US backs deal on trafficking
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dav/2006/06/27/bus/us.backs.deal.on.anti.trafficking.html
IN A bid to formalize the Republic of the Philippines-United States stance on the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (TIP) drive, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney visited the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA)-Port Management Office in Davao for the turnover of the US grant to intensify the campaign nationwide.
"It is really a model for all of us, the kind of cooperation and collaboration we can have to protect our citizens. Trafficking in persons as all of you know is a global problem; it preys on our weakest citizens and people who do not know better," Kenney stressed in her keynote speech.
"We witness a turnover of goodwill and commitment and we laud the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (Usaid) for the strong support in the advocacy against TIP," said PPA assistant general manager for finance and administration Aida Dizon.
Present during the turnover ceremony on June 22 were about 150 TIP supporters from various allied public agencies, top private and business leaders and distinguished members of the national and local tri-media.
Also, in attendance was Davao City Representative Vincent Garcia to represent the Davao City local government and as one of the witnesses during the signing of the RP-US Memorandum of Understanding.
The grant was handed in to Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (VFFI), the non-government organization (NGO) partner of Philippine Ports Authority in the management of the halfway houses in major ports of the country.
"This unique collaboration to address trafficking between government and VFFI as an NGO through the halfway houses in the seaports will also be replicated in the Philippine airports, a first in Asia and the world," VFFI president Ma. Cecilia Flores Oebenda said.
PPA, through its Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Point and partnership with VFFI, is currently operating five halfway houses in strategic major ports, namely, Manila North Harbor, Batangas, Iloilo, Sorsogon and Davao (Sasa).
GAD, through the leadership of Dizon, had conceptualized the halfway house project as early as 1996 in response to the plight of stranded passengers in the ports.
Most of these passengers are women and children traveling without valid itineraries or reputable work opportunities to support themselves upon their arrival in the new place.
In July 2000, the first halfway house in Manila North Harbor opened up for the public and was later renamed as Balay Silungan sa Daungan. It has since served as a temporary shelter for potentially trafficked persons.
TIP, a growing socio-economic phenomenon worldwide, is characterized mostly by migration of mostly women and children without proper travel documents or with falsified ones. This could also mean a series of trips and stopovers to various destinations undisclosed to them at first.
Survivors inspire ambassador
contributed by
Stephanie Erin Brewer, VF Volunteer/Intern
There were smiles all around in Visayan Forum’s port halfway house in Davao last Thursday – not only because United States Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney had just ceremonially signed a new U.S. Anti-Trafficking in Persons Grant awarded to Visayan Forum, but also because the Ambassador lost no time in demonstrating her strong personal interest in and admiration for the young survivors of trafficking who were present at the halfway house to welcome her.
Upon meeting the group of mostly-teenaged trafficking survivors, Ambassador Kenney first expressed her solidarity with them by saying that she considered what they had gone through “simply unacceptable”. More importantly, however, she viewed the children not as mere victims of a crime, but as active agents for change and as a sign of hope for the future.
“I am always inspired,” she shared, “by the children that I meet” when traveling throughout the Philippines, and she emphasized that the survivors in Davao “should all have real pride in yourselves” for not letting the trauma of being trafficked get in the way of attending school and building successful futures. Moreover, the Ambassador especially admired the children’s role as anti-trafficking advocates who use their own experiences and knowledge of trafficking to help educate and hopefully protect others.
The survivors themselves played an important role in the ceremonial signing of the
anti-trafficking grant by leading the opening prayer during the ceremony and, later, by presenting Ambassador Kenney with a drawing they had prepared, which depicted the plight of trafficked children. In thanking the children for this gift and assuring them that she would not soon forget her visit to the halfway house and the young advocates she had met there, the Ambassador declared, “I’m going to hang this picture in my office so that I’ll see it and think of you every day!”
END
