Report on Efforts to counteract Human Trafficking in Kenya
January 15, 2016
The Kenyan situation in matters human trafficking is horrendous as the business keeps on increasing even with a good number of groups trying to counteract it in one way or the other.
The Newspapers are often telling sad stories of returnees who are maimed physically and traumatized immensely by what goes as the modern slave trade. This phenomenal is both within the country as poor children and women come or are enticed into the big towns in search of jobs and better livelihood. Similarly others find the temptation to go “abroad” to be too good to decline when they are promised a life of better standards and in hope to educate their siblings or their own children. As a result there are cartels of rich people who make the trade smooth and fast while evading the hand of the law. In other cases cross boarder trafficking is also done as Kenya is a good conduit for the neighboring countries to traffic persons to the Middle East or even to coastal or city hotels where sex tourism flourishes especially in summer.
With the magnitude of the problem being so high, our main objective has been to raise Awareness against Human Trafficking by:
- Increased Public Awareness on Human Trafficking in Nairobi by targeting Sisters of Mercy founded schools which by and large are in Mukuru slums and Eastern part of the city inhabited mostly by lower middle class citizens.
- To sensitize this target population who are needy and easily fall prey to the deceitful and cunning cartels who work tirelessly in this dirty business
- To give information on the criminal nature of Human trafficking
- To facilitate young people and parents on ways to detect and help other people not to fall into the trap of Human Trafficking of any kind.
- With the self disclosure of survivors or returnees from Saudi Arabia giving life testimonials of the ills of HT in Kenya.
- To refer Victim for Assistance by other NGOs
Successes
Through PTA and School Management committees in 2015 we worked with seven primary schools and five secondary schools. This was done by senziting children at assemblies during the term. At the same time during the Parents and teachers association days as well as school management committee meetings the whole area of child protection and human trafficking was also highlighted. The main plan was to form clubs in all these schools so that the children can continue to pass the message to their colleagues at school and at home which has already started.
Working with Youth from one of the Parishes has also been an added value for the youth in turn are given more attention by other youth especially those in Secondary schools.
Plans for 2016
This being the year of Mercy and also the 60th year of Mercy presence in Kenya and in line with Pope Francis, Laudato si 'The cry of the poor and the cry of the earth' is screaming in the thousands of children, women and youth who fall into the torturous arms of modern day slave drivers in Kenya and beyond.
Therefore we hope and plan:
-To work more collaboratively with HAART Kenya an NGO that targets youth in the fight against human trafficking. (Plans are underway for Haart to train 20 more youth to be TOTs for other youth)
-To explore how returnees from Saudi Arabia (Three Ladies we have interacted) who survived the ordeals can be of more benefit in the fight using some of their materials like clips of what they witnessed or went through.
-To come up with brochures and fact material on human trafficking
To continue collaborating with Sr. Mary O’Malley an MMM Sister who works extensively in this area in Nairobi and outside Nairobi as well as other church Bodies like Justice and peace commission.
-To spread the awareness raising of Human trafficking to other Institutions run by Sisters of Mercy in Kitui, Miguta, Chepareria, Turkana and to work with our Sisters working in various learning institutions under the Government.
-To strengthen the clubs Justice and Mercy in both primary and secondary schools as well as tackling child protection
-To have workshops with teachers to enable them make their schools more child friendly where children/youth undergoing various issues can find confidants who may be instrumental to rescuing them from the risks faced.
-To empower women by targeting parents and older siblings of the children in our Mukuru schools to uplift their dignity and help them be more caring and concerned to safeguard themselves and their children from becoming victims of human trafficking and other abuses.
Challenges
A major setback when working with jobless youth is that at the end of the day they require some transport money and some money for at least food for the day.
In schools it becomes difficult to find teachers who are willing to work more closely with children in this area as they are already overloaded with many lessons and books to mark.
What complicates matters more is the academic oriented education whereby the children who are not highly gifted eventually are forced out of the system by being sent from school or made to repeat many times. Feeling worth of nothing the children are prone to fall into hands of predators who present as caring and ready to assist them. As a result it may start with small tokens which are enticing to children who in most cases are also used to bring others along into what innocently looks like end of their troubles. And since the parents are already weighed down by the needs of such children they see it as a blessing and do not question or bother finding out what kind of jobs their children are promised.
Victims or returnees who require counseling are only referred to other NGOs which are hard to find at times.
The plight of the woman in very poor cases is devastating in the slums and the plans to start microfinance project with women from Mukuru Slums is yet to get some funding to kick start.
Report by Sr Rose Macharia
Kenya Province
