“Based on the desire of participants of the support group to meet more frequently in order to solve various problem situations more operatively we have taken this suggestion into consideration and found an opportunity to organize such meetings once in two weeks,“ indicates Anita Ūdre, the manager of the support group for victims of human trafficking. She also indicates that participation in such classes promotes improvement of social and functional skills of victims of human trafficking, increasing their future employment opportunities and integration in the society.
Until now – since September of the last year – the meeting of the support group was organized once per month participated by 4–6 people including persons with disability because a part of victims of human trafficking have mild or moderate mental retardation. The classes are lead by two practitioners of the society – a social worker and psychologist.
The goal of the support group is to give new knowledge and understanding to its participants on how to avoid human trafficking, develop critical thinking and reasoning, during assessment of job offers in Latvia and abroad, and to be aware of the potential risk.
Since 2007, NGO “Shelter “Safe House”” has provided social rehabilitation in total for 113 persons. Out of them: marriage of convenience 59, prostitution 26, forced labour 25, sexual abuse 2, model agency – 1 instance. In 2014, the help was provided to 38 persons – 8 men and 30 women. The portrait: a woman up to 28 years of age, primary/secondary education, without children/ with 1 or 2 children born in an unregistered marriage, raised by herself. Target countries: Great Britain, Brazil, Cyprus, Columbia, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Germany.
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.