Human Trafficking and Violence of women as well as children are major concern in Bangladesh. Khan Foundation has been working effortlessly for shield the Basic Human Rights of our people, particularly Women and Children at the grass roots level. In this regard Khan Foundation is working to ensure human rights by protecting women & children from trafficking and violence under the project named Women in Need-Combating Trafficking and Violence against women Using Mobile Hotlink. KF wants to establish sustainability of the project where community will take all initiatives and responsibilities very quickly.
More About COMBATING TRAFFICKING AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN USING MOBILE HOTLINK
Human Trafficking and Violence of women as well as children are major concern in Bangladesh. Khan Foundation has been working effortlessly for shield the Basic Human Rights of our people, particularly Women and Children at the grass roots level. KF always tried to reach the very deprived and disadvantage groups, so quite naturally women had always been our focal target group. Our multifarious activities have always tried to advocate for establishing the equal rights of women in the society. In this regard Since 2009 Khan Foundation is working to ensure human rights by protecting women & children from trafficking and violence under the program named “Women in Need-Combating Trafficking and Violence against women Using Mobile Hotlink”.KF wants to establish sustainability of the program where community will take all initiatives and responsibilities very quickly.
Therefore, KF has been implementing 24 hours mobile hotlink services for combating human trafficking through awareness building activities like human chain, rally, community watch groups & parents meeting, courtyard meeting, and distributed behavioral change communication materials like poster, leaflet, stickers at grass roots level.KF has been implementing this program and works for achieving its vision of a ‘trafficking and violence free’ society.
Goal: To ensure human rights by protecting women & child from trafficking and violence.
Objectives:
Khan Foundation has the following objectives for this proposed project:
- To protect and prevent trafficking and violence against women, men and children by
Providing 24-Hr mobile hotlink service
- To raise awareness among citizens about trafficking and violence
- To sensitize policy makers for taking necessary actions
- To create coordination, linkage and networking among different stakeholders
Activities:
- Provide 24 hours hotlink service at the grassroots level. ( The emergency cases of trafficking or violence that will be received through this service will be assisted by the GOB’s OCC Hotlines when immediate protection or medical attention is required)
- From CWG to monitor Trafficking and Violence against women. The CWG is formed by KF.
Components of the Project:
This project consists of 5 major Components.
- Training
- Awareness building
- 24 hours Mobile Hotlink Service
- Rehabilitation
- Monitoring
Training:
Under this component the following activities will be conducted:
- Develop Module
- TOT(Training of Trainers)
- Formation of Community Watch Group(CWG)
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Community Watch Group formation in Upazila:
KF is an organization which has a strong network with the Up members at the grassroots level. KF will use their links to create a network all over the country. To establish institutional frame work and give the program a community ownership a community watch Group (CWG) has been formed to monitor as “Watch Dog.” Several networks will be formed and incorporate with the existing networks and forums. CWG members are committed representatives who will involve themselves in awareness building activities. Primarily there will be a chain of 50 committees in particular 50 Upazila consisted of 05 members in each network. KF is an organization which has a network with the Up members at the grassroots level. KF will use their links to create network all over the country. To form a Community Watch Group several networks will be formed and incorporated with the existing network and forums.
About CWG members:
Members will be chosen from designated professions and will include teachers, lawyers, Union Parishad members, NGO workers who will work with the local KF network.
Activities of the CWG members:
- The members will be responsible for taking immediate action. For example, if the members of local committee get any information of any unknown person in the project area, he/she will inform the elected members and they will inform KF and its Lawyers through a particular hotlink number. Their duty will be also to create awareness among the local people about trafficking and violence.
- To develop a sustainable local mechanism to take action against trafficking and build up grass root level institutions
- Keeping in continuous touch with local community, concern authority, Law enforcement committee and media
- To take immediate action regarding any complaint against violence with regular contact with Khan Foundation and local Law enforcement authorities and Local administration.
Training of the CWG:
KF trainers will train 250 participants from 50 Upazilas. Training will be held at Dhaka. It will be one day training session among 10 batches. In this training program, participants ( Elected Union Parishad Members, Local NGOs, Women lawyers, Journalist, Teacher, Imam, Political leader, Cultural activist, Local community leaders, Religious leaders, members of the Youth Club and members of Law Enforcement agencies etc. will receive information about the number and nature of CWG, methods to monitor trafficking and violence against women and children and their roles and responsibilities as a CWG member. In Bangladesh, this is the first time initiatives taken by KF to combat trafficking and violence by using the hotlink. The main objectives are to collect information on the issue, impose necessary action in the dissemination of information among the respective offices to provide a quick service on response to any complaint and implementation of awareness raising campaign strategies. To organize training KF will be involved work plan preparing, develop module, select participants and invite them and preparing budget. KF will contact its local partners and law enforcements authority to organize the program. KF will follow a schedule and will select venue to conduct this program.
24 hours mobile hotlink services:
KF (Khan Foundation) will setup a Hotline Secretariat centrally by using modern information technology. This hotline center will gather information about violence and trafficking through telephone, fax, SMS and email from all over the country. KFbelieves that it can provide an instant support to the victims with the assistance of local NGOs and CWG members. Local NGOs will contact CWG members in order to give the victims instant support. KF will handle legal problem and health care problems of the sufferer by legal counseling. Although CWG members are efficient in their activities, the hotlink secretariat is needed to further support their efforts and make it more sustainable. Moreover, KF will provide a lump sum financial support to the local NGOs and other institutions for using their office space instead of setting up a permanent setup. KF believes it would be cost effective if they operate in this way. The main function of the hotlink will be to collect information on the issue, take necessary action and enable dissemination of this information among the respective offices in order to provide quick services and respond to any complaint. In order for the project to be successful, the administration is the priority. Administration is critical for the proper functioning of the project. The administration is responsible for the delivery of information to the local offices and CWG members so, members of the administration need to be trained appropriately and effectively. Therefore, the field level members can only be efficient and help out distressed callers if they receive proper information and training from the members of the administration.
Through preliminary discussion with Grameenphone, KF has come to an understanding with GP. The plan is to acquire one particular number which will be common for all mobile phones that the distressed can call to reach the hotlink secretariat. Over the last few decades, the issue of trafficking and human rights protection has become a global concern and so upcoming multinationals are keen to assist these NGOs such as Khan Foundation and their project as part of their corporate social responsibilities. The MNCs have responsibilities to enhance social development and therefore we are positive that they will give us the necessary assistance. There will be a particular hotlink number which will be mentioned by the secretariat to take the message and consign to local net work. The nearest committee will take actions accordingly. For example, similar to the health line service (789) of Grameenphone, there will be a unique number like 999 and anyone can dial that particular number in order to get help concerning domestic violence. The distressed callers will benefit from the following:
- Quick response to emergencies.
- Instant legal & psychological counseling on domestic violence.
- Prompt delivery of information at nearby legal institutions.
- The secretariat also provides logistic support for the victims and gives them advice on taking legal actions and informs them of the Women Lawyers Network of the nearest area of the victims.
- Shelter home information
- Emergency hospitalization through calling for ambulance or informing nearest local committee to take actions.
The Secretariat will also ensure a process of information gathering, problem analysis and finding solutions for continuous improvement of the project. Furthermore, KF and Partner will have regular consultations with the target stakeholders. Besides, in terms of complication which may appear at the grassroots level it will handle the issue and will take quick steps. Besides disseminating information and taking necessary action, the secretariat will be responsible for:
• Collecting the progress of different activities and services regularly
• Checking actual achievement against targets
• Identifying operational problems and their solutions
• Modifying project strategies, accordingly
• Evaluating the hotlink system and its workability in a weekly basis
Activities during the year 2012:
The major activities are as follows:
- 24 Hours Mobile Hotlink Services
- Awareness Building Activities
3. Case Handling for Victims
Activity 1: 24 Hours Mobile Hotlink Services
KF hotlink center is successfully running this program through telephone, SMS and email from all over the country. This service provides instant support to the victims with the assistance of local NGOs and CWG members.KF distributed 50 mobile sets to the focal persons to receive and disseminate referral, networking and linkage activities on trafficking and violence issues;
Major achievements and observations:
- KF has provided 20,000 Poster, 30,000 Leaflet and 35,000 Stickers along with cell phone numbers through these sharing meetings and interpersonal communication.
- Total 2598 CWG Members and community people are using 24 hours mobile hotlink numbers to protect trafficking and violence against women and children.
Activity 2: Awareness Raising Activities
KF focal person has already arranged 108 parents & courtyard meeting along with community watch group, 12 rallies and 9 human chains in different districts and upazillas of the program areas. The awareness building activities are running successfully to bring together men, women and youth, local administrations, local government representatives, law enforcement agencies, lawyers, teachers, cultural activist and the media highlighted the issues on combating trafficking and violence against women and children using 24 hours mobile hotlink system. Nearly 48 local and national level newspapers were covered this program. About 10,030 people were participated and shown their solidarity to reduce trafficking and violence from society.
Activities 3: Case handling for victims of Trafficking
Local Focal Persons along with Community Watch Group members took part and played a positive role to remove trafficking and violence against women and children at grassroots level. Law enforcement authorities, local administrations, local government representatives, marriage register, press/media and others local community provided quick response and support to protect and rescued trafficked persons and sufferers/victims. Legal Counseling, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Village Court, Negotiation and others were provided to solve these problems. Most of the cases were solve through this network successfully. About 126 people were trafficked where women were 78, child were 29 and male were 17 and this was reported through 24 hours mobile hotlinkservices. About 126 people were rescued which included 78 women, 29 child were and 17 were male people.
Khan Foundation has' taken initiatives on the issue, because it. believes that development is interrelated with social welfare. It also believes that unless violence against the submissive groups and trafficking is not eradicated, development will never truly be established in the country and hence the good governance will remain as a dream. As a result, women will never be able to participate in the development of a country. The objective of this project is to raise awareness and introduce the hotlink system. This hotlink will create a strong communication and enforcing chain (grass root to decision making process) in order to eradicate the concerning problems. This is not only amalgamates information but also promotes and wellbeing of the mass population. KF considers this to be a great opportunity and believes that it will bring glory to be an associate of a national force. It will be a great opportunity to work for the welfare of the nation and for the human rights. The Marketing opportunity in grass root level using special service for instant networking will be immense. In this age of technology and communication in which most people are connected by cell phones, the hotlink will prove to be very useful and effective. KFhopes to make this hotlink accessible and best resource to use when people are in trouble and are looking for any type of help.