How will the ASEAN Economic Community impact Cambodia?

The end of 2015 is set to be the launch of the new single market in Southeast Asia, otherwise known as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Ten countries in the region, including Cambodia, are expected to benefit from “the free flow of goods, services, investments, and skilled labor, and the freer movement of capital across the region.” (Nay Pyi Taw Declaration, May 2014)

But with the construction of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region’s special economic zones also coming to a close in the next twelve months, what are the implications for migration in the area, and how will this affect Cambodia?

Is Cambodia ready for the AEC?

The AEC is predicted to increase Cambodia’s real GDP by 4.4 %, its exports by 5.3 % and private investment by 24.8 %.

However, poor infrastructure in road, rail, ports, as well as the limitations of the local electricity supply and telecommunications pose practical problems, according to Hing Vutha’s report ‘Cambodia’s Preparedness for ASEAN Economic Community 2015 and Beyond.’ Bureaucratic and logistical costs currently make the export procedure in Cambodia lengthy and expensive.

Cambodia may also lag behind others in terms of education and skill, due to the low literacy rate (73.9% 2012) and the majority of workers still educated only to primary school level. Many may not be able to compete with other countries like Singapore and Malaysia in a single jobs market.

Movement of skilled and unskilled workers

According to the ARTNeT policy brief on ‘Moving Freely? Labour Mobility in ASEAN’, Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) will ensure standard qualifications are recognised in professions like accountancy and medicine across ASEAN, alongside the development of the ASEAN Qualification Framework. However, there is nothing in place for unskilled workers.

“By limiting substantial co-operation on labour market access to high-skilled labour, ASEAN members are missing out on the opportunities and positive developmental impacts from facilitating well-managed migration.”

AEC’s agreements The Movement of Natural Persons (2012) and the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA) are inherently selective, the first created with businesses sending personnel overseas temporarily in mind, and the second applying only to those who are employed with a registered company. These do not include unskilled labour or people simply seeking employment or citizenship elsewhere, one of several points where the AEC differs from the Europe Union.

Helen Sworn on
'Preventing Slavery & Trafficking in Persons in ASEAN', Bali

Increased migration; increased vulnerability

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) plans to facilitate trade between the six GMS countries (Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand) are also gathering steam this year. 

Speaking on the subject earlier this month at the 8th Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in Bali, Indonesia, Chab Dai’s Helen Sworn has warned on the implications of Cambodia’s position in the midst of two new economic corridors that will essentially link China and India via Southeast Asia. ADB estimated back in 2004 that half a million trucks will travel through the region per day, which will increase the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDs as well as the risk of unsafe migration. Source communities will have fewer prospects and access to education as people move to economically stronger countries, with children left behind as parents migrate for work.

Human rights NGOs like Adhoc and NGOCRC have also warned that the ASEAN integration will lead to greater numbers of children in particular being trafficked or abused. Reported in Voice of America, Ya Navuth, head of the NGO Caram said:

“Children could also face more risk from economic pulls, experts warn. That includes families sending their children to work in other countries, where they will be vulnerable to abuse.”

How can Cambodia respond to the ASEAN and GMS changes?

Hing Vutha, speaking at the Chab Dai member meeting in May

The Migration Policy Institute report on ‘A ‘Freer’ Flow of Skilled Labour within ASEAN: Aspirations, Opportunities, and Challenges in 2015 and Beyond’ recommends ‘temporary schemes’ to expand the market access for low-skilled labours, creating legal channels to reduce irregular migration and ensuring sending countries be involved in monitoring the candidates before they emigrate.

Hing Vutha meanwhile, brings the emphasis back to education:

“Improving the education system should be the prime policy focus…Cambodia can benefit from the AEC since it can continue to import skilled labour from other ASEAN countries to tide it over this period of skills shortage. But over the longer term, the country should also focus on developing the skills of domestic labour so that it can reduce its dependence on foreign skilled labour.”

Though the ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons and the ASEAN Plan of Action are expected to make positive steps on this issue before the end of the year, it’s clear that we and other organisations fighting to stop human trafficking in the region will need to maintain a coordinated effortto work across border lines, not just within one country.

Bridging the Gap

Chab Dai's long time staff member and co-founder of Chab Dai USA, Tania DoCarmo, is highlighted by University of California's School of Social Sciences as they report on her combination of experience in both academia and activism against human trafficking.

Reposted with permission from the UCI School of Social Sciences. See original post here.

Tania has worked for Chab Dai since 2006

For first year grad student Tania DoCarmo, the path to a Ph.D. has been anything but conventional. However, what her journey lacks in predictability, it makes up for in travels abroad, human rights work and practical, first-hand knowledge of human trafficking—her primary research interest. In fact, the sociology student’s proposed project on the subject recently secured her a fellowship through the National Science Foundation’s highly competitive Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which will fund her next three years at UCI.

Though her initial proposal to the NSF—involving a comparative study of humanitarian organizations in Cambodia and Ukraine—has been tweaked slightly, the focus of her current research remains rooted in the deeper understanding of counter-trafficking organizations. And after working for one such organization for more than nine years, she has some valuable insights.

DoCarmo’s interest in human trafficking is a direct result of her non-traditional route to academia. And though she has always loved learning, after her first year as an undergraduate at Biola University, she worried that she loved it a bit too much.

“I was sort of afraid that I was going to get stuck,” she explains. “I loved school, so I was afraid that I was just going to go to school and get married and never really go anywhere.”

So, the then teenager decided to drop everything and move to Brazil—much to the vexation of her parents—to participate in a humanitarian training program. It was in Brazil that she met her now-husband, and two years after she left the U.S., she set off on another life-changing adventure, this time to Cambodia. It was there that she met a woman who had recently started a group called Chab Dai, a non-governmental organization dedicated to uniting activist groups and ending sexual abuse and trafficking in Cambodia.

After volunteering with the organization for a short while, she eventually took on a full-time position, helping to research and implement effective training methods. It was during her time there that she noticed how distrustful activists were of researchers and journalists.

“Through that experience I just realized the gap that exists between what activists and organizations are doing and what academics are doing,” she says. “Historically, researchers from big universities would come over and want to interview victims and do their research and then you would never hear from them again. There was a lot of mistrust and a lot of feeling like they didn’t understand the context.”

Despite the skepticism, DoCarmo rediscovered her love of academia, took classes online to complete her bachelor’s degree and subsequently earned her master’s degree in anthropology while still working for Chab Dai. She felt that this bad blood between activists and researchers was doing damage to both sides of the cause, and she began to imagine combining her education with her passion and expertise for activism to bridge the gap.

“Getting my master’s degree reminded me how much I like academics and how much I believe in research. It really built my conviction that to do good work we need to understand what we’re addressing—and we need research to do that.”

So, after nearly nine years with Chab Dai and several moves back and forth from the U.S. to Cambodia, DoCarmo and her family made the trek back to California where she began UCI’s sociology graduate program in 2014.  

She is currently working on two research projects that have evolved from her research proposal to the NSF. The first, which she is working on in conjunction with Francesca Polletta, sociology professor, examines the use of storytelling and narratives within the activist community. As DoCarmo explains, there is sometimes a fine line between empowerment and exploitation, especially when the subject of a story may not be able to foresee all the potential ramifications of their participation.

“A lot of times, organizations will use a victim’s story to get donations or funding,” she says. “And while I see why people are doing that, my experience has been that stories can be very exploitative to the people whose stories you are telling.”

In addition to being manipulative, sharing a victim’s story can be damaging to their livelihood and reputation. DoCarmo explains that, in Cambodia, there is a very negative stigma associated with trafficking and prostitution. She has seen victims who are trying to move on with their lives be thrown back into a negative place when their community finds out that they had been sex workers. And there are even more sinister dangers—she notes that it is not uncommon for sex tourists to travel across the world in order to track down a woman that they saw in a documentary.

“Internally I’m still trying to wrestle with it, because I don’t think we should tell a victim what’s good or bad for them because they need to be empowered to tell their story if they want,” she says. “But we also need to be responsible for our part in it. So we’re interviewing organizations in the States and overseas and talking to them about how they’ve used stories—what’s been useful and what hasn’t been useful.”

In addition to this work, DoCarmo is also working on her own project that she hopes will help shed light on how human trafficking came to be a “new” social problem despite having been around for thousands of years. She believes that global interest in the issue became prominent after a 2000 U.N. convention that essentially coined “human trafficking” as a term.

She hopes to find out why, if trafficking has existed for centuries, was there a sudden explosion of concern about it. She’s seeking answers to her questions through archival research and hopes to, eventually, incorporate her work as a chapter in her dissertation, though that won’t be for several years. Her ultimate goal is to repair the bond between academics and activists in the counter-trafficking world, which she hopes will improve overall understanding of the topic.

“Sometimes when I read, there just seems to be a disconnect between how practitioners see a problem and how it’s written about in academia,” she says. “Through my research I want to reflect the practitioner’s view with the academic’s. I think together you have a better understanding.”

For now, DoCarmo is happy to be merging her two passions, academia and activism, while raising her two children with her husband. And with the NSF fellowship to help fund tuition and research expenses, she can spend the next three years focusing on how to make a difference.

—Bria Balliet, School of Social Sciences - See more at: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2015/2015-07-14-docarmo-trafficking.php#sthash.eBe2i3Mp.dpuf

The frontline of human trafficking aftercare: training for members

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend a session aimed at frontline and administrative staff working in human trafficking, giving me a good idea of the kind of training that the Chab Dai coalition offers its member NGOs. Led by paediatrician, health consultant and founder of Relentless, Dr Katherine Welch, the one-day "Essential Health Components of an Aftercare Assistance Program" Workshop covered common issues facing professionals working to support those affected by human trafficking and abuse.

Understanding the key issues

The morning session was spent identifying those common issues, discussing best practices such as ‘universal precautions’ to do with hygiene and patient care, confidentiality and recording medical information. As many of the participants I met work in environments such as shelters and re-training centres and are used to meeting with vulnerable, injured and distressed clients, Dr Welch talked through the importance of seeing beyond physical symptoms to the root mental causes they might suggest. There was even advice on advocacy - on how to assert patient rights and challenge medical practitioners if necessary.

“You learned from the health training with Dr Katherine. She took an interest in the topics and shared them well…thank you for having this kind of practical workshop” Chandra Chap, Garden of Hope Foundation - Pleroma Home for Girls 

The tools to fight human trafficking

After lunch, it was time to drill down to more practical tips and tools to take away. The longer term continuity of care - what hospital, counselling and family planning services a client may need access to – was discussed, as well as everyday challenges that are not always obvious, such as client awareness of basic meal-planning and nutrition.

The day ended with a look at some example case studies. Participants split into groups to discuss what their responses would be in the face of certain scenarios, from attempted suicide to re-integration and sexual harassment.

Supporting each other in the field

The response to the training session on the day was really positive and everyone I spoke with seemed to be on the same page when it came to sensitive, case-by-case handling of their work. Participants also had the chance to give feedback and make suggestions for future workshops.

Working in Communications, I don’t have direct experience of what working in anti human trafficking actually means for care workers, nurses, residential managers and other frontline staff. But as the session ended, I felt I had gained a real insight into the day-to-day questions that arise from aftercare, how every precaution must be taken and every consideration to the client’s situation, history and feelings must be made.

It seemed to me that training like this is incredibly valuable to those who do work in this often harrowing field, not only for sharing knowledge and experience, but for supporting each other to carry on.

"Katherine was so knowledgeable in the area which was really helpful, and it was good having medical practitioners from Phnom Penh as well, to give local advice. The training was just what I needed." Ellen Wood, Agape International Missions.

10 years of Chab Dai - Spotlight on Chan Saron

As we approach our 10 year anniversary as an organisation working towards ending human trafficking, we want to recognise the teams and individuals who have made us who we are today. This week, we focus on Chan Saron, Justice and Client Care Program Manager.

Saron has worked for Chab Dai since 2008, having previously worked as a pastor in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. Initially a trainer in Chab Dai's Urban Prevention Project, Saron saw the birth of the Case Support Project, which began in 2011 as a first response to anyone who needs to report a case of trafficking or abuse. From finding a shelter to briefing families on court procedures and following-up with community leaders, Case Support coordinates referrals and provides practical support for clients.

“Before when we had the case team, we would refer to another organisation. However, as we received [approx] 100 cases a year, we found the organisations already had many cases to handle. So when we started Case Support in 2011, we divided into two teams –  social work and the prosecution follow-up teams. I am responsible for both teams; for managing all the cases.”

Cross-border trafficking cases

Case Support works a lot with local communities here in Cambodia, but 2014 saw the team continue to strengthen cross-border relations with many countries, including travelling to China in response to increasing numbers of forced marriage cases involving Cambodian women. Saron spoke of the unique challenges here:

“When we're dealing with overseas cases, there are often too few dedicated staff. What we need is someone working directly with the survivors. There is a gap for a coordinating organization between the survivors, the local Chinese authority, Cambodian embassy in China and government institutions and NGOs in Cambodia.”

Though these challenges are ongoing, there have been some more positive outcomes from these cases:

“This year, we had a complaint from a woman who said that her daughter was sold by a broker to China. The broker promised that her daughter would go to Singapore to work, but when the mother allowed her daughter to go with [him], he sold her to China for forced marriage.

"Meanwhile, the mother travelled from their home town to Phnom Penh, and sat near to another two young girls, asking them: 'Where are you going?'  So [the girl said] 'to work in Singapore' and when she asked the girl how, the two girls said 'I am going with this man who will get me a job'.

“The story was similar to her daughter’s, so she reported this to Chab Dai and when I reported this to the police, we assisted in the rescue of two girls and the arrest of the broker in Phnom Penh. After, the woman went back and related the story to the community.”

To stop it happening again? I ask Saron. “Yes, to stop it happening again.”

Therein lies the key to what Chab Dai is all about – asking the question how can human trafficking be prevented, as much as thinking about aftercare.

How has Chab Dai made a difference?

So how does Saron think Chab Dai has made an impact on the way human trafficking is handled in Cambodia in the last decade?

“We have already worked with the [Ministry of Interior] Department of Human Trafficking for three years - at first, [it was] hard. I think that through collaboration, this has now changed.

“Before, Cambodian police didn't have much training about this issue, only police at the top level. But the people who work directly with the case are the local police. So when we work with them, we always try to educate them. We also explain to them that you cannot handle a criminal case without filing a complaint to the court.

“[Chab Dai] also attends meetings at national level so our work with UNIAP [United Nations Inter-agency Project on Human Trafficking] is very important. Cambodia is a member of a committee of countries along the Mekong River, like China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, (COMMIT), so we're working together to combat human trafficking. We work to advocate for policy change, so if we have something that is not good, we will [raise] our concerns. They have the power to change the policy, and if we don't have the right policy, how can we protect the child?”

Finally, I ask, what makes Saron carry on working in this challenging field?

“I saw many Cambodian people, especially the poor, who had been abused by another person or had suffered injustice in Cambodian society. So I thought I should do something for the people, if I have the ability to.

"When I worked in the community as a pastor, the people around me were always coming to me, but
I did not know how to help them - I asked them to file a complaint to police, but when they went to the police, they didn't get any help.

"So it's this kind of problem that pushes me to work in Chab Dai; because Chab Dai can complete my vision. Finally, Cambodian society can have justice. Not all, but some parts can see justice.”

Retracing the Vision

I am still learning that the journey of life and vision passes in seasons.. Sometimes the sun shines and other times it's hard to see a way through the darkness.

My most recent season has certainly consisted of more darkness than sunshine and a friend reminded me the importance of reflecting on the beginning of the vision to remember the start of the journey and why I took this path.

Last month we had the delight of having our daughter visit from university.  While she was here we had a sort out (one of the things my kids dread about me entering their rooms!) and she decided to clear out some of her childhood soft toys. While she was sorting them, she was explaining to me the ones that she would never get rid of as they had significant emotional memories and attachment.

As she was pulling them out of the bag, she set aside the ones she wanted to keep and among them I saw a familiar small doll hand made out of pink wool.  I asked her why she kept that doll and she explained that she wanted to keep it because the girl gave it to me for her and she always wanted to remember how a little girl who had nothing but this doll and had gone through so much wanted to give it to her. Seeing the doll took me back to an event more than 15 years ago that was a catalyst for the beginning of a vision and the work I am now doing.

The event involved both a physical and metaphorical journey that was instrumental in the immediate project work I was involved in and unknown to me at the time, planted the vision for founding Chab Dai.

The physical journey involved a few hopeful (and naive) expats and Cambodians who were disturbed by the increasing events and stories of children being traded and transited through the Cambodia/Thai border in Poipet.  At the time we didn't understand that this was indeed trafficking but knew that this was something that could not be ignored and so set out to research the issues and to see if other organisations were seeing the same as us and were trying to address it.

The more than ten hour journey (which today would take about two!) on roads that had potholes the depth of a car, in an old Toyota land cruiser with very little in the way of suspension was pretty brutal to say the least!  On more than one occasion did I wonder what I was doing on this journey!

During our time in Poipet I met a young girl of about five years old who had been trafficked to Bangkok with her baby brother to beg on the streets.  She had been separated from her family and had no idea where they were or where her home village was.  I talked to her and explained that I had a daughter her age and a son her brothers age.  As we talked she showed me a doll she had made out of wool in the shelter she was in.. And as I was about to leave, she gave me the doll and asked me to give it as a gift of friendship to my daughter.  I was deeply touched by her generosity and selflessness.  This was my first interaction with a survivor and one I have never forgot.

I have no idea where that girl or her brother are today, which is one of the agonies of working with survivors.

However, that meeting forever changed the course of my vision and of my life journey and my hope is that in turn it has touched and changed the lives of many others.

A fellow pilgrim,

Helen

Celebrating a Community of More Than 1,000 Advocates! (Join Today)

The Freedom Collaborative and Freedom Registry Story

The vision of this project is to see the global anti-trafficking movement increase its capacity to collaborate, develop inter-country and cross-border referral mechanisms and learn from one another on evidence-based practices and emerging issues.

Evidenced-based practice was drawn from many years of implementing a grassroots level coalition in Cambodia working together to end trafficking and slavery.

Chab Dai’s Freedom Registry project began in 2009. While contextualizing the organization’s ethos and vision in the development of Chab Dai USA, we carried out research among the anti-trafficking movement on the gaps that existed.

The result was a need for a registry with vetted organisations  that could be used as a mapping tool and searchable referral mechanism.

This was initially piloted in 2011 among  U.S. stakeholders, and subsequently launched to the public in March 2012.

Global Expansion

In December 2013,  the full platform, including the Freedom Registry, was launched internationally and integrated with the additional tools of Freedom Library, Freedom News and Freedom Dialogues as the all-encompassing Freedom Collaborative.

As of today, this is how the community of anti-trafficking and anti-slavery movement are using the platform:

Community:

1,007 Registered Individual Users from

135 Countries  who have registered

926 Organisations from diverse program focus within the 4 P's

Protection: 574

Prevention:399

Partnership:137

Prosecution: 42

Spending 2,775 total hours on the platform

Library:

2,087 User-added studies, reports, journal articles, laws, articles, books and videos. from

245 Countries and territories, in

29 Languages

Expanding into the Future

After years of working with our partners, building grassroots organisations and developing Freedom Collaborative, we still see so much potential for growth that will see the platform expand from its current form into an interactive, macro-level tool that helps us address human trafficking and slavery from a multi-sectoral perspective – working not only in victim referral mechanisms but also developing tools to suppress the environment that allows and enables slavery to flourish in this world.

Watch this space…

Telling Better Stories: Where "Compassion Campaigns" Fail

Have you ever faced the challenge of summarizing a very complex issue in a succinct yet engaging manner? I have. When I was visiting home recently, I was asked about my work in counter-trafficking and what is it that I do.  I always appreciate these moments and try to share information on human trafficking and Chab Dai's work in raising the standards of care for vulnerable people and building collaboration. I can think of many examples, such as our support team working on cases of forced marriage in China, the labor cases on Thai fishing boats or the thousands of villagers and community leaders in Cambodia that are now educated on safe migration, human trafficking and/or parenting skills. But these opportunities are also challenging as I try to describe what I've been working on for the past couple of years; a process that has been so challenging and precious that it hard to put into words, let alone a 30 second response.

I found it hard to share these stories in a way that sums up the complexity of these issues in a dignified and non-sensationalist manner. And the more I talk with my peers and colleagues about the reasons for this struggle, the more I realize that others in the field are facing the same challenges. Rachel Kurzyp, the Communications Director at WhyDev, wrote in her blog post, NGOs Need to Tell Better Stories, "When I re-tell these stories and others, I feel conflicted. I want the individuals within the stories to be respected and have dignity. I don’t want them to be viewed as helpless and weak. I try to make sense of their situation the best way I can. But I know the supporters and donors don’t like to read stories without happy endings or pieces that question the world’s inequality and their part in it."

There is almost always an expectation to hear an emotionally charged story with a dramatic rescue and heroic finish. A call to action usually comes through heart-wrenching images such as a powerless woman in a prison cell or a child picking up rubbish at a garbage dump. However, such stories often fall into a narrative of saviors and victims, glorifying images of rescuers during brothel raids while other seemingly more mundane, but equally important, actions go unnoticed. This kind of "compassion" marketing oversimplifies and dilutes the stories of individuals who live in these very complex sets of circumstances.

A proven risk of these "compassion" marketing campaigns is that they end up hurting the very people they set out to help. Many of the people we see in the images and we hear telling their stories end up being re-traumatized from the constant re-living of their experiences or through the stigma they face in their communities if their stories leak out. Another risk of such marketing is that once donors get tired of the same story, they move on to a new one, resulting in a loss of funding that forces projects and cases to close down. 

Many quick-fix campaigns lack a more holistic and long-term solution. They may even misidentify the underlining problems. Even though donations to these programs are given in good faith, the solutions they support in the long run might be creating more dependency rather than true empowerment.

And at the end of the day, the individuals and communities we advocate with and for are the ones who will ultimately either benefit or be deprived.

Still, there are good examples of dignified story-telling and community engagement. Contrary to the scenarios unpacked above, there are organizations and individuals who are conscious of the complexities of working alongside those who are vulnerable. More often than not, these programs run quietly and steadily with the dedication of a team of committed staff and volunteers. I have friends and colleagues who work very hard to bring change to their communities. This gives me hope. Hope that there are good initiatives to be part of with those that are informed by grassroots strategies and can galvanize a community of well-informed people who are committed to a cause that is sustainable, and one that promotes long term engagement and commitment to maintaining the dignity of the very population they serve.

Does Collaboration Help?: Asking the Hard Questions

At Chab Dai we have been facilitating collaboration and coordination for years, but is that truly enough? Are we really making a difference?

John Kania and Mark Kramer wrote an article discussing collective impact, a difference made through broad cross-sector coordination, which is exactly what Chab Dai aims for. In this paper they cover three case studies: an education initiative, a conservation project and an effort to reduce childhood obesity, all of these are seen as astounding collaborative successes. They found five commonalities between the efforts, all of which are interesting and pretty simple:

1. Common Agenda

The Millennium Development
Goals, do we need these for
human trafficking? 

2. Shared Measurement System
3. Mutually Reinforcing Activities
4. Continuous Communication
5. A Backbone Support Organization

Now let's assess if Chab Dai, as a coalition, has these characteristics.

1. Common Agenda: Yes! In the most general sense, we are committed to addressing issues of abuse, exploitation and trafficking by working together and providing opportunities for learning.

2. Shared Measurement System: We've developed Chab Dai Charter and Freedom Registry, both of which measure organizational capacity across organizations – Charter through a shared assessment tool and Freedom Registry through documentation of national good practices.

What about shared impact measurement? These are a start, but globally I'd advocate for some type of Millennium Development Goals system for trafficking to get everyone on the same page for at least the first 3 of these 5 aspects. An ambitious goal, but certainly possible.

3. Mutually Reinforcing Activities: Absolutely; coordination and referrals are our specialty.

4. Continuous Communication: In Cambodian culture, collectivism thrives in a formal and informal sense. We achieve this not only through forums, member meetings and emails, but it's the very core of our coalition and Freedom Collaborative project.

5. Backbone Support Organization: We've actually been expanding more and more from coordination support into capacity-building support for our local Khmer member organizations. Freedom Collaborative aims to be a backbone tool for the global movement.

Kevin Bales says only .0043 percent of the global population is affected by human trafficking. That's .0043 percent too much, but it does make the problem seem surmountable. This is something we can eradicate. If, then, we are indeed using a model that is proven to work, why are we still addressing trafficking? Can we move on to another issue?

Well let's look back at those case studies. The education initiative was able to show success in 34 of 53 indicators, which is great but still only a 64% percent success rate. An education initiative, perhaps shouldn't see a D grade as success.  

The conservation project was able to protect and restore 1,000 acres and 27 species are now thriving. However, this took 15 years and included perhaps one of the most powerful partners around, the U.S. Navy's 1,000 acres is also a tiny fraction of the millions of acres of land under threat around the world.

The childhood obesity reduction effort was able, over it's first year, to reduce "approximately one pound of weight gain over 8 months for an 8-year-old child." The effort itself said this result "may seem small."

Now, the conclusion to draw from this is not that collaboration isn't effective or that these case studies are not as successful as they're made out to be. The case studies, and please check them out for yourself, are absolutely impressive and are certainly much more effective than the sum of each stakeholder working independently.

The lesson here is that the work of collaboration addressing any issue is incredibly difficult, and the Chab Dai Coalition is actually doing quite well and more importantly collaboration can make a difference if it's done right. For us, collaboration is difficult in general, which is further compounded by the complexity of trafficking, which is then compounded even further by a Cambodian context with present corruption and lack of resources.

Going up against this, Chab Dai is not just doing well, we are doing really well. Chab Dai, as a previous blog post has mentioned, is a model for countries that are much more developed and are less corrupt than the Kingdom of Wonder, including, from our experience, countries like the U.S. and Canada. If you want further evidence, please check the December 2012 evaluation of our coalition. 

We have seen tremendous growth in our collaborative efforts with other organizations and have witnessed changed lives; empowered women, men and children; educated responses; sustainable opportunities and freedom for thousands. And it has taken the collaboration of NGOs, professionals, practitioners, students, volunteers, the Khmer community and international efforts to get us here. We hope to see more people engage in collective impact in this effort to fight human trafficking. 

Cambodian Inspiration Leads to a Global Model of Collaboration

I am sitting in a hot dilapidated meeting room with our local team right now in Cambodia. I am listening to the amazing hopes and plans that they have committed themselves to, in order to see the vision of collaboration and working together become a reality. I can also see their passion for partnership and how critical it is to addressing trafficking and abuse.  These young Cambodians are setting an example for the rest of us right now, and here is why...

Most NGOs in Cambodia (as well as in other developing nations, no doubt) are used to being the recipients of external assistance in the form of monetary aid, foreign experts as well as in program frameworks and development theories from ‘westerners’ and other developed nations. 

Of course, these elements have assisted Cambodian society move on from its post-civil war environment and have helped established both frameworks and infrastructure for many aspects of the nation’s growth. However, the result of this has been two-fold in brief: those bringing to Cambodia, although with good intentions, develop a sense of entitlement and superiority with little true accountability and collaboration with others. Secondly, Cambodians are now saying that they are through with being regarded as a ‘victim’ nation, viewed as having little capability to become responsible for the future of their society.

This makes the scaling up of a locally ran coalition to a global learning community, even more than just a replication of a successful model.

It means that Cambodians are now innovators. When they export their grassroots practice of collaboration to the developed world, it empowers and encourages their national population to see themselves as more than just recipients and more as contributing counterparts within the international anti-human trafficking movement.

Sometimes I wonder if I am too optimistic in thinking that we can make a difference through partnership, even though I have been committed to this for more than ten years. But as I listen to our team, I believe the dream is still alive and worth pursuing.

One hopeful pilgrim....

The Butterfly Project: How We Began and Some Thoughts About 'Trust' and 'Disclosure'.......

A number of Chab Dai aftercare organizations in Cambodia expressed their desire to understand more about the long-term impacts of their programs on victims/survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking. At this time, no one organization had the capacity to conduct long-term follow up on their clients leaving their programs. Hence, the idea of a cooperative effort began to grow. The Butterfly Project is the first longitudinal re-integration research study that seeks to follow a group of sexually exploited/trafficked youth and adults over a ten year period. We started in 2010 and we are now in year five of our journey.

The core objectives of the Butterfly research are two-fold.  The first objective is to hear the ‘voice’ of victims/survivors who have (re-) integrated out of aftercare and community programs, and through their ‘voice’ they can inform the practitioner community in Cambodia. The second objective is to disseminate our findings and lessons learned amongst mixed audiences of other practitioners, policy makers and academics within the wider region and global community.

The Butterfly project is like any other study in that participation is voluntary. A participant has the right to drop out at any time. Yet, when the point of the study is to follow a group of the same people over a period of time, then attrition or dropping out is an issue. We anticipated this challenge from the beginning and, at five years, we are still in contact with the majority of our 128 participants. Aside from working hard to maintain the database on our participants’ most current whereabouts, we believe the primary reason they voluntarily remain in our study is because they trust us (the research team).

Essentially, every participant in our study has experienced some degree of sexual trauma, and a number of studies suggest that severe trauma exposure results in and is associated with negative impacts on memory. We sense this may be true for some of our participants, as year to year their answers vary and even contradict what they have said previously. We also find participants’ varying emotional states, their family dynamics, their relationships and their financial securities are all matters which affect how they respond at any given interview. Many of our older participants are in violent and abusive relationships whilst younger participants often describe difficulties with their peers. Others work in dangerous work contexts, and most are struggling to meet their economic needs.

Most of our participants live with feeling stigmatized for their past experiences of sexual exploitation and so most live with many secrets. We have found that as each year progresses, increasing numbers of participants are telling us they trust us enough to disclose more of their stories. They express how therapeutic it feels to share their feelings and experiences with our team.

Many have also told us they continue in the study because they feel valued as individuals and not just subjects in a research project. They state that they feel respected, appreciated and honored because we ask them about their lives and their opinions. In addition, a number of them have stated that they appreciate the opportunity to express their ‘voice’ because they hope their insights and experiences will help others in similar circumstance.

Our team feels each participant is unique. We are thankful they trust us enough and are willing to express their ‘voice.’  It is such a privilege to journey along with them, and we hope through their stories they feel empowered and that their voice will empower future generations.

If you would like any of our annual reports and themed papers please visit the Chab Dai website

www.chabdai.org

Siobhan Miles, Butterfly manager