Protecting young people at risk and survivors of sexual exploitation in Somaliland

COHF has been educating vulnerable communities in Somaliland on the realities of human trafficking, while Willow International has trained law enforcement and immigration officers, and we look at the Good Samaritan Association’s work in sheltering and rehabilitating sex trafficking victims.

Photo credit: Candle of Hope Foundation.

Welcome to the October edition of Freedom Collaborative’s Africa newsletter. Over the past two months, we have worked closely with our partners in Kenya on a number of initiatives. First and foremost, we are grateful for a successful collaboration with Stop The Traffik Kenya and the East Africa Child Rights Network in which data on human trafficking routes and child trafficking was collected, and we congratulate STTK and EACRN once again on leading these initiatives over the past months. We very much enjoyed working with you and are proud of the two resulting publications which are now available on Freedom Collaborative!

Last week, we hosted an online conference on the use of human trafficking routes data and the opportunities for collective civil society action in Kenya. Thank you to everyone who participated, we were happy to have such an engaged group and discussion. This has been one of the highlights of our year.

We are delighted to share updates from partners in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia in this month’s newsletter. Candle of Hope Foundation has been working with vulnerable communities in Somaliland to create greater awareness of the methods used by traffickers and recruiters, to inform and alert as many community members as possible and help them stay safe, while Willow International has trained law enforcement and immigration officers in the Eastern Region of Uganda on how to recognize and classify human trafficking cases and care for victims of trauma during investigations. We are also pleased to feature Good Samaritan Association, an organization that has been working to protect vulnerable women in Ethiopia for more than 16 years. GSA aims to provide survivors not only with temporary shelter but with a range of longer-term services to support their recovery.

Thank you so much to STTK and EACRN for your partnership, and to COFH, Willow International and GSA for your contributions and on-going support. Please keep sending your updates to us via our Facebook group or by email, so we can share them with the wider anti-trafficking community in the region and beyond.

Organisation Feature: Good Samaritan Association

Good Samaritan Association (GSA) has been contributing to the effective management of migration through several projects and programs. The organization has over 16 years’ experience, predominantly in migration management, but also in the prevention of illegal migration and the protection of women returnees from Arab countries who suffer with physical, psychological, and mental health issues.

Based in Ethiopia, GSA’s current mission is to protect female victims of trafficking and gender-based violence through comprehensive shelter-based rehabilitation, which ensures sustainable social and economic reintegration into their respective communities. The organization’s director is Mrs Hirut Yibabe, who works tirelessly to realize this goal.

The group has established two shelters for women victims, in Addis Ababa and Gondar, in response to the protection needs of returnees. It aims to provide survivors not only with temporary shelter but also with a range of services, such as safe accommodation and basic supplies (including food, clothing, dignity kits, etc), primary health care and psychosocial support, legal advice, economic empowerment, and family tracing activities which are provided to help them successfully reintegrate into their respective communities. The services are carried out by experienced medical and psychiatric nurses, counsellors, lawyers, vocational guidance officers, family tracing practitioners, and reunification experts.

Good Samaritan Association has so far rehabilitated over 3,000 women and girls across both shelters. Last year, 470 people were referred to the Addis Ababa center. Of these, 91% were reunified and reintegrated with their communities. Although the Gondar shelter was recently established (in December 2019), to address the need in the northern corridor, so far it has provided services to 107 women and girls, most of whom were below 14 years of age.

COHF ProtectS young people at risk and survivors of sexual exploitation in Somaliland

Human trafficking has been on the rise in Somaliland for a long time, especially in the refugee camps around Hargeisa and Berbera. There are many reasons for this, including high rates of illiteracy, high levels of unemployment, and early marriage. Most young people within the camps are forced to find alternative ways to improve their livelihoods and many trek long distances into Ethiopia and Kenya through the country’s porous borders.

Traffickers take advantage of these young people, enticing them to other areas with the promise of high salaries. Some become domestic workers or groundsmen, and many are forced into commercial sex work. They are abused in many different ways, not least sexually and psychologically. Kenya’s Candle of Hope Foundation (COHF) is trying to prevent this from happening by educating communities on the realities and consequences of human trafficking, aiming to reach as many people as possible. Generally, the team approaches a community and explains the causes and effects of human trafficking and, in some cases, victims describe their ordeal and tell their very sad stories.

In addition, COHF works closely with communities to combat the discrimination, bias and stigma suffered by sexual exploitation survivors and to help them reintegrate into society. For example, a parent of Fardosa (not her real name), a victim of sexual exploitation, takes part in the livelihoods project which the group is implementing in Berbera, Somaliland, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). COHF understands the significance of creating a supportive community environment, where survivors or their guardians participate in economic activities that will help foster better coping strategies. Empowering survivors of sexual exploitation, the majority of whom are women, will help them break out of the vicious cycle of re-exploitation. Reintegration into society is complicated, and goes beyond the urgent issues of physical health, emotional trauma, personal security and financial support for food and accommodation. COHF believes that livelihoods need to be revived and community ties need to be re-established in order for sexual exploitation survivors to heal successfully and reintegrate into society.

Read more in COHF’s monthly newsletter.

Willow International trains law enforcement and immigration officers in the Eastern Region of Uganda

Willow International, which works to end human trafficking in Uganda, recently organized a training program in the Eastern Region, including the districts of Tororo, Mbale and Jinja, for law enforcement and immigration officers. The purpose of the training sessions was to increase knowledge on classifying cases, provide guidance on how to deal with victims of trauma, and explain how to incorporate TIP prevention measures for the reduction of vulnerability of risk to communities.

A total of 127 law enforcement and immigration officers were trained on the concept of the crime of trafficking in persons, trauma-informed care protocols, prosecution-led investigations, file management, witness preparation, the TIP Act , and plea bargain purpose and practice guidelines, among other topics. The majority of the participants had limited knowledge on best-practice procedures for handling survivors and cases of TIP.