1. What are the issues ?
It is estimated that up to 5 children per day may be victims of sexual exploitation in Pakistan. Pakistan is also particular in being one of the only countries in the world where boys are as, if not more, vulnerable to sexual abuse than girls, where this exploitation is culturally accepted and for which there exists no legal protection.
One of the highest levels of child trafficking in the world has developed in Pakistan where a situation of permanent migration exists due to its extremely porous borders. The figures are alarming: it is estimated that between 200 and 400 people may be “passed” illegally across its borders each day. Internal trafficking supplies the brothels of the big cities and the country is a hub, constituting a destination, place of transit as well as a provider of trafficked children for the Middle East and, more recently, Europe.
2. What is the objective of the project ?
The main objective of the project is to protect vulnerable children and to take children who are victims of sexual exploitation into care in order to facilitate their psychosocial and economic rehabilitation.
This project also encourages a progressive transformation within the communities themselves, with the participation of the groups concerned, women and children included, through awareness-raising activities.
Furthermore, the project aims to analyse the causes, trends and perceptions (social and cultural) related to exploitation, sexual abuse and child trafficking in Pakistan in connection with the countries of the region in order to improve understanding of the issue and to develop effective strategies.
3. What are the activities carried out by the project?
- Analysis and research into the phenomenon of child sexual exploitation
- Creation of a resource centre
- Literacy, schooling and education through education programmes
- Training of teachers in innovative and modern pedagogy
- Provision of counselling and psychosocial rehabilitation in centres of protection for youths and children who are marginalised or victims
- Medical care of children
- Legal aid
- Economic rehabilitation through vocational training and micro-credit (small loans)
- Education campaigns in the community
- Continuous awareness-raising campaigns in the media
- Training, mobilisation, networking and coordination of actors and beneficiaries
4. Which groups are targeted by the project?
- Children from rural areas or slums that constitute sources of trafficking (prioritising girls, children not in school, very poor families or ethnic minorities)
- Children in the street or bus terminals
- Afghan refugee children
- Child labourers
- Children who have been rescued from a situation of trafficking or prostitution and sheltered in an NGO or state-run centre
- Adolescents in prison
- Various adult resource persons in the field of child protection:
- Staff of non-governmental organisations, associations, charities (educators, social workers, medical staff, managers…)
- Institutional actors (police, border police, local and federal authorities, legislative and judicial authorities, community leaders and village committees, staff of youth detention centres
- Professionals who play a role in child protection (doctors, lawyers, the media, journalists…)
- Others (teachers, travel agents, local youth clubs, families and villagers…)
5. What are the main achievements of this project?
- 1770 children have received informal education based on life skills in 12 educational centres for street children
- 120 children have been enrolled in four schools of informal education
- 2928 children have had their awareness raised regarding the subject of trafficking related to camel racing and are being taught life skills
- 200 children (particularly girls) have received technical training in Quetta
- 1588 children have benefited from a safe environment in the centres of protection
- 33 children have been admitted to the children’s home at Rawalpindi
- 70 street children have been reunited with their families in various parts of the country
- 28 street children addicted to drugs have undergone a 3-month rehabilitation programme in Karachi. From these 28 children, 7 have been reunited with their families.
- 271 street children have begun vocational training in Karachi
- 111 children have been taken into emergency refuges in Lahore and Peshawar
- 405 children repatriated from the Gulf were identified at Rahimyar Khan
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