PROPOSAL FOR G/TIP-MANAGED FY08 ESF AND INCLE FUNDS

UNCLAS ASUNCION 000097

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP KBRESNAHAN, WHA/BSC KREAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC ELAB KCRM PHUM PREL SMIG BR AR PA
SUBJECT: PROPOSAL FOR G/TIP-MANAGED FY08 ESF AND INCLE FUNDS

REF: STATE 161287


1. (U) Embassy Asuncion submits the following
anti-trafficking in persons (TIP) proposal for FY 2008 ESF
and INCLE funding (reftel). This proposal details the second
phase of an IOM project funded by G/TIP in 2006 and completed
in July 2007. Cynthia Bendlin, WHA winner of the 2008
Secretary's Award for International Women of Courage,

SIPDIS
coordinated the project's first phase and will coordinate
this phase. Posts strongly urge G/TIP to consider carefully
this project for ESF or INCLE funding in order to enhance
efforts to combat TIP in the Tri-Border Area (TBA),where
Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet. G/TIP funding for this
project would be the only funding Paraguay will receive in FY

2008.


2. (U) The project's summary information is as follows:


A. Name of applicant: Eugenio Ambrossi, Director,
International Organization for Migration (IOM).


B. Requested funding amount: USD 269,808 (federal funding
only).


C. Project title: Program for Integral Assistance to
Trafficking in Persons Victims of the Tri-Border Area between
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.


D. Project duration: 12 months.


E. Proposal abstract:

-- The main objective of this project is to contribute to the
prevention of trafficking in persons, especially women and
children, and to strengthen counter-trafficking networks in
the Tri-Border Area in the Southern Cone of South America
(Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay). This project will provide
medical, psychological, legal, and labor reinsertion
assistance to victims of trafficking in persons (TIP) in the
TBA.

-- This regional project is based on an ongoing project
implemented by the IOM's Mission with a Regional Function
(MRF) Conosur, on the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons in
the TBA, that included the creation of a tri-national
counter-trafficking network. Members of this network
consider operational strengthening vital to accelerating an
articulated response to TIP in the TBA, particularly with
regard to the needs of women and children. This project will
allow the continuity of counter-trafficking activities in the
TBA through the integral assistance to victims and the
operational strengthening of the tri-national network to
counter TIP. The project will be based in the TBA cities of
Ciudad del Este (Paraguay),Foz do Iguacu (Brazil),and
Puerto Iguazu (Argentina).

-- This project would include:

a. Providing medical, psychological and legal assistance to
TIP victims in the TBA, including direct access to an
interdisciplinary team of psychologists, social workers, and
lawyers, as well as providing medicine and medical care from
public institutions.

b. Providing job training activities for TIP victims in the
TBA that includes microentrepreneurial job training, food
aid, and transportation assistance.

c. Operationally strengthening the existing TBA
counter-trafficking network based in Ciudad del Este, Foz do
Iguacu and Puerto Iguazu, enhancing staffing and
communications mechanisms that will increase coordination and
improve cooperation between key judicial actors in the TBA.


3. POC for this request is Embassy Asuncion Human Rights
Officer Michael Edwards, telephone: 011-595-21-213-715,
e-mail: edwardsmg@state.gov.

Please visit us at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/asuncion

CASON