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AFESIP Opens New Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking in Vientiane, Lao PDR

Victims of sexual exploitation can now choose their preferred training skills at a new shelter for women and children, enabling them to start a new life after the horrors of the past.

The shelter opened in Vientiane on Thursday, 12 October 2006 and offers courses in weaving, garment making, and basic education, with a handicraft programme in the pipeline.

The Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr. Le Kakanya, and the regional coordinator of Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Precaire (AFESIP), Mr. Georges Blanchard, cut a ribbon to officially open the shelter. "We are not going to tell people who come here what course to take; they can choose what they want to do from several options," said Mr. Blanchard.

The shelter not only provides training skills, but also helps women to find jobs as well as following up to ensure that past victims have a better life, according to the agency's Country Director of Lao operations, Dr. Didier Bertrand.

The shelter is able to accommodate 20 women and aims to provide protection and treatment for those who have suffered from sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The shelter works in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, as well as various training centres and private enterprises where women can learn new skills and, in some cases, receive accommodation.

With the opening of this new shelter there are now three shelters in Vientiane that can provide accommodation for victims of human trafficking. The other two include one run by the Lao Women's Union, and the transit centre for victims of human trafficking repatriated from Thailand operated by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. The three shelters have different ways of assisting those in need, but working in close cooperation to provide the most appropriate service according the individual's needs.

AFESIP is a non-governmental, non-partisan, and non-religious organization established at the grassroot level in Cambodia in 1996. The dire situations of thousands of victims forced into sex slavery are the reasons why the organization exists today.

(Adapted from Souksakhone Vaenkeo, "Sexually Exploited Women Begin Life in Shelter.")

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Sexually Exploited Women Begin Life in Shelter