World Day Against Trafficking 2023 – Reaching every victim at RPGS

This year’s UNODC theme “Reach every victim of trafficking, leave no one behind” strongly resonates with the Good Shepherd vision, “One person is of more value than the whole world”.

“Leave no one behind” is the central transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation;
eradication of forced labour and modern slavery.

In the context of trafficking in persons, leaving people behind means
• failing to end the exploitation of trafficking victims,
• failing to support victim-survivors once they are free from their traffickers,
• leaving identifiable groups vulnerable to traffickers.

Here at our RPGS : Rumah Perlindungan Global Shepherds (Global Shepherds Safe House), shelter for victims of human trafficking, we focus on supporting our victim / survivors – empowering lives and restoring dignity, not only on significant days like this but all year round.

Having said that, our program for this year’s World Day Against Trafficking aimed to strengthen their knowledge on human trafficking – most did not realise that they were being exploited, ignorant of their rights – and to garner solidarity. When they stand together, support each other, together they
can combat this heinous crime.

Activities of the day started with a screening of some short videos on human trafficking with the aim of highlighting the elements of trafficking. Animated discussions followed as there were a few who had watched it in a previous programme and so they attempted to explain to those who didn’t quite
get it. The conversations got quite animated as explanations were in various languages, signs, hand gestures due to the varied nationalities present!

Watch the videos here :    https://youtu.be/UeSHAofcrWM

                                               https://youtu.be/pD0IT6q08bU

Emotions were churned as the women shared their experiences once they understood and could relate to the videos. Interesting and touching to note was that even those who were hampered by language barrier wanted to voice out their thoughts and experiences.

This led to the next activity dubbed “Your Voice Matters”. Participants expressed their thoughts, advice, messages of hope in their own creative way.The overall sentiment intended for this activity was one of empowerment.

To the survivors :

It starts from You. Your voice matters to spread awareness to combat human trafficking.

You can be the voice of reason to others. To warn your fellow countrymen and women of the signs and dangers of trafficking

You can use your past trauma and your bad experiences in a positive manner

As can be seen from their artwork, they put some serious thought in the messages, drawing from their experience, adamant that others would not suffer the same fate.

The finale activity was another art project, something they all love to do !

This was a group effort, everyone rallied together to make a huge #EndHumanTrafficking. Learn&Report signage, symbolising what they have learnt whilst in our shelter and the fact that they can report if they have been exploited, abused or discriminated against.

It is also a call to us, to the general public, to learn to recognize the signs of human trafficking and reporting to the authorities if we suspect a person is being abused or exploited, in forced labour, kept in isolation and not allowed any contact with family.

We need to stop the indifference and strengthen resilience by educating ourselves and sensitizing everyone to the topic of human trafficking. Learning the signs of trafficking is the first step toward prevention and combatting this crime.

WDAT2023 at RPGS.mp4  (Video of the activities of the day)

                                                                                  Written by
                              Michele Rozells                                &                Helena Andurus
Communications, Monitoring & Evaluation Executive                    Case Officer
                                                          Global Shepherds Berhad, Malaysia

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Pop Quiz

Does human trafficking exist in Malaysia, or is it only about Malaysians being trafficked to other countries, kept in captivity and forced to work without pay?

Can you spot the signs of a victim or a trafficking situation, if you saw it?

Take the quiz and increase your awareness.
https://qz.app.do/how-much-do-you-know-about-human-trafficking-3421283

Quiz questions were conceptualized by Global Shepherds team of experts comprising :
Marni Masri, Programme Executive
Kalai Subbramaniam, Programme Officer
Beatrice Chong, Counselor & Team Supervisor
Octobia Rose Doon, Counselor
Dion David, Centre Manager
Michele Rozells, Communications, Monitoring & Evaluation