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The Project “Preventive Counter-Trafficking Activities in Rostov-on-Don” | In October 2008 IOM has accomplished implementation of the project “Preventive Counter-Trafficking Activities in Rostov-on-Don”, which started in April 2008. The project was built upon and complemented IOM’s past and present activities in combating trafficking in human beings in the Russian Federation. This project was aimed to raise the awareness on the issue of human trafficking in the South Federal Okrug of the Russian Federation, an in particular in the Rostov-on-Don region.
It alerted potential trafficking victims to the dangers of trafficking and promoted risk-averting behavior patterns. The project also helped to create a negative perception of the trafficking problem among the general public, and to involve the regional decision-makers, grassroots leaders and mass media in a dialogue on counter-trafficking responses in the Rostov-on-Don region.
The results of an informal survey, conducted upon completion of the project, suggest that a big proportion of the young people in Rostov had received some kind of information on preventing human trafficking over the project period (41,5% of all survey respondents stated to have heard about the "infomation campaign on preventing human trafficking"). The results also suggest that the information messages were largely well received and understood.
From April to October 2008 the following activities were implemented:
1. A conference on Counter-Trafficking and a round table on the establishment of a referral mechanism of victims of trafficking were held in Rostov-on-Don. These events brought together all relevant stakeholders in order to put the issue of human trafficking on the local government’s and civil society’s agenda.
2.A total of four trainings for professionals from different fields were organized. These events included a training for teachers and school psychologists, a seminar for teachers, a seminar for journalists, and a training for social workers. The aim of these events was to raise the awareness on the issue of human trafficking among different sectors of professionals.
3. TV broadcastings and film screenings to raise the awareness of the general public on the issue. A TV spot featuring popular Russian singer and IOM Good Will Envoy VALERIA, informing on the risks of human trafficking was broadcasted over 1000 times in 4 regional TV channels (MTV Rostov, Muz TV Rostov, MTV Volgograd, Muz TV Astrakhan).
The film "Lilya 4 ever" was screened for university students in Rostov.
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1. Conference on Counter-Trafficking
A conference on Counter-Trafficking was held on 19 June 2008 in the Institute of Law of the Ministry of Interior in Rostov-on-Don. The conference helped shed light on the problem of human trafficking and build capacity to address the issue in the long term.
Plenary Session during the Conference
The conference was attended by approximately 50 participants from Rostov city, the Rostov region, Northern Ossetia, Chechnya, and Moscow, representing NGOs, local law enforcement agencies, governmental social services, universities, international organizations and the media.
Presentations on combating human trafficking were given by Alberto Andreani (Project Coordinator IOM Moscow), Anatoli Kulikov (Former Minister of Interior, President WAAF), UNICEF and several representatives of local NGOs and the University of Rostov.
IOM Presentation on Human Trafficking Prevention
The conference helped to raise the awareness on the problem of human trafficking among the participants, to inform about the issue, and to facilitate a dialogue among different stakeholders in order to improve cooperation between them in combating human trafficking.
2. Trainings for professionals
Four different trainigs and seminars were conducted, targeting to increase the knowledge on human trafficking among professionals working in the field of prevention of human trafficking. The trainings were given by IOM staff and by well known professionals in the respective fields. The biggest of these four events was a day and a half training for school psychologists and pedagogues. The participants of this event learnt how to convey crucial information on prevention of human trafficking to high school children. All participants received a copy of the teacher's guide the training was based on, for them to organize information events for their pupils. During the two events 600 booklets for school children "Slavery in the 21st Century" were distributed.
The work during the training
Additionally, a seminar for teachers, with the aim of informing school teachers on the risks of trafficking in minors, was attended by over 90 participants.
A seminar for journalists of Rostov-on-Don region was organized with the aim to raise the awareness among journalists on their influence on perception of the trafficking and other social issue by the general public.
The structure of the training was based on the thematic contents of the Media Guide, recently developed within the project “Prevention of Human Trafficking in the RF”. The session was conducted by one of the authors of the book – Mr. I. Dzyaloshinskiy – Professor of Higher School of Economics. 
The forth event was a training for social workers, teaching the participants how to identify potential victims of trafficking and how to provide assistance to them.
The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
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