A single hand shot up in the large classroom full of children. Denisa, our Romanian Program Director, had been teaching the kids the signs of trafficking—what to look for to recognize dangerous situations and how to respond.
She asked them about their dreams for the future, and one boy was eager to share. When he said he wanted to be a truck driver, the other kids laughed at him. Denisa turned to the boy who now looked sad.
“I think you’re going to be our amazing helper,” she encouraged him. “Do you know why?” She shared that there are trafficked girls and women all over the country and that many are taken advantage of on major trucking routes. “You could be our eyes all over the country,” she told him. “You can go to places we can’t and you can reach out to us. You can report what is happening and be a great help to stop trafficking!”
“He became so proud of his choice at that moment,” Denisa shared with us, “and nobody laughed at him anymore.”
Going into the schools and training the staff and students is a key part of our strategy to blanket the nation with prevention information. We need to share with people at all levels of society how to recognize trafficking, prevent it, and end it! Reaching into the schools is a vital part of this.
Without the knowledge of what to do in the face of the dangers of trafficking, the children of Romania are in danger.
We want to empower children to change their generation! We don’t just teach them about trafficking. We employ them to become our eyes, our hands, and our feet in the nation. This knowledge gives them the power to protect their communities!
Our team tells the children they can all be our detectives. We start by asking them to think about real scenarios and how they would respond:
You see a friend texting somebody much older. Boys, you see a man waiting for girls in front of the school. You see a car circling the school and someone taking photos. What will you do? The kids get creative and come up with solutions.
Another important aspect of this training is that the teachers and staff get the information at the same time.
We’ve already seen the impact in the schools. Children tell us they have a cousin or friend who has been abused or is in a dangerous situation. Some have reported situations to us that they have seen in their own schools and communities. We can get staff and families involved and get them connected to the help they need.
Comments