Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05HANOI3268
2005-12-14 05:49:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Hanoi
Cable title:  

INITIAL RESULTS OF A USG-FUNDED TIP PROJECT

Tags:  SNAR KCRM PHUM PREL PINS KWMN VM TIP HIV AIDS 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 003268 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PRM; INL/AAE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PHUM PREL PINS KWMN VM TIP HIV AIDS
SUBJECT: INITIAL RESULTS OF A USG-FUNDED TIP PROJECT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 003268

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PRM; INL/AAE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PHUM PREL PINS KWMN VM TIP HIV AIDS
SUBJECT: INITIAL RESULTS OF A USG-FUNDED TIP PROJECT


1. (U) Summary: The Department of State (PRM) funded a USD
155,000 International Organization for Migration (IOM)
project to combat trafficking in the northeastern province
of Quang Ninh. The project provides considerable training
in preventing trafficking, HIV prevention and public health,
in addition to vocational training in job skills relevant to
the growing tourism infrastructure in the province. A
recent Embassy visit to Quang Ninh showed initial
encouraging results from the project activities. The second
course has begun, and all 25 participants of the first
course have now been placed in local hotels and restaurants
practicing their job skills. According to local officials,
the post-internship employment rate could be high,
representing a giant leap for a group of vulnerable women
who, before the project began, had no hope at all. End
Summary.

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PROJECT AND PROVINCE BACKGROUND
--------------


2. (U) Despite the GVN's significant efforts to address its
emerging trafficking problem, trafficking in persons,
especially from the project province of Quang Ninh to China
continues to be a major issue. The root causes of
trafficking are often perceived as poverty, lack of
education, and, in Vietnam, social pressure brought on by
the transition from a planned to a market economy.
According to the Quang Ninh Women's Union, the province has
numerous vocational training needs, especially for "people
in difficult circumstances" such as victims of trafficking,
prostitutes, and disadvantaged street children. The USD
155,000 IOM counter-trafficking project not only aims at
addressing this need, but also helps respond to the
province's ever-growing appetite for workers with restaurant
and hotel skills for the tourist industry.


3. (U) The project targets trafficking survivors, but to
avoid stigmatizing the survivors by making them easily
identifiable through participation in the project, at least
half of the participants are women identified by local
authorities and Women's Unions as being at high risk for
trafficking rather than survivors of actual trafficking
incidents. Some categories falling under the "high risk"
designation are: widows; single mothers; domestic abuse
victims; daughters or husbands of convicted felons; and,
recovering substance abusers or their wives/children.
Teaching life skills and providing psychosocial counseling
to trafficking survivors and vulnerable women is at least as
important as providing vocational skills, according to IOM
and project staff.

--------------
INITIAL PROMISING RESULTS
--------------


4. (U) According to the Quang Ninh Provincial Women's
Union and IOM, there have been two "Asian Cooking" courses
under the project, one almost completed, one ongoing, for 50
disadvantaged and trafficked women from within the province.
In the training courses the women learn cooking, English,
job seeking and interviewing skills, and various life skills
to prepare them for reintegration into society. All 25
participants in the first course have been placed in various
hotels and restaurants in Quang Ninh and Hanoi for
internships, and some have already secured onward jobs.
Embassy staff recently visited a restaurant in Ha Long City
where three of the participants were working to improve
their skills. According to local officials and IOM, the
post internship employment rate has the potential to be high
for these women, though they will need considerable follow-
up attention.


5. (U) Comment: Given Quang Ninh's proximity to the
Chinese border, trafficking will continue to be a persistent
problem due to the low level of awareness and lack of
vocational skills in vulnerable populations. While the
GVN's resources to combat trafficking are limited,
assistance such as the IOM protection/reintegration project
to equip the women with job skills reduces the pressure to
seek employment in China and plays a vital part in the
country's entire anti-trafficking effort. The project is
relatively expensive at USD 3,000 per trainee, but the
impact on the trainees appears to be significant, and more
durable than any other prevention/protection intervention we
have seen in Vietnam to date. We recommend working with IOM
to expand this model in Quang Ninh as well as other areas
that have both high tourist demand and serious trafficking
problems, such as the northwest mountain areas and the
Mekong Delta towns of Can Tho and Chau Doc. End Comment.

MARINE