Sunday, March 29, 2009

Counter Human Trafficking Resources in Eastern Africa

Human Trafficking in South Eastern Europe here

CORRUPTION AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING: THE NIGERIAN CASE here

Global crime clan here

A great deal here

Heroin opiate here

Modern emancipation here

Botnet here

Exodus Cry here

Act to prevent trafficking here

Ask.com here

Bing Here

Home about growth magazine here

Enotes here

Famous people here

Spiritus temporis here

Southern Africa Anti trafficking trust here

Human trafficking blog here

Children manual on HT here

GAATW Commentary on KARDS Research here

KARDS Quoted here

Police arrests a Tanzanian Human Trafficker in UK here

Media and Human trafficking: UN.GIFT here

Forced labour facts and figures, ILO, the cost of coercion regional perspective Africa here

Fact sheet on Labour exploitation by World Vision 2009: Here

Human trafficking the Facts. UN.GIFT Global Initiative to fight human trafficking. Find it here


IOM (2008), In Pursuit of the Southern Dream: Victims of Necessity” Nairobi. Also found online here

ANNPCAN (2007). First international Conference in Africa on Child Sexual Abuse: Enhancing knowledge through research, practices to protect children against sexual abuse. Nairobi, Kenya. Also found online here

ANNPCAN (2007), Preconference for children on sexual abuse. Nairobi, Kenya. Also found online here

Combating Human Trafficking; Broadening the perspective; Report delivered at Stop child trafficking centre. Helinki, Finland 1-3 June 2003 by Gloria Moreno and Fontes Chammartin. Also found online here

COTU (2007). The degradation of work, trafficking in persons from a labor perspective: The Kenyan Experience. Solidarity Center Also found online here

ECPAT (2007). Global Monitoring report on the status of action against sexual exploitation of children in Kenya. Bangkok, Thailand.

ECPAT (2007). Status of Action against Commercial Exploitation of Children in Uganda. Bangkok, Thailand. Also found online here

Elaine Pearson (2000). Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons: A Handbook. Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, Bangkok. Also found online here

Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (2006), Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons: A handbook. Bankok, Thailand. Also found online here

GTZ (2004), Study on Trafficking in Women in East Africa. Also found online here

International Organization for Migration-IOM (2005). Data and research on human trafficking: A global survey. Also found online here

IOM (2008): Human Trafficking in East Africa: Research Assessment and Baseline Information in Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi. Nairobi. Also found online here

Koinonia Community (2007): The inventory and activities for street children in Nairobi. Nairobi, Koinonia Community also found online here

Koinonia Community (2007), Boy Child Sexual Abuse. Nairobi, Koinonia Community.

Kenya Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (2007), The degradation of work, trafficking from a labor perspective; The Kenya Experience. Nairobi. Also found online here

The Cradle The children's foundation (2006). Grand iIlussions, shattered dreams: report on the status of human trafficking in Kenya. Also found online here

Tranh Dam Truong (2006). Poverty gender and human trafficking in Sub Saharan Africa: Rethinking best practices in migration practices. UNESCO, Hague also found online here

Tranh Dam Truong and Maria Belen Angeles (2005). Searching for best practices to counter human trafficking in Africa: A focus on women and children. UNESCO, Hague. Also found online here

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2006). Toolkit to combat trafficking in persons. Also found online here

A Directory of Interventions Assisting Human Trafficked Victims and Survivors in Kenya and Tanzania

A new detailed directory (view this directory here) of interventions and actors assisting victims and survivors of human trafficking in Kenya and Tanzania is now out. The effort to develop a comprehensive list of organizations that are of service to the trafficked people in Kenya and Tanzania has benefited from similar works or other efforts such as:

* Childlife Trust (1997), Database of Homes, Schools and Programmes that Work with Children in Need, Nairobi
* IOM (June 2008 Working Document), Assistance for trafficked persons in Kenya; Directory of identified services. IOM Kenya Chapter.
* IOM (August 2008), Referral System for Adults and children victims of trafficking. IOM Tanzania Chapter.
* Kenya Alliance for Advancement of Children and SNV – Street Children Programme (2001), Directory of Agencies Working with Street Children in Kenya, Nairobi. KAACR and SNV – Street Children Programme.
* Koinonia Community (August 2006): Projects and Activities for street children in Nairobi. Directory. Koinonia Kenya.
* C-TIP (October 2008): Counter trafficking in persons project stakeholders meeting. Royal Court Hotel, Mombasa.

The directory is divided into two parts; part one deals with interventions in Kenya while part two deals with Interventions in Tanzania. Each part is divided into five chapters as follow:

  • Governmental institutions at national and regional levels
  • Faith based institutions at national and regional levels
  • Trade Unions
  • Networks,
  • Advocacy, capacity building and economic empowerment institutions
  • Rehabilitation and other special services institutions

Special services institutions is a broader category taking care of actors doing an array of specialized activities such as: offering formal education, rescue operations, rehabilitating children prostitutes, assisting pregnant women and young mothers, exposing bogus employment agents, tracing services, investigation services, targeted legal assistance, psychological counseling, information provision, documentation and research, health services, assisting prisoners and ex-prisoners, HIV/AIDS intervention, drugs rehabilitation, international repatriation, youth services, provision of toll free telephone hotlines such as Childline and Mewa in Kenya, special internet facilities such as IOM (www.uwe-sauti-yao.org) and referral services.

It is our hope that this directory will assist much in the efforts to understand the different constellations and arrays of services available for the victims and survivors of human trafficking in Kenya and Tanzania and provide an opportunity for actors to communicate and interact with each other. Efforts to improve this directory are on going and always continuous. Hence, for any suggestions, opinions, corrections, criticisms and/or additions, you are all warmly welcome to get in touch with us.

The directory was developed by Koinonia Advisory Research and Development Service

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A new study on human trafficking in East Africa

Title: Human Trafficking of women and children for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation in East Africa: Case study of Tanzania and Kenyan Actors.
Funding Institution: CMC, the Netherlands
Lead Researcher: Richard Ochanda
Research Institution: Koinonia Advisory Research and Development Service- KARDS
Date: Research on progress

The study on human trafficking of women and children for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation in Kenya and Tanzania was commissioned by CMC, a mission support organization from the Netherlands. Koinonia Advisory Research and Development Service (KARDS) conducted this study. The objectives of the study were to:

  • Make an inventory of the faith based networks, NGOs and other civil associations that are active in providing assistance to trafficked women and children who have been victims and/or survivors of commercial sexual exploitation
  • Find out the needs of these organizations in terms of financial assistance and capacity building
  • Assist actors share experiences, skills and information with each other in order to promote general collaboration and networking
  • Stimulate creativity amongst the present actors and generate interest amongst other non involved actors
In Kenya the study was conducted in Malindi, Mombasa and Nairobi while in Tanzania the study was conducted in Dares Salaam and Zanzibar. A total of 51 organizations participated in this study. Organizations not able to respond to our questionnaires provided us with brochures, newsletters and other material about their organizations, they also explained to us about the nature of their work. Organizations not reached personally by our team corresponded with us using Email and other means.

In conducting this study we utilized both desk review and field work. During the desk review we reviewed media reports on human trafficking for the last seven years mainly from Kenya and Tanzania. A few media reports from other countries such as Uganda and Malawi relevant to our study were also studied. We benefited much from literature on human trafficking and migration studies especially covering Sub Saharan Africa and more so East Africa. There are a some important country studies on the Kenyan situation. We did not find country studies on the Tanzanian situation on human trafficking apart from the ones on the US government trafficking site. In the field the researchers divided themselves into three teams the first covering Nairobi, the second covering Malindi and Mombasa and the third covering Dares Salaam and Zanzibar. Our field work was mainly geared towards understanding the DNA make up of organizations working to combat human trafficking of women and children for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. We mainly used the snowballing study design where we were directed to the actors by either NGOs most popular in this field, faith based organizations or the governmental authorities. We also managed to meet a few survivors of human trafficking who were treated with ethical concerns in accordance to IOM 2008 report on East Africa. The results of our fieldwork form the bulk of our chapter on institutional landscape.

We experienced a few limitations in the field. In Tanzania most humanitarian organizations had difficulty sharing their experiences. We hope as more studies are carried out in this field in Tanzania, organizations will feel much more freer to share their experiences with one another. In this case we recommend that network formations be supported, this will help organizations to interact and share more closely. Due to the time and financial constraints we could not conduct very comprehensive organizational studies. On the other hand our statistics on survivors and beneficiaries in the two countries could not be relied for purposes of reporting because we felt that they entangled untrafficked clients being assisted by the actors. However despite these statistical anomalies we were still able to derive our inferences.

We found that organizations working against human trafficking of women and children in Kenya and Tanzania are likely to be involved with children, gender and/or HIV/AIDS issues. Other involved actors are likely to be working for youth empowerment, promotion of human rights, poverty eradication and rehabilitation of drug addicts. Organizations work to address a particular aspect of the complex chain of human trafficking chain in the light of prevention, rehabilitation and social support, legal and judicial support, reintegration of survivors and lobby and advocacy. Resources to assist the survivors of human trafficking are mainly mobilized from international organizations, local contributions within the organizations, from religious institutions, governments amongst other sources. Four important needs were identified by the actors which are financial support, capacity building, government support and a conducive legal environment. Most organizations assisting survivors of human trafficking are in the receiving areas. We made an assumption that there is a possibility that there are very few or no interventions at all in the source areas.

An important contribution of this study especially within the East African context is: first, the clear DNA generic make up of the actors against human trafficking of children and women in Tanzania and Kenya. Second, we found that our East African culture has elements that encourage human trafficking calling interventions on behavioral and/or cultural change. Third, a comprehensive directory of actors showing areas of operations for each actor in Kenya and Tanzania has been developed to accompany this study. It is our hope that this will make it much easy for actors to communicate with one another and share knowledge hence promoting new inventions and effectiveness in assisting the survivors and victims of human trafficking. Fourth, major actors have been identified in the two countries including those involved in research and documentation; this will certainly be a great help for those seeking information in this area such as new actors, the governments, funding institutions and the research community.

To view the KARDS website (Click Here)

Those interested in getting information about this study are kindly requested to get in touch.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Working for Change

Abraham Hicks: Law of attraction


When working for change one important thing is to begin by putting away your "no's". When you see something that seems an outright injustice, do not concentrate on it instead ask for something different. When you stop opposing what you ask for comes. But when what you are asking for is for others to do something different then you will witness their unwillingness to do it hence holding yourself apart from the change that your life has asked for. So the most important change happens very slowly when the resistant ones croak and the non resistant ones abhore. We therefore have to be free from the bondage of the discomfort, which is a struggle for us because we cant get other people to understand us.

Everything is alright. It is alright for you to see an injustice and it is alright to desire it to be different, see it different and live it as if its different, but every time you look back and see that they havent come along, you defy your own dream and that is what is hurting you. In other words you have a magnificent vision as a result of what you have lived. In fact you were born to live that contrast, ti give birth to that dream and that is why it is so important to you. So you burst the dream while a larger part of you is already living it. Every time you look back at what you do not like you defy your own dreams and tear yourself apart and blame others. Hence live your dream and be your dream and stop looking for evidence that does not support it. Every time you focus on what counters your dream you split yourself from your vibrational escrow.

I therefore imagine the following to be an ideal speech of a change maker:

I do not know about you but I believe I was born this way. I know and I feel it with every fibre of my being that I came in not just this way but also intending to be this way. I hit the ground running and here I am. And then I lived in this world that has so many wonderful things about it. And I began to see among the wonderful things, things that were not so wonderful, and those things pained me because I want a wonderful world and not just for myself but also for others. Somehow I have never been able to separate myself from others. I care about life, I care about well being, I care about upliftment. I want people to be joyful, I also want to be joyful too.

So in the living of life I gave birth. I could feel it happen to all kinds of new ideas. I have a dream about the way life can be upon this planet. I see a time where people live among one another in a variety of personalities, in a variety of genders, financial and sexual and all kinds of orientations. I see a world of such diversity that provides us strength and basis for mighty expenditure. I see a world where in our differences we find strengths. I see a world when we come together in our differences not agreeing with one another but understanding that our differences provide us the basis from which we all create and that in this creation there is enough for all of us.

I understand that this is a world of unlimitedness. I no longer believe in shortage. I no longer see limitation and lack. I now understand that people do not have to think what I think in order for me to think it or be it. I now understand that I am unlimited and that all along that this dream that I have dreamt has been dreamt by others and has been lived by many. I am now confirming my claim that I intend to live my dream. I am free to be as I am, to be me. I am free to be as I be. I no longer harbour thoughts that give me the resonance of that and I am no longer going to ask the impossible of the world to come into allignment with what I want because I do not want the world allignment. I want diversity. Diversity is the basis of that which we are becoming. I need and want only allignment between me and my dreams.