HumanTrafficking.org | United States of America International Organization: World Education

A web resource for combating human trafficking

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United States of America

World Education

Address

World Education Headquarters
44 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA 02210

Contact Information

Tel: 617-482-9485
Fax: 617-482-0617

Website

http://www.worlded.org

Activities

Trafficking is one of the seven worst forms of child labor that World Education aims to address through its Brighter Futures Program. The goal of this program is to use education to improve the situation of child laborers and children at risk of being pulled into child labor. World Education partners with organizations involved in the rehabilitation of adolescent girls who have worked or are working in cabin restaurants, dance restaurants and massage parlors, as well as girls rescued from brothels in India. These girls are provided with training in micro-enterprise development skills through World Education's Self-Employment Education Program (SEEP). In two districts, the Brighter Futures Program is providing nonformal education to children who were rescued and returned from working in Indian circuses. Some of these children have gone on to join formal school. Also within the Brighter Futures Program, children in nonformal education classes learn about trafficking and safe migration through fun materials such as storybooks, card games and posters, which were developed under a World Education program targeting children in conflict areas.

Girls Access to Education (GATE) Program

Nepal Illiterate, out-of-school children and youth in rural Nepal--particularly girls-- are among those most at risk of being trafficked for purposes of sexual or other types of exploitation. Through its Girls' Access to Education (GATE) Program, World Education has been working since 1998 to prevent trafficking of girls by providing out-of-school adolescent girls with foundation skills (such as reading, writing, math, critical thinking and problem solving) through a curriculum that focuses heavily on adolescent girls' health and empowerment issues. The goal of the GATE Program is to encourage girls to enroll in formal school and to help those girls unable or unwilling to join school to link with vocational training options. In GATE classes, girls learn about the dangers of trafficking, prostitution and other forms of abuse, as well as the consequences of unsafe sex, STDs, and HIV/ AIDS. A series of booklets was developed for the GATE Program in 2001 to specifically address the dangers of trafficking, child rights, and safe migration.

The titles of the 12 learning materials are:

Trust
Purnamaya's Determination
Regrets
Better Safe Than Sorry
Risk
Rash Decision
Torture
Try to Escape
Right Decision
How Can I Be Safe in a New Place
Radhika's Desire
Child Rights, Our Concerns.

Through readings and discussions around these topics, girls learn to take care of themselves and each other. In order to support girls in their education and safe development, the GATE Program has an integral community education and outreach component. Awareness-raising and involvement of the larger community are important for effective prevention of trafficking. A few cases have been documented where GATE Program graduates have been able to save themselves from being trafficked as a result of what they learned in class.

Brighter Futures Program: Combating Child Labor through Education in Nepal

In Nepal, one of every three children is a child laborer, with an estimated 2.6 million children between the ages of five and fourteen working on farms, in factories, in brothels, in businesses, or in other people's homes. Brighter Futures activities are carried out at two levels: in communities where children come from or where they currently live and work, and at the policy level with government and international agencies. The program engages policy-makers in the continuous review of lessons learned from program implementation and the study of specific barriers to children's participation in order to formulate and improve educational policy on child labor issues.