Anti-Human Trafficking activities in October

October 2012 was dedicated to human trafficking. During the previous months we have been studying the complex phenomenon of the Human Trafficking. Definition, forms, statistics, cases that tell us the incredible drama of millions of persons sold, bought, exploited, held in slave conditions, physically and psychologically abused. Human rights cannot be put in front of money and personal benefits. Observing the psychological, behavioral and social characteristics of the criminal it is possible to understand that behind any man, any woman there could be a trafficker of an human being. There are a lot of tragic stories of poor little kids, vulnerable women, people that live in a condition of social inequality, in a war context, with a low education that easily can become the victims of this transnational crime, manipulated by the false hope of a better life. With raising conscious we decided to leave the words behind and take action!

 

October 18th marks the International anti-human trafficking day, and, as said, we dedicated the whole month for spreading campaigns of awareness in Arad. We made one in the Liceul Pedagogic and another at Vasile Goldis University, with a peer to peer purpose. The week after we came back at the High School to attend the students making their own campaign. They elaborated topics and information, presenting different funny activities, interactive smart games, movies telling strong and hard stories about this inhuman crime. They made us surprised, admired, angry, excited… They shocked us with their creativity, energy, sensibility. They did a great job!

 

And for the last activity of this month, from the 23rd to the 26th we took part on the International Symposium with the title “Trafficking in human beings – form of cross border organized crime”, held by our hosting organization, Pro Prietenia. With themes like preventing and combating corruption, human trafficking itself, combating human trafficking or preventing and assisting the victims, the symposium was assisted by more than one hundred participants and had lectors and lectures with a high level of quality. One of the most interesting aspects was that it was not all about theory. The case studies that were exposed and discussed showed us how human trafficking is fought, with real cases and even footages of the operations. “Operation Gold” was the case study of day three of the symposium, about a Romanian child trafficking ring in United Kingdom. For example, in this case of human trafficking, at a first look, these people are seen as marginal or criminals, but it makes all the difference when they stop to be seen like this to be seen as victims, because they came to that reality (begging and little thefts in this case) by means of force and threat. Then, the approach and the methods change too in order to help them and fight against human trafficking. Apart from assisting the lectures, we also helped in the organization during the 4 days of lectures, with logistic and administrative support.

 

It was an intensive month, with lots of things going on, but we finish it with a feeling of mission accomplished, we made our part on spreading the awareness and stop the indifference people have about this serious crime. And we don't want to stop here! We want to continue the awareness after our project, in our own countries!