Sustainable Development Project Lao PDR
(Due to the sensitive nature of the project and to protect the partner NGO and victims from traffickers, photos will not be released publicly)
Background
In Laos, many women and adolescent girls are trafficked into forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Some Laotians migrate to neighboring countries in search of better economic opportunities but are subjected to conditions of forced or bonded labour or forced into prostitution after arrival in these countries. Some of these trafficked victims are deceived by recruiters or employers about the nature of their employment in the destination country. Laotian women and adolescent girls become victims of trafficking in Thailand, in domestic servitude, forced labor in factories, and for commercial sexual exploitation.
There is some internal sex trafficking in Laos, of women and girls from rural areas to large cities or border areas. To a lesser extent, Laos is a destination country for women trafficked from Vietnam and the People's Republic of China, for sexual exploitation. Laos serves as a transit country in a small number of cases with Chinese and Burmese women and girls transiting Laos to Thailand.
Vocational Training for Sex Trafficking Victims in Lao PDR, Savanakhet
This is the first of our sustainable development project which involves the construction of a vocational training school and vocational curriculum development within a rehabilitation centre and shelter in the southern province of Savanakhet. It is a comprehensive set-up, responding to the needs of sex trafficking victims for rehabilitation by providing them with the skills necessary to make a living for themselves. The school's construction will be completed in July 2008.
Vocational Training School Objectives
a) To ensure victims are equipped with the necessary skills to integrate back into society.
b) As the current level of development in the provinces and country does not require skills beyond agriculture and simple business management, to offer realistic aid, training will be tailored towards:
- Basic business management with a foundation on managing business finance,
- Employable skills like beauty services and hairdressing (the tourism industry is in its infancy but it is definitely growing and there are very few beauty related industries in the country currently),
- Handicraft such as making silk national flowers to be sold at souvenir shops (this is currently being done in Vientiane and it is popular),
- Farming (this includes education on fishing, agriculture, market ventures, plantation, and more),
- Sewing (tailoring and producing blankets or quilts) and;
- Basic elementary education to provide the victims with basic reading and writing skills in the Lao language.
Main Partner
AFESIP - Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire ( Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstance)
AFESIP was founded by Ms Somaly Mam, a victim of sexual exploitation, in Cambodia in 1997. The organization's main cause is the rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration of girls forced into prostitution. Currently AFESIP has agencies in Spain, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos (Vientiane).
AFESIP Laos plays a key role in the repatriation of trafficked victims for sexual exploitation and to provide vital grass roots support to victims, to their country of origin, working in close collaboration with the Lao Government (particularly with the ministry Labour and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), AFESIP Thailand and local partners in Malaysia and Singapore.
Target Beneficiaries
The project will benefit victims from the rural areas in the south of Lao PDR such as those in the provinces of Attapeu, Champassak, Saravan, Xekong and also Savanakhet, where the school is located. In addition to victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation, the project will benefit young women in prostitution who are unable to leave without external assistance and who are at risk of contracting aids and other sexually transmitted diseases.
It will also help young women in precarious situations who are vulnerable to being trafficked into prostitution. The families of victims and their communities will also benefit from the reintegration of the victims into their community. The rehabilitation of the victims through vocational skills training will stimulate economic growth and capacity building in the poorest communities in the region .
Project Development Details
The construction of the vocational training school and the development of its curriculum will be taken upon as two phase independent projects with the latter proposed as an extension of the primary donation to ensure sustainability of funds invested by Youth Challenge.
Phase I : Construction of Vocational Training School and set-up costs for classrooms
Total cost : SGD50,000.00
Phase II : Vocational Training Curriculum Development
Annual cost : SGD10,000.00
Curriculum Development for Vocational Training will be under-taken jointly by AFESIP and Youth Challenge (Singapore).
Technical Assistance (Annual)
Youth Challenge will gather experts in areas such as business management, fashion design, hairdressing and farming to assist in designing the curriculum every year. In time, other experts will be roped in to expand the curriculum to include skills training for other emerging industries, depending on the economic and financial development of the country. Direction is on small business sustainability, employability and updating of current curriculum.
Youth Missions (Bi-annual)
Youth Challenge will send youth missions to support the training sessions bi-annually. Youth involvement will include research and development on small business management so as to develop innovative but simple methods of enhancing business performance. Areas of concern include product marketing and packaging, business retention and sustainability, sales performance and efficiency, market research and development tools for business expansion.
