Your impact
through safety

Safety Report – October 2019 (data to June 2019)

Operation Red Alert

HIGHLIGHTS

As part of Operation Red Alert, the Safe Village Program is addressing sex trafficking in India by teaching vulnerable girls and their families how to identify and avoid human trafficking situations. Over the past six months, the number of individuals benefiting from Operation Red Alert has increased by 337,451 individuals in these vulnerable communities.

A helpline dedicated exclusively to handling human trafficking cases—advertised in high-risk villages through the Safe Village Program—saw 31,587 calls for assistance, with 218 cases of human trafficking being reported. The helpline is a collaborative effort that includes some of India’s most reputable anti-trafficking organisations, and helps provide assistance and legal aid to callers that would otherwise have nowhere else to turn.

In July, My Choices foundation hosted the first Asian Anti-Trafficking Forum in Hyderabad, India. The forum focused on building resources and relationships and was attended by more than 90 Indian, Bangladeshi and Nepalese organisations who are working collectively to end sex trafficking in India by 2025.

Operation PeaceMaker

HIGHLIGHTS

Operation PeaceMaker provides the knowledge and support required to help women and children live lives free from domestic violence and abuse. Over the past six months, the number of individuals benefiting from the PeaceMaker program increased by 9,113 individuals in these vulnerable communities.

The PeaceMaker program incorporates three main objectives: prevention, intervention, and conversation. Through school programs, girls and boys 12–17 are trained on their rights to stay safe from abuse, violence and exploitation and provided with tools to help keep them safe. To date, more than 46,377 school children have received essential safety information through these programs.

The Grassroots Awareness program also brings this education to older girls and women through community meetings, where issues such as women’s rights, gender equality, legal assistance, and women’s safety in the home are discussed. More than 68,597 community members have participated in these community sessions.

The heart of the PeaceMaker program includes training women to become PeaceMakers. These PeaceMakers provide counselling, rights education and legal aid to victims of abuse and violence, empowering them to seek healthy solutions. To date, 7,839 cases have been handled by PeaceMakers across India.

This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

Safety Report – March 2019 (data to December 2018)

Operation Red Alert

Fundamental to Red Alert's strategy is preventing trafficking in India at the source – vulnerable families in rural communities. But with over 600,000 villages across India we have to prioritise where to bring Safe Village education first. 

Technology has helped Operation Red Alert create a strategic approach to preventing human trafficking in India. Without it, prevention is a guessing game. With it, prevention efforts translate into real lives saved.

With big data analytics, we're prioritising trafficking hot spots. Red Alert's mapping tool, built by Quantium, brings together a growing number of data sets from national and regional bodies to identify where girls are most at-risk. Analysing this data, Red Alert can prioritise delivering Safe Village Programs in these communities.

Operation PeaceMaker

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Women and their children seeking to flee domestic violence often have nowhere safe to go. The first PeaceMaker safe home opened in late 2018 – the Lotus Safe Home. A key step on the journey to lives free of violence and abuse, Lotus can accomodate 12 women and their children at any one time. Women staying here experience not just a safe shelter but holistic support. This includes counselling, legal aid and vocational and skills training to equip them to implement their individual plans for independence. 

EDUCATING TEENS TO PREVENT FUTURE ABUSE

The Shakti program for girls is a year-long, peer-support and mentorship initiative for teenage girls. Over twelve months, these teenagers build bonds with their peers – so they have friends to turn to when they need help – while learning about the dangers they can face, and strategies to take charge of their own lives. For example, girls are taught to recognise and resist illegal child mariage. They are taught to negotiate for themselves and develop healthy relationships, as well as how to access services in times of need.

In October 2018, 63 teenagers graduated from two Shakti Circles – we congratulate these girls on their commitment and encourage them to use their new-found confidence and knowledge to take control of their own futures, and impact their communities.

Operational sustainability is the ability of an organisation to cover the costs of its lending program with the revenue earned from its lending program. 

Portfolio at risk is a stringent measure of a microfinance institution’s loan portfolio quality. The portfolio at risk calculates the total value of outstanding loan balances for loans, for every payment that is overdue by more than 30 days.

Meet Sumi and Sadhita*

Having never attended school or learned to read or write, the sisters didn’t know there was a way for them to access any kind of support or assistance for domestic violence. But when their mother approached the PeaceMaker team for help in leaving the girls’ father due to years of physical and emotional abuse, the counsellor sensed the girls had been affected as well.

They had.

In a second counselling session, Sumi and Sadhita cautiously began to reveal the horrific extent of the sexual abuse their father had subjected them to for more than eight years. An Operation PeaceMaker counsellor provided legal assistance in filing a complaint, and the girls’ father was imprisoned for his crimes. Sumi and Sadhita were able to move into a new home with their mother, preparing for a fresh start with the help of the Operation PeaceMaker staff.

But the road to recovery has been long. In their first few counselling sessions, the girls struggled to identify and express emotions – without being able to read or write, they had no access to the language they needed to work through what they were feeling. To help them articulate their feelings, their counsellor turned to art therapy: music, painting, drawing, clay modelling, and crafting. With time, and through hands-on therapy experiences, the girls slowly began to share some of the horrors they had experienced, allowing them the chance to heal. 

In the safety of their new home away from their abusive father, the girls have let their true personalities shine. Sadhita is insightful and caring, always tending to the needs of those around her. Sumi is talkative and loves to be around people. 

Thanks to a six-month professional stitching course, the girls are also working toward their goal of becoming famous fashion designers – and their salaries from tailoring help support their mother as she undergoes medical treatment. The girls have long wanted to learn to read and write in Urdu, their mother’s native language, and with the help of a MyChoices Foundation volunteer, they are finally getting a chance to have an education. 

Operation PeaceMaker gave Sadhita and Sumi the chance to write a new future for themselves – one where they could live free from abuse. Your support of Opportunity’s Safety program continues to provide assistance and support to the most vulnerable of those living in poverty.

*names changed to protect privacy.

Meet Saidul

Saidul and his wife have five children – three daughters and two sons. The family are from a minority group, like most families in their community they face persecution and limited opportunities – for example, neither of them learnt to read or write. Saidul and his wife rely on seasonal agricultural jobs, meaning their income fluctuates through the year.

In communities like Saidul’s it is very common for parents to arrange their daughters’ marriage to men they do not know, who live outside their village – in the hope that this will give their daughters the chance to find better opportunities and leave poverty behind.

When a woman from their community came to Saidul with a marriage proposal for his 16-year-old daughter, Saidul thought this sounded like a good opportunity for her. He was told the man was a successful business person who would care for his daughter.

Despite the family never having met the man in person, marriage preparations were well underway when Operation Red Alert’s Safe Village Program came to Saidul’s village. As Saidul learnt about how traffickers operate he became suspicious of his daughter’s marriage arrangement. He rushed home and shared what he had learnt with his wife. They both agreed that their daughter could be at risk, so they decided to call off the marriage.

When Saidul told the woman, who had helped arrange the marriage about their decision, she pleaded with him to reconsider. She visited their home every day for several days, until Saidul threatened to inform the local police station and call the Red Alert helpline.

In time it was confirmed that this woman was associated with other girls going missing after assisting to arrange their marriages

Saidul now knows that this woman has been connected to numerous girls going missing after helping arrange their marriages. He feels certain he would never have heard from his daughter again if they had gone through with the arrangement. 

Meet Maheshwari

Maheshwari was 16 years old when she married. Her husband didn't work, so Maheshwari worked as a maid in an office building to ensure she could support her two children. Eventually, she decided to leave her husband and live with her parents, but she always felt as if she and her children were a burden on them.

Shortly after moving back to her parent's home, Maheshwari joined the PeaceMaker training program. She found it difficult because of what she was experiencing in her own life, but the counsellors and teachers rallied around and supported her. "I discovered strength, independence and peace during my training," she says. "While it gave me the ability to help other women, it also taught me how to deal with my own pain and frustration. I'm now a better mother and communicator."

As soon as Maheshwari heard the stories of other women, she felt she had a responsibility to use her new knowledge and skills to support them. She runs awareness workshops throughout her local community and provides support to women who are experiencing domestic violence. She reconciled with her husband and they are making a new start in their relationship. "I have a great sense of pride in both my family and work," she says.

Thank you for empowering PeaceMakers like Fouzia and Maheshwari to help reduce domestic violence, so more families in India can live peaceful lives. Lives in which women find their voice, are heard and respected. 

I have a great sense of pride in both my family and work.

Maheshwari

An Army of Good Fathers