Yesterday Abolishion ran their first trafficking prevention program for Roma women in a nearby village. Abolishion had been contacted by a social worker who had concerns that trafficking had been going on with women from the village. So we developed a program to address trafficking and this issue in the community.
Shell led the whole group discussion covering the basics of trafficking that included ways they could be tricked into trafficking situations, and how they can be manipulated into staying in those situations (even by their husbands).
It was a really challenging program for Shell, she’s used to running programs like this, but not needing to be translated, and not with people from a completely different cultural context that haven’t had much, if any, education so they can’t read or write. Shell was still able to connect really well with the girls and build rapport quickly, though she did have some interesting moments…
We then split into smaller groups to chat about how they can support each other and get help. We also gave each of them a chap stick with the national helpline number inside.
At one point, Shell went to throw a lolly to a woman, but the woman just stared at it and let it hit her in the chest and then fall to the ground next her! She obviously had no idea what was going on! But wait there’s more…as Shell went to pick the lolly up near the woman and hand it to her, Shell slipped on the floor and ended up doing the splits in the middle of the room!! And if that’s not funny enough already…we think Shell slipped because there was some *pee on the floor!!! Bahaha
Overall we think the women got the message we went there to share with them, and it’s opened the door up for Abolishion going back and running some more regular workshops in the future.