Recently the Congregation announced the decision to fund an anti-human trafficking project in Zambia over the next three years. This funding was made possible through a donation received from Sisters of Charity of Australia to celebrate the Bi-Centenary of the Congregation.
This project will be implemented through Dialogue for Development, a Zambian NGO established and headed by Sr. Kayula Lesa RSC, which has been active for several years in awareness raising on the issue of Human Trafficking.
In 2015 at a meeting of the International Anti-Human Trafficking Team held in Dublin we committed ourselves to further educate ourselves and our sisters over the next two years on internal trafficking within the various countries where we work, particularly the trafficking of children. This new project specifically addresses the area of internal trafficking of children.
The TIP Report of 2013 in its report on Zambia stated:
“most trafficking occurred within the country’s borders and involved women and children from rural areas exploited in cities in domestic servitude or other types of forced labor in the agriculture, textile, mining, and construction sectors, as well as in small businesses such as bakeries”.
With this in mind, the project will address internal trafficking particularly in the form of forced child marriages and domestic servitude. Its main goal is to reduce vulnerability of rural children to child trafficking in forms of child forced marriages and domestic servitude in 10 villages at Mulanga, Shiwang’andu District and 9 Compounds in Lusaka District. This will be done through
- Awareness raising in each of the identified risk areas
- Empowerment of community animators
- Provision of opportunities for community dialogue to effect attitude and behavioural change leading to community action
In order to ensure the maximum impact of the project the following activities will also be undertaken
- Documenting emerging issues from dialogue meetings and talks
- Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Project
- Lobbying Government to implement the provisions of the Anti-Gender-Based Violence Act of 2011 which also addresses issues of child marriages
- Exploring possibilities of income generating activities for vulnerable child mothers
