Mozambique - Summary of Activities and Outcomes for

UNCLAS MAPUTO 001056 SIPDIS SIPDIS AF/RSA for Mharpole G/TIP for Ryousey E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AFIN AMGT KFSC PHUM SNAR SMIG KCRM KWMN MZ SUBJECT: Mozambique - Summary of Activities and Outcomes for $12,000 in FY2005 ESF Funding for Moamba Shelter Ref: State 57689 ¶1. Summary: Post has allocated $12,000 in FY05 ESF funds to help start Mozambique's first shelter for trafficking victims, located towards the South African border from Maputo near the district capital of Moamba. The shelter opened in May 2006. Currently eight children are housed there, with the number likely to increase further. Funding has been used to provide equipment, and some of the funds will be used on staff salaries. The project has already proved beneficial by increasing awareness of the problem of trafficking and by encouraging the growing government support to victims of trafficking. End summary. Grant -------------- ¶2. Post signed a $12,000 FY05 ESF grant for a trafficking victims shelter in Moamba with the Instituto de Educacao Civica (FECIV) on May 30, 2006. Background -------------- ¶3. Rehabilitation work on the shelter started in December 2005, and the shelter was inaugurated on May 2, 2006. It became operational in June. Shortly afterward, a reception committee began meeting trains carrying deported Mozambicans to assist any trafficking victims among them. A social worker and a guard were hired as staff for the shelter. Shelter Population -------------- ¶4. The shelter is furnished with beds and sheets, and stocked with food, for up to 50 people. As of mid-August, however, it was only housing eight children: six girls between the ages of 8 and 13, and two boys, aged 12 and 13. The primary reason is that FECIV envisioned assisting children repatriated via train from South Africa to the Mozambican border post of Ressano Garcia, and very few children have been on these trains. (Comment: We do not know why so few children are being repatriated this year, in contrast to previous years. End Comment.) As a result, FECIV has begun accepting child victims of internal trafficking who are brought from Maputo to the shelter. FECIV has also invited staff at another NGO, the Scalabrini Sisters religious order, who have a house right next to the Ressano Garcia border checkpoint where people cross by foot and bus, to be on the lookout for trafficked children and to send them to the shelter. Use of Funds -------------- ¶5. The $12,000 was budgeted to pay for equipment ($5,000), refurbishment of shelter ($5,000),and office supplies ($2,000). Because post did not receive FY05 ESF funding until late this spring, we have had to readjust the allocations. Money has instead been used to purchase a refrigerator, will be used to buy a stove and some of it will go toward salaries for the shelter staff. ¶6. At the Ressano Garcia border post FECIV works with a reception committee to triage repatriated children. This committee is composed of a Scalabrini nun, border guards, someone from the district office of the Ministry of Women and Social Action, and someone from the NGO Massangulo. FECIV works closely with the Moamba district government, too. The local Moamba government, in particular, has become increasingly involved in supporting the shelter project - most recently by admitting the trafficking victims to a school nearby. Additionally, the German NGO Terre des Hommes is providing invaluable support to this project, in terms of management advice and project design. Comment -------------- ¶7. This project has not yet served the anticipated number of trafficking victims, but the number of children continues to climb in the short time since the shelter opened, increasing between mid-July and mid-August from two to eight. However, previous estimates were unrealistic, likely delays were not factored into projections, and, most importantly, this project is fighting against traditional thinking. Some fundamental working assumptions of the project -- including who is or is not a child and a person self-identifying himself or herself as a victim of trafficking -- challenge Mozambican views and behavior. As the country's first trafficking shelter, this project is shedding light on a problem still not widely acknowledged and provoking the government to become more actively involved in addressing trafficking. DUDLEY