Human Rights & Child Trafficking Intervention

Trafficked ChildrenIssue: Child labor & trafficking

  • Nearly 50% of Beninese children aged 5-14 are involved in some form of   child labor1
  • Only 46% of children born in rural Benin receive a legal birth certificate,   documentation required to attend school1
  • Placing children with richer families in exchange for household labor is a common practice that exposes children to exploitation, particularly girls2

Program: Human Rights & Child Trafficking Intervention

We provide for the needs of trafficking victims and work with authorities to identify safe resolutions to the cases and reunite the victims with their families whenever possible.

 

Methods:

  • Intervention and advocacy in coordination with extended family and local authorities to identify a resolution
  • Subsidizing legal birth certificates for children born at home
  • Community anti-child trafficking network
  • Communications via local radio

Projects

602642_3171274175579_834154964_nAnti-Trafficking Community Training Seminars

We sponsor training seminars to raise awareness about child trafficking and educate community volunteers on measures they can take to prevent, reduce, and combat child trafficking. In July 2012, we partnered with community radio to broadcast the training sessions to over 15,000 listeners in rural areas. We are planning on scaling this project to a regional level in 2013.

Child Documentation Project

We have partnered with local government officials to launch a campaign to provide proper documentation for children in the region. Many children are given birth in the traditional manner, and are thus left without a birth certificate. Without a birth certificate they cannot obtain a national ID card, be registered for school, and are deprived of many of the opportunities that they could otherwise enjoy. We work with local authorities to track down the children’s history and provide them with the proper identification, effectively restoring to them their legal identity. In 2012, we subsidized birth certificates for about 200 children.

News Stories

Intervention with Abandoned Infant

July 2012 Trafficking Intervention

Anti-Trafficking Community Training

May 2012 Trafficking Intervention

Sources

1. UNICEF, Benin country statistics

2. OECD Development Centre, Social Institutions & Gender Index, Benin

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