Organisations across the region honour the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

Our African partners mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Willow International hosts a webinar for student leaders, and we shine a spotlight on Candle of Hope Foundation.

Photo credit: Candle of Hope Foundation.

Welcome to the August edition of Freedom Collaborative’s Africa newsletter. This month’s issue provides an overview of the many initiatives that took place in the region to mark the annual World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July, including an event based around the theme ‘Re-thinking Trafficking in Persons prevention/protection/prosecution/partnership strategies post Covid-19’.

The on-going and longer-term effects of the pandemic are being actively discussed in the field, and we are pleased that our organization partners are able to continue their partnership and training efforts during these times by making use of online technology and services. We also share a case update kindly provided by Counter Human Trafficking Trust-East Africa (CHTEA) on the experience of a Kenyan female domestic worker in Lebanon and the collaborative effort made to secure her return.

We are delighted to feature Candle of Hope Foundation in this newsletter – an organization working with vulnerable members of the community in Kenya and Somaliland. COHF was formed with the aim of enhancing the quality of life of underprivileged youth, men and women through the implementation of programs aimed at improving the lives of target communities.

Thank you so much to Stop the Traffik Kenya (STTK), CHTEA, COHF, Awareness Against Human Trafficking (HAART) Kenya, Willow International and the Malawi Network against Trafficking (MNAT) for your work and contributions this month. Please keep sharing your updates with us via our Facebook group or by email.

Organisation Feature: Candle Of Hope

Candle of Hope Foundation (COHF) is a non-governmental organization registered with the governments of Somaliland and Kenya. We are a multi-faceted organization created to address pertinent issues affecting vulnerable members of the community in these countries, working in partnership with international organizations and governments. COHF was formed with the aim of enhancing the quality of life of underprivileged youth, men and women through the implementation of programs aimed at improving the lives of target communities.

COHF implements various projects to ensure access to support services and justice for women, youth, people with disabilities, victims of trafficking, HIV and Aids, as well as elderly and vulnerable minority groups, particularly victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and internally displaced persons (IDPs), both in Somaliland and Kenya. Our implementation of community support services and equality of justice programs is necessitated by the difficulty of access to support services/equal justice for those in need, and a lack of proper justice and governance systems owing to the fact that most GBV and HIV/Aids cases go unreported for fear of the associated shame and of victimization.

Our Health and Nutrition Programs are informed by national and international frameworks. These include SDG 3 of the U.N.’s Agenda 21 (‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’), and Kenya’s Vision 2030. This is achieved through the provision of Maternal & Child Health and Nutrition programs focusing on the feeding of young children, emergency food security, and livelihood intervention that focuses on social safety nets.

Further, we create awareness around our HIV and Aids program, with an emphasis on Care for Child Development (CCD). This program also addresses issues of reproductive health rights through the provision of sanitary towels, and social behavior change communication, partnerships such as joint ventures with relevant actors, and advocacy to influence policy.

Ms. Nimo Mohamed Ali, the Founder and Executive Director of COHF, has over 15 years progressive experience having been an active and passionate advocate for gender equality, child rights and protection and a specialty in tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and a keen interest in enabling and empowering communities to take action for change.

For more information, please visit our website and read COHF’s latest newsletter on current cases and stories of change.

Case update: the joint effort to bring a Kenyan domestic worker back from Lebanon

Cherry* was trafficked to Lebanon in 2012 by someone who promised her a white collar job. However, she was placed in a household as domestic staff and the environment quickly turned abusive. After six months, Cherry escaped in fear of her life. She joined a group of Kenyan ladies surviving on the streets of Dekweneh, and eventually married an Egyptian man in 2015. Cherry’s marriage produced two children, but the couple separated in November 2016. Since her separation, Cherry has lived as an illegal migrant as her visa and work permit have expired. She now lives with a group of four other Kenyan women in a two-room apartment alongside her children. A group of nuns assisted her with supplies until 2019, and when this ended Cherry and her children were exposed to extreme suffering.

Cherry’s children are registered under their biological father’s name. He is still in Lebanon and has allegedly been demanding custody of the children and threatening Cherry with death if she fails to comply. The situation has got even worse since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The few odd jobs available have become even rarer, while the mainly Arab population consider migrants to be part of the problem.

Cherry’s efforts to get assistance from the Kenyan Consulate in Lebanon bore no fruit. Instead, she claims to have been met with humiliating insults and demands for money and sexual favors to facilitate her repatriation. However, in June this year, Cherry’s plight was brought to the attention of CHTEA.

*All names used in the story have been changed to protect the identities of family.

Community contributions

Kenya

Stop the Traffik Kenya (STTK) highlights

STTK worked together with Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and their partners to honor the Day of the African Child by hosting a regional webinar on 15 June.
To mark the World Day against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July, Stop the Traffik Kenya partnered with the Ugandan Coalition against Trafficking in Persons (UCATIP) to host five weekly regional webinars. These national groups also worked with the East Africa Child Rights Network (EACRN) and Mtoto News to facilitate weekly webinars focusing on the four Ps: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. They endeavored to have inclusive conversations by inviting speakers and participants from the government, CSOs, and private sector and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs).
Stop the Traffik Kenya has recently started upscaling its Risky Migration Routes study, an exercise supported by its partner Liberty Shared. This upscaling project will also include a series of learning calls on data.

More activities to commemorate the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons in Kenya

The Counter Trafficking in Persons Secretariat hosted a national webinar from 10am to 12.30pm, which was broadcast live on YouTube, MtotoNewsTV and the DCS Kenya and Mtoto News Facebook pages.

Candle of Hope Foundation facilitated a dialogue meeting between Hargeysa Youth Forum (HYF) and its representatives on the causes and consequences of Somali youth migration to Europe and America.

CHTEA

During the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, CHTEA conducted several activities including:

Publishing a pull-out section in the People Daily newspaper on the impact of COVID-19 on counter-human-trafficking efforts.
A live morning show on KTN to discuss the status of trafficking in persons in East Africa.
A documentary on KTN Prime Time News, at 9pm, 2 August, focusing on Karamojong girls who were trafficked from Uganda to Kenya.
The release of a special edition of the CHTEA newsletter.

HAART

HAART Kenya organized a virtual concert to honor the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. In the weeks leading up to event, posters and bulletins with information about the concert were displayed on HAART Kenya social media platforms, where ‘Let us have a future’ fundraising campaign messages were also shared. HAART staff volunteers, the youth team and other affiliate networks published the same information on their social media platforms to generate as much publicity as possible for the event. The artists who performed in the show (H_ART the Band and Tetu Shani) also shared information about the concert in their media pages through video presentations – both introducing the concert and continuing the fundraising campaign.

Read more in HAART’s progress report for June and July 2020.

Uganda

WILLOW INTERNATIONAL

The prevention team at Willow International recently organized a webinar for student alliance leaders from six universities. Twenty two leaders participated and were delighted to reconnect with their peers using online technology, especially after being at home under lockdown for more than four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The topics discussed included the effects of the pandemic on communities, especially those from which the leaders came, and ways to enhance awareness of identification and referral networks for survivors of trafficking in such communities.

Willow International has also continued to provide immediate assistance to all survivors of trafficking (those currently in the program and graduates) and has also supported survivors whose businesses have been affected by the pandemic.

It also participated in events to marks the World Day against Trafficking in Persons under the theme ‘Re-thinking TIP prevention/protection/prosecution/partnership strategies post Covid-19’, and focused on regional trends, red flags and how to identify victims of trafficking, measures to consider when searching for a job abroad, national contacts, helplines, witness protection, the role of the media/CSOs in protecting victims, reintegration, compensation, and the role of community, among others. Some of the activities conducted included television and radio talk shows, webinars and e-conferences.

Malawi

Malawi Network Against Trafficking

In recent months the Malawi Network Against Trafficking released two press statements: an analysis on how COVID-19 is affecting interventions in the fight against human trafficking in Malawi, and a statement in honor of the Day of an African Child (16 June). On this day, MNAT stood in solidarity with other organizations and communities to raise awareness about the global extent of child labour and the actions needed to eliminate it. In Malawi, child labour continues to be one of the major forms of child rights abuse.