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>View discussions about this entry Country: Philippines
Organization: Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc.
Sector Focus - Other
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2007
Project URL: http://www.visayanforum.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - The VF has created a multi-stakeholder partnership for the prevention of human trafficking.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - VF has engaged all the primary stakeholders in the ports. Today, every crucial entity in the port has partnered with VF from the police enforcers to the shipping companies. The VF has transformed the ports in the Philippines, which used to be havens for human traffickers where corruption and bribery perpetuated the cycle of deceit and abuse. Today, the ports have become havens of hope for trafficked victims because of the organized and well-entrenched Anti-Trafficking Task Force borne out of innovative partnerships with law enforcement, the Philippine Ports Authority and shipping companies. Through our concerted efforts, many trafficking activities were aborted during interception in the ports. Surveillance and interception efforts effectively stop trafficking of women and girls while in transit. The victims are then provided training in life skills and even IT that they can use when they return to their community. The model since then has been replicated in various ports all over the country and will continue to expand in the future.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - The partnerships are absolutely crucial. The synergy between NGOs, local communities, religious groups, private sector, shipping companies and even port workers is making sure that cases of potential trafficking is reported. The referrals and tips come from all over the country and from every imaginable sector. Moreover, the traffickers’ operations are choked because in every step of the transport process because of the partners as well. When trafficked victims
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - The VF will expand both in breadth and depth. We plan to open new halfway houses in the middle regions of the archipelago and the southern backdoor used in trafficking people to the rest of Southeast Asia. The VF plans to strengthen its economic programs in the community towards prevention of trafficking. Moreover, the VF will move beyond rescue and rehabilitation into advocacy through media to create a counter-culture against human trafficking.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - The VF’s primary strength is in the number and the depth of partnerships it has established. Locally we are working with the government ministries including the Department of Social Welfare, the National Police and Investigation Bureau, Port Authority, Maritime Police and the Coast Guard. We are also working with Local Government Units to come up with projects to monitor trafficking in their area. We engage them through dialogues and consultations and we train their employees to detect trafficking. We work with many sectors in society from religious groups, universities, other NGOs, port employees, corporations and even employer groups.
Internationally, the US State Department and the ILO have declared our strategy a global best practice. Furthermore, both Anti-Slavery International and the Skoll Foundation have given VF their prestigious awards. Years of working in the field have led to international partnerships with Anti-Slavery International, USAID, the Asia Foundation. Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - We want to prevent human trafficking and help the victims rebuild their lives through our holistic interventions.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - To date we reached out to 32,208 victims, potential victims and passengers who are vulnerable to human trafficking. VF operates halfway houses in strategic areas of the archipelago: Manila and Batangas in the north, Matnog in the center and Davao in the south. Matnog is the main transit point that traffickers use. Hence, we have had the most number of beneficiaries there with 9,199 reached out with direct services while 3092 availed of our halfway house service.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - We track the progress of our trafficking survivors through their grades and if they were gainfully employed after their stay in the organization. We have peer assessments with external parties from international sources to track if we have done substantial work or if we are meeting our targets. In addition to this, we have commissioned researchers to establish baseline data to help us measure the impact of our endeavors.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - Primarily our work is focused on aiding victims of human trafficking. We intercept the activities of traffickers and file cases on behalf of the victims. However, the general public also benefits from VF's advocacy. We are slowly breaking apart a culture of complacency and establishing in the minds of people the risks involved and why the have to think twice and be more critical before trusting a recruiter.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Our main sources of funding are from international donors (92% from grants, 5% from earned interests, and 3% from individual donations). We intend to expand our donor base by tapping non-grant sources such as donations, corporate partners and earned profit.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: Annual budget for Fiscal Year-April 2007 to March 2008 is $2,235,250. Annual revenue is $2,310,648. Number of staff: 94 (including full-time volunteers) What is the potential demand for your innovation? - More and more victims are coming to our halfway houses as a result of greater public awareness that we have helped generate. There is an increased number of requests for VF to expand to other areas. However, we hope that one day there will be no more demand for our intervention because trafficking would have been eradicated. In the meantime, we are ready to assist victims in regaining their freedom.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - High running costs of programs and resources are tied to donor requirements. There are no reserve funds to generate income from interest received on the money. Expansion is also a challenge because of the high variable costs involved in opening new centers. The VF is trying to mitigate this by engaging the partners to assist in constructing or in the operations. In the long-term the VF is aiming to phase out of localities where the local governments and agencies have mastered the intervention
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - When the VF was founded in 1991, the organization aimed primarily to the welfare of migrant people. However, in the past few decades, the VF in its experience of working with people on the ground realized that an alarming number of Filipino women and children were being deceived, coerced and misled by traffickers to go with them to Manila and to other countries. Many of them end up in slavery or sexual exploitation. Upon conducting a situational analysis, the VF discovered that the most crucial point of trafficking is the transportation. This is the last point of visibility when rescue is most possible. The problem was that the ports were havens for traffickers. The corruption was rampant and the traffickers got their way. True enough, when the VF first started, the staff was harrassed, the leaders of VF and the victims were threatened with death.
After several years of negotiations, trainings and discussions, the VF launched its initial partnership with the Philippine Ports Authority and the government agencies. Since then, the ports have transformed into a haven of hope for the victims. The halfway house has been built and there is a multitude of interventions that holistically assist victims in rebuilding their lives. The model has been replicated all over the archipelago and will continuously be done in other locations until the day when it is no longer relevant because trafficking will have been eradicated. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Born into poverty in the Visayas, was a child laborer herself, selling fish and scavenging garbage to help her family survive. During the Marcos dictatorship, she was imprisoned. Her two children were born in captivity with her. After the democracy was achieved, Cecilia was set free, after which, she set out to address the evils of society that deprive people of their freedom to live a decent life. Sixteen years later, the issue of migrant welfare especially of women and children is still integral to VF’s vision.
Contact Information:
Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanba
Executive Director Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (NGO) Discussions about this entry |
Creative Partnerships against Human Trafficking
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On July 16, 2008, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Ending Global Slavery” Competition and would like to pass on the following feedback for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators who are exposing, confronting and ending modern day slavery. We wish you continued luck with your sustainable, innovative, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“This effort to engage all stakeholders to prevent human trafficking is both sustainable and comprehensive. It takes a unique and integrated approach by bringing together lawmakers and police enforcement, an alliance that can be modeled to prevent trafficking at the global level.”
“This effort is extremely ambitious in its scope, by addressing every aspect of transport. It impacts individuals already in transit, provides education about trafficking to the general public, and leads recovery efforts for trafficking survivors. Given its broad range of work, I am especially curious about how it addresses the crime and corruption that it uncovers.”
- Changemakers “Ending Global Slavery” Judges: United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking, International Organization for Migration, Design Within Reach, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Humanity United.
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The Changemakers Team
Ashoka's Changemakers
Excellent Website. Excellent presentation of the issue.
<> WEBSITE: RA9231 Anti Child Labor Law: Excellent "lead" for Language. <> SO, 1) can you Label "Section 1-9" as you label the other sections? 2) Can you (do you?) reference the IMPORTANCE of this language / 'template for a law' on the Visayan Site Map?
<> WEBSITE SITE MAP: Clearly and prominently Identify and link the other organizations whose missions are directly and INDIRECTLY congruent with the Visayan Forum Mission: "TO MOBILIZE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF MARGINALIZED MIGRANTS, ESPECIALLY WORKING CHILDREN."
Good luck with your important work.
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William B. (Nick) Niccolls <> Seattle
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Dear Cecilia,
Congratulations on being among the finalists of this contest. I wish to express my admiration for your work. I had the privilege of visiting the half-way house in the port in Manila when I worked as an Anti-trafficking specialist for the ILO and remember the competence and dedication of your team in dealing with those rescued. What I find most remarkable about your intervention is its preventive role as the rescue takes place before the trafficked persons are placed in situations of exploitation, thus avoiding the trauma that makes reinsertion much more difficult.
I wish you and the team all the best,
Asha
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Asha D'Souza, Louk Vreeswijk,
Friends of Orchha,
ORCHHA 472246
M.P. India
Hello Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanba,
I am really impressed with your entry. I do, however, have a few questions: In what ways do you work with universities? You mention that there are risks to staff members and victims who choose to be witnesses. Are you doing anything legally to protect these witnesses? You mention that you track the progress of your survivors through their grades and employment. Do you have a number or a percentage of how many of the victims you work with become employed?
Thanks for your response.
Dana Frasz
Ashoka's Changemakers
We mentioned earlier that our approach is the one-stop-shop so that includes re-education, life skills training and psychological assistance. We provide these services directly in both the halfway house and the long-term shelter. We have even assisted some victims to get university degrees. For the greater majority of victims, we provide them with skills relevant to the demand of the labor market that they can use when they go back to their communities. Even when they have left the VF center, we still monitory their progress to ensure that our interventions made a difference. Thanks.
Hello,
I think that your program is extremely valuable in partnering with port police and law officials to work together to prevent human trafficking. You also mentioned that you work with the Department of Social Work and various NGOs and a large component of your project is in providing half-way houses for rescued trafficking survivors.
Often times rescued human trafficking survivors become even more vulnerable after being rescued with little social support or resources to assist them in regaining their economic freedom, increasing their economic viability through practical skills training, re-enrollment in education, and especially quality mental health counseling and treatment.
Do any of your partners or half-way house program provide these services, particularly much-needed immediate mental health counseling for those that have been rescued?
I look forward to hearing more!
Thanks.
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Gender Equality and Human Trafficking Specialist