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KEY AREAS OF INTEREST

Domestic Violence
Sexual Assault
Human Trafficking
Honor Killings
Women and War

CAMPAIGN INITIATIVES

Campus Coalition Against Trafficking
Community Responses to Human Trafficking
Dru Campaign
Generation Aware
JewelGirls
Project Prepare
Tell Your Friends

PARTNERS

Our Partners Speak Out

"Thousands of girls are being kidnapped from their homes and forced to work as sex slaves each year. Our campaign is opening a hot-line, informing Uzbek girls and women of risk of accepting one of the 'dream' jobs offered to them in other countries. These people offering the jobs aren't their friends, they just want to use them for money. We want girls who are trying to come home to know we can help them. At our hot-line center, a specially trained operator will give free and anonymous information on the telephone. In the last few months, we have received more that 1000 calls, among which are calls from parents and relatives, whose daughters or wives were kidnapped and forced to work as slaves. Most of these callers don't even know if their daughters, wives, girlfriends are alive or dead." Nodira Karimova, Director and Founder of Anti-Trafficking Support Center for Girls - Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Nodira Karimova, Director and Founder of Anti-Trafficking Support Center for Girl's in Uzbekistan spoke with Andrea Powell, Director of FAIR Fund about her experiences as a women's rights activist. Below, she discusses the desperate situation of girls in Uzbekistan, and why trafficking is such a big problem.

AP: What inspired you in starting your organization?
NK: I have worked with a lot of different organizations dealing with women's issues. I was always worried about the fact that women in lower economic classes were ignored and did not know about the help they could be offered by these groups. The government and social services did not pay attention to poor women. But, they are the ones that need the assistance the most. It was my observation that these women and girls don't ask for help because they have been taught there is no hope for their situation. They see so many hungry, poor people around them, and eventually they give up on a good future. It is my hope that my organization can really bring hope back to lives of these women and their children through real solutions.

AP: What personal and professional problems did you have while starting your organization?
NK: A lot of my family and professional friends did not understand why I wanted to start my own nonprofit organization. They were worried that I was trying to solve a problem (trafficking) that was never going to get any better. They thought that it was impossible to help girls who 'don't want to help themselves.' But, I talked to them and eventually they started to help me. My biggest supporters were actually my husband and my father. They told me to not be impatient, and to really trust my inner voice. This was very important for me because I was pretty impatient in the beginning. I wanted to save every girl possible, but first I had to build a structure to do that.

AP: Why do you think trafficking is such a big issue in your country?
NK: I think that for a long time, Uzbek people and the government hid the problem. We are a secretive society that does not like to share their problems with the world. A good Uzbek woman had to be first a daughter, than a wife, and finally a good mother. The girls who went abroad were not considered to be good girls. People thought any girl who would do this are just doing it be a prostitute. They did not realize the true deception of the traffickers. Most of these girls need the money - that is why they agree to go. For a long time, no one here really sat back and wondered about how these girls get abroad. No one asked what the problems were that a girl was so desperate to agree to go with a stranger to a foreign country. People just kept closing their eyes, and every time they opened them, the problem was bigger. I decided that we needed a hot line for people to call and ask us questions. A lot of girls call us about their offers to work abroad. And, a lot of families call us because they want to find their daughters. I think that any one can look at our country and see that we are at a crossroads. The economy, patriarchal views of the woman, corruption - it all leads to a fertile ground for girls to be kidnapped into slavery.

AP: Do you think your government is dealing wit the problem of trafficking in an adequate way?
NK: If we compare the trafficking situation from one year ago, to the present one than we can be sure the situation has improved a little. I think that the latest US Department of State's report, "Trafficking in Persons", released this summer has made an influence on my countries attitude to trafficking prevention and prosecution of offenders. Our country was classified as 'Tier 3", which means we are one of the worst countries for trafficking. Before this report was released, our country didn't really tackle these issues seriously. But, now we are already busting trafficking rings that have been in existence for a long time. I really hope that our government will make relevant conclusions and direct all its efforts in preventing this human tragedy.

AP: What has been the response of the girls you speak to when you tell them about trafficking?
NK: When we held the seminars for the schoolgirls in Tashkent, the girls were really skeptical in the beginning. They only knew very little about the problem, and they were certain that good girls would not be caught in that situation. We told them about the real picture. They learned about the ways that a girl can be tricked into thinking that the job is teaching languages, selling clothes, or translating. We also told them that really poor girls are often the most vulnerable because they are afraid of living on the streets. After these talks, they started to understand why a girl would go abroad. This is very important because girls who go are often thought of as 'bad women' or 'sluts.' They were really shocked about the beatings, forced sex, and even deaths of the girls who are trafficked. They didn't know about any of this even thought the problem is very big in our country. The more that these girls know about the problem, the better they can handle dangerous situations or false job offers. These seminars can save their lives.

AP: What are your future goals for yourself and your organization?
NK: First of all we are going to expand the "Information Campaign For Anti-trafficking" all over the country. For the past year we have gained a lot of partners and support from organizations like FAIR Fund. . This shows that our work is being recognized, and that we are becoming stronger. The Information Campaign will include establishing more hot-line call centers in our three branch offices is ��in Termez, Jizzak and Syrdarya and highlighting the trafficking issue through collaboration with the local press in these regions.

More coming soon!

Human Trafficking:

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery. 800,000 to 1 million people are trafficked across international borders each year. Hundreds of thousands more are trafficked inside their own borders, making this estimate only a fraction of the actual number of victims. Individuals can be trafficked for sexual purposes, forced marriage, debt bondage, sweatshop labor, agricultural and domestic servitude, and more. To combat human trafficking, it will take a community of educated citizens, concentrated prevention efforts, strong and implemental laws increase national and international cooperation, and a human rights centered approach to assisting victims of this horrible crime.

FAIR Fund addresses human trafficking by focusing on the prevention, identification,and rehabilitation of youth victims of trafficking in communities where we work.

A definition:

"Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;

Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons especially Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

Some statistics:

The illicit and secretive nature of human trafficking makes gathering reliable statistics difficult. However, below are a few statistics that are generally accepted by international standards.

70% of all victims of trafficking are trafficked for sexual purposes

80% of all victims are women

50% of all victims are youth and children

9.5 billion dollars have been made off the bodies of young girls and women in sex trafficking

200,000 to 350,000 American girls and boys are at risk of being exploited for sexual purposes

20,000 individuals are trafficked INTO the United States each year

In the United States, ANY minor child involved in commercial sexual exploitation is considered a victim of human trafficking

Who are the victims?

Victims of human trafficking do not come from any one country or background. While youth and women are most vulnerable to trafficking, there are also cases of trafficking in men. Victims often come from impoverished backgrounds and/or countries suffering from economic depression and instability. Individuals who have a history of violence in their homes or lives are most likely to become trafficked victims as well. A lack of real job chances leaves many to be vulnerable to false promises. Many who accept these offers from what appear to legitimate sources are then sold into slavery. Often they have their personal identity documents destroyed or withheld and their capturers threaten them or their families. In some cases, they are bonded by a debt that they have no possibility to repay because the traffickers withhold their pay and control every aspect of their lives.

How does someone become trafficked?

While some victims of trafficking are kidnapped or sold by their family members, many are lured by false job advertisements or ‘boyfriends’ who promise to love them but instead sell them to traffickers or force them into prostitution. Traffickers use newspaper advertisements, casual friends or colleagues, mail order bride catalogues, promises of love, and other forms of deception. They prey on the vulnerability of their victims and depend on it to continue their crimes. Some are smuggled to wealthier nations, such as the United States, where traffickers force them to work off their ‘debt’ from being brought to this new country. Trafficking victims should always be seen as victims of crime.

Every victim deserves respect and assistance.

Who are the traffickers?

Trafficking in persons is almost always a form of organized crime with criminal networks involving multiple people. The demand for cheap labor and sexual services foster an environment for traffickers to thrive, and Human traffickers, like their victims, come from many different backgrounds. While the media often portrays traffickers and dangerous foreign men, many victims are actually first lured into their trafficking situation by those they know, including women, family, and even government officials. Those who purchase in “services” or “goods” of trafficked victims are also a part of the trafficking cycle.

Trafficking in Children and Youth

Some global estimates claim that up to 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. These children’s youth are stolen. The United Nations estimates that up to 200,000 minors are enslaved by international trafficking in West and Central Africa alone. These children are often sold or given away by parents who think that their children will have better lives in mostly urban cities. In Southeastern Europe, children as young as 11 or 12 can be found on the streets forced to beg for criminal networks or even their families. There are up to 1 million orphans in Russia who are at risk of explotiatoin through trafficking and prostitution. They rarely see the profits of their labor and do not attend school. Girls as young as 11 or 12 have been documented as being sold as mail-order brides, mainly from Eastern Europe or Central Asia. Trafficked children need special services and protections once they have been discovered. In many cases, the children’s families may have been involved in their trafficking or there may be abuse in the home. These children need long-term care and support.

FAIR Fund’s Current Programs to Combat Trafficking of Youth

Tell Your Friends is FAIR Fund's premier program to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of teens. Through a series of workshops that take place inside public high schools, youth group homes, detention centers, and youth clubs, FAIR Fund staff aim to prevent exploitation and connect teens to needed support and services.

JewelGirls is an art therapy and income generation program for girl survivors of human trafficking, street life, homelessness, and violence. The program currently operates in Belgrade, Serbia, Moscow, Russia, and Washington, D.C.

Campus Coalition Against Trafficking a project of FAIR Fund and Polaris Project, was launched as a grassroots outreach initiative for the purpose of engaging college campus and other student youth in anti-human trafficking efforts in their communities and abroad.

Local and International Trainings: FAIR Fund staff provide lectures and workshops to train lawyers, police officers, and social workers in effective ways to identify and assist youth victims of trafficking in the U.S. and abroad. As of 2008, over 3,000 individuals have been trained.

FAIR Fund is also a member of the Freedom Network USA, a global network of U.S based anti-trafficking organizations working together to eradicate trafficking in persons. Additionally, FAIR Fund is a member agency of the Washington, DC Anti Trafficking Task Force and the End Internet Trafficking Coalition.