COALITION PROGRAMS: Network of Shelters
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Shelters and safe houses provide a calm, peaceful environment for rescued victims of trafficking. |
During 2003, five safe houses were started to receive trafficking victims rescued by the TVAC - two in St. Petersburg , and one each in Murmansk, Petrozavodsk, and Kazan with funding from the US Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The projects provide shelter and psychological counseling, assist in repatriation, and facilitate access to medical and legal services for trafficking victims. In mid-2004, 4 more Russian NGO partners opened shelters under The Russian Project in Yaroslavl, Nizhni Novgorod, Chelyabinsk and Irkutsk.
Shelters started in 2003:
• St. Petersburg Crisis Center for Women
• "Road of Light" Charity, St. Petersburg
• Karelian Center for Gender Studies, Petrozavodsk
• Priyut" Crisis Center, Murmansk
• Kazan Public Innovation Fund, Tatarstan
Shelters started in 2004:
• Yaroslavl Center for Assistance to Family and Children
• " Angara " Baikal Regional Women's Union , Irkutsk
• "Women's Commonwealth", Chelyabinsk
• Nizhny Novgorod Regional Children's Fund .
Safe house staff were trained through programs of MiraMed Institute (USA) and Kvinnoforum of Sweden with funds from the Swedish International Development Agency, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and the US Department of State TIP Office which sponsored international site visits to operating shelters in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics followed by on-site training by international specialists including psychologists, social workers, police, prosecutors and policy makers from the US, Europe, CIS and Turkey to participate in high-level regional trainings for government officials and local law enforcement (building NGO/government partnerships) followed by two days of specialty training for safe house staff (capacity building for NGO partners).
For a summary of the victim assistance activities of all of the shelters, please click on the link below:
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD "SHELTER SURVEY RESULTS 2004-5 "
One key result of this program component has been development of a "best practice" protocol for the operation of a trafficking victim safe house in Russia ("The Trafficking Victim Assistance Protocol for The Russian Federation"). This protocol has been accepted by the Ministry of Social Protection of Moscow as the basis for the operation of future city-run shelters planned to start in 2007.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD " VICTIM ASSISTANCE PROTOCOL FOR THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION"
The crisis of trafficked children in Moscow
According to the Moscow Ministry of Interior, more than 90% of the 50,000 victims of trafficking for prostitution in Moscow are women and girls--and 80% of these are under 18 years of age. There is currently no system of rescue or rehabilitation for these minors - only deportation or imprisonment.
The Moscow City Government recognizes that something must be done to help these victims and stop the growing trend of child sex tourism and child pornography in the nation's capital. The Moscow City Duma acted earlier this year to create the Commission to Prevent Child Trafficking, Prostitution and Pornography. This Commission was instrumental in securing the passage of strong amendments to the Russian Criminal Code against trafficking, prostitution and child pornography. Since its creation, the Commission has worked closely with MiraMed Institute and the TVAC to improve assistance and repatriation procedures for children trafficked abroad and children trafficked into Moscow . However, all rescue, protection and assistance attempts are critically impaired by the absence of any shelters equipped to receive or assist child victims of sexual exploitation in Moscow.
As a result, children whose first point of contact is with police or social services are randomly distributed throughout a system of city run shelters that are little more than detention centers. There are about 100 such shelters in Moscow that process approximately 50,000 "vagrant" children each year. According to the Department of Social Protection, most of these children are from Tajikistan , Moldova and Ukrain, not accompanied by parents, brought to Moscow for prostitution by criminal groups.
Starting in fall of 2005, the Angel Coalition will work with the Moscow Department of Social Protection to create programs for identifying ("profiling") trafficked children, and referring them to two newly designated "child victims of trafficking" shelters where TVAC staff have already begun working in partnership with their Russian NGO partner, "Women and Children First" (WCF). From 2005-7, the partnership will:
- Create and train an outreach team of trained specialists who will work in two of the Moscow shelters providing direct services to children and training staff.
- Provide team training in Moldova. Training will be conducted by Save the Children ( Moldova ) and Terre des Hommes (Swiss).
- Provide team members with internships at the "Road of Light" safe house project for children in St. Petersburg .
- Provide direct crisis management and care to approximately 320 children per year.
- Provide sustainable services in each shelter by training shelter staff on-site.
The key to making this shelter program for trafficked minors in Moscow a sustainable model for other shelters in Moscow is to improve the overall response of the City of Moscow to the needs of child victims of trafficking. MiraMed has already accomplished this with two other projects - The Center for Social Adaptation of Orphans and "Successful Motherhood" A Program for Single Teenaged Mothers and their Babies - in Moscow .
To improve the City of Moscow response to child victims of trafficking, MiraMed staff will :
- Provide training for all relevant city personnel referring to or providing support for the 4 shelters chosen for the project in year one.
- Work closely with the Moscow City Duma to improve laws for the protection of children and prevention of sexual exploitation/violence.
- Write protocols for child victim assistance which describe "best practice" mechanisms of assistance response and shelter referral for these children at the first point of contact.
- Work with the City to design a dedicated shelter for these children or, if necessary, a system of primary and secondary referral centers based on the level of trauma.
The goal of these new shelters for trafficked children is to provide direct crisis management and therapeutic services to 300 child victims during each project year (a total of more than 600 over the next two years), while developing sustainable "best practices" mechanisms of treatment and procedures of repatriation and assistance in their home countries. At the end of 18 months, we anticipate that this will become an official project of the City of Moscow , which will then assume all costs.
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