One of the people conducting the class commented: “Most often, young people, first of all, know about prostitution and after a little while they remember such forms of human abuse as marriages of convenience and forced labour, but they fail to completely understand the process from recruitment to exploitation. Thus, often they do not have the basic knowledge for analysis of their conduct and facilitation of safety, let alone seeking help in crisis situations. It was our first visit to Baldone elementary music school, but we were pleasantly surprised by the preparedness of the students – knowledge on the subject.”
According to this person, at least one of the teachers had already spoken to the students on the particular topic, so the conversation was initiated at a much higher level. “The group of students was aware of many of the forms of victim exploitation, recruitment, transportation, as well as the vulnerability status. So we were able to sort these things out at the beginning, exposing the human trafficking process and working on the means of protecting ourselves.”
Young people conducting the class do not hide their satisfaction about the class. In their view, such cooperation would be the ideal model for the future – students have already been introduced to the topic and are aware of the risks which they may face in different situations of life in the context of human trafficking. “We as peer educators working with such well-prepared students only have to remind and strengthen the students’ existing knowledge by adding information on the latest trends.”
Project “Multidisciplinary initiatives for prevention of human trafficking” is financed by Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway. You can find more information on the EEA Grants programme “NVO fonds” here on the Latvian website of the EEA Grants: http://www.eeagrants.lv official website of the EEA Grants: http://www.eeagrants.org Society “Shelter “Safe House”” is responsible for the content of this publication.