vocational training and job placement services through its Women’s Union networks which extend right down to the village level.

Mrs. Va returned from China alone, but now is assisted by the project to live with her grandson

Background to the project

With the growing conversion of land from agricultural to industrial use, many farmers are becoming landless, unemployed and more vulnerable to exploitation. Those in rural areas are facing poor economic circumstances, with limited access to information and opportunities. This makes poor women especially vulnerable to the false hopes given by the human traffickers.

In rapidly industrialising Hai Duong Province, hundreds of women a year are trafficked, primarily to China, Vietnam and Cambodia but also further afield. Documented methods include Vietnamese pimps pretending to court village girls to bring them to the city, and then selling them to brothels or to forced labour. Sometimes women are trafficked into China to work as slave labourers or are forced to become wives to men in a country where government policies have resulted in 35 million more men than women. Although human trafficking is a crime, many women do not come forward due to the stigma towards victims of trafficking.

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA and the 8 March Employment Centre run a prevention of trafficking and support for victims project in order to address this problem. Trafficking in women is a problem that needs to be handled sensitively and comprehensively to ensure that the communities and authorities understand this problem and the social, economic, psychological and emotional impacts it has on the individual women involved.

Project Strategies

The project has a three-fold strategy; support, prevention and capacity building.

Support

Women who have escaped from being trafficked usually return with little more than the clothes on their back. They arrive back to communities in which much has changed, especially since the opening up of the Vietnamese economy over the last few decades. Many women are unable to bring back their own children.

In many cases, the first priority for women is to generate income to re-establish their lives independently. The March 8 Centre offers vocational training courses for women in skills that can help generate incomes quickly but have low initial outlay, such as in sewing and crocheting. The project also offers low interest loans that returnees can utilise to invest in their financial independence. This includes buying livestock or vegetable seeds. Another benefit of the courses are that returnees can meet other women who have been through the same experience. By understanding that they are not alone, the women can build networks to help them deal with the trauma and stigma of trafficking.

Returned women also face other problems which the project works with them to resolve, such as housing or gaining Vietnamese citizenship for their children who were born in foreign countries.

Prevention

As well as assisting those who have been already been trafficked, the project has a strong focus on building the resilience of at risk women and their communities to identify and resist human traffickers.

Through the use of media, including radio, television and books and pamphlets, as well as through public events incorporating theatre, dance and music, the project sends messages, especially to young women, about the dangers of trafficking. The project has received national attention for its efforts to spread the message "that if the opportunity seems too good to be true, it often is".

The women who return know the importance of raising awareness of the dangers associated with being trafficked. With the support and assistance of UAA APHEDA and the March 8 Centre some women who escaped have told their story in a book which has been published for women and communities in Hai Duong Province and ultimately other provinces. The success of this initiative can be measured by the interest and impact the book has had in Hai Duong from the media and the community.

Capacity Building

The project recognises that ultimately, the problem of human trafficking needs to be dealt with sustainably and not continuously on a project by project basis. Staff of the March 8 Employment Centre are trained in project management, communication and monitoring and evaluation skills which allows them to increase the effectiveness of their lobbying on the provincial and national stage.

For instance, one output has been the development of a provincial database of trafficking incidents, allowing analysis of the problem and development of anti-trafficking plans. The Bac Kan Women's Union utilises its district and village level officials more effectively to identify returned and at-risk women at the household level. The project also continues to train and raise the awareness of local government authorities and police and encourages effective enforcement of relevant criminal laws.

By assisting the 8 March Centre, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA hopes to develop the capacity of local authorities and bodies to continue to improve the plight of trafficked women throughout Vietnam and ultimately eradicate the scourge of human trafficking.

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 05-Jan-2010 14:17:15 EST
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