Project Prepare!

Join FAIR Fund and the International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA) to prevent the trafficking of orphaned youth by empowering them with life and job-skills to lead healthy, independent lives!

The Program

In 2005, FAIR Fund and IOFA have developed a program to reduce the vulnerability of teenaged orphan youth in Eastern European countries to traffickers and increase their chances of leading healthy, productive lives. With your support, Project Prepare! could reach orphaned youth in economically devastated parts of the world where even the basic necessities of life are often hard to come by. Orphaned by poverty, war, natural disaster, or abandonment, these children are denied common human possibility because of fate and decisions of others. State institutions in which they live are overcrowded, and stimulating programs to foster healthy lifestyles or job-skills training are frequently pushed aside in order to ensure that each child receives food, minimal shelter, and an abbreviated version of the public education. Some of these children could have been living on the street, stealing for food, and receiving little to no education. When they are released from their orphanages at 17 or 18, however, these children are expected to make it on their own.

How Project Prepare! Works

Project Prepare! will empower orphaned youth transitioning into adult life. With the help of donor funding, FAIR Fund and IOFA will develop a unique program of comprehensive research and needs assessment to uncover the extent of and inform the response to orphan youth trafficking. The program will not only be developed for these young people, but will also work with them to create workshops and job training that reflect their interests and needs as they enter into adult independence. Initially, this community-wide program will use your donations to employ local university students, including former orphan youth, as researchers and data collectors who will conduct interviews with current and past orphanage residents. During the final phase of the program your funding will allow peer educators and trainers to provide essential training for orphans and orphanage directors on how to avoid traffickers while making positive decisions to better their lives.

Orphanage directors report that they know of some cases of youth being trafficked, but they do not know how to stop this phenomenon. There are simply too many young people to care for, and not enough staff or programs to protect the youth. One of the goals of the program will be to reduce the vulnerability of these young people to traffickers. Many public awareness campaigns about the dangers of trafficking fail to reach young people in orphanages, yet these youth are likely more vulnerable than those with family and community ties. The baseline assessment, described below, is the first, but very important step towards the creation of a successful transition program that not only offers education and empowerment to these young people, but the knowledge to protect themselves against traffickers and other uncivil society members.

Adopt an Orphanage!

We need your support to make this project a success. By participating in Project Prepare!’s ‘adopt an orphanage’ fundraising drive in Eastern European countries, including Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, or the Ukraine, you will be bettering the lives of orphan youth who have been forced into adulthood too soon. Through building a community of care that provides these young people with essential life and job skills such as English Language and computer training, we will be offering them a life that is productive and healthy. You can be a part of this success!

How Your Support Helps:

$100 will provide needed transportation for research students interviewing orphan youth.
$500 offers two research students the funds they need to interview 30 orphan youth.
$1,000 educates orphan youth about human trafficking in one orphanage
$5,000 empowers orphan youth with budget and money management skills
$35,000 supports the entire Project Prepare! model program in one Eastern European country

Life of an Orphan

“I see girls leaving our orphanage during the evening and not returning for days at a time. Some don’t return at all. Are they being trafficked? I don’t know. I think so. But, we just don’t have the time or resources to find out. These girls need more than we can offer here.” – Institutional Director of Orphanage in Macedonia

“We get a small amount of money when we live the institution and the orphanage social workers really try to help us find a job or place to live. But, with the economy, who is going to take me over another who has skills and a better education? I think that I will have to move somewhere else to find a better job.” – Orphan Girl, Serbia

The line between juvenile delinquent and orphan is often blurred and any street children are forced to steal for survival. When authorities detain them, many of the girls are sent directly to adult prison and only some of the boys are sent to a temporary juvenile center. Many do not have family and are turned over permanently to the social care system. The stigma associated with being an orphan, along with their incarceration, pushes them further away from becoming active members of their society and into isolation.

Young people leaving orphanages and state institutions face incredible challenges when transitioning to independent living. In countries with high unemployment and transition economies, the challenge to find a job and make healthy life decisions is much greater. The majority of these young people do not have the opportunity to obtain the necessary job skills, such as English language or computer literacy, to become competitive job seekers. Additionally, many lack the social networks of family and friends to support them during their transition. To find jobs and a new life, most youth leave for the nearest big city or even a new country, in hopes that a brighter future lies ahead. However, many find a life of hunger, disappointment, and in some cases end up forced into prostitution or sold into human slavery.

Orphans in Eastern Europe:

Southeastern Europe
In Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia, ethnic conflict and war have displaced hundreds of thousands of families, and many young people lost entire families during these conflicts. Poverty and continued ethnic strife have left many families with no other choice but to leave their children’s fate in the hands of the orphanages. In such a poverty-stricken region, these children often have inadequate numbers of books, no running water, and sometimes not even enough clothes. There are few, if any, transition programs, funded either by outside agencies or local/national governments to foster job and life-skills development. According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Care, there are approximately 1,700 children currently under the age of 18 living in Serbia without family care, 620 of which live in orphanage care in Belgrade. A recent UNICEF report states that approximately 12 percent of victims of trafficking assisted in Macedonia have been under 18. Because of the breakdown of border controls, its central location, and the increase of organized crime, FYR Macedonia is known to be a major transit route for traffickers.

In the Ukraine, as in many countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, homeless children are extremely vulnerable to recruitment by traffickers. In 2000, there were an estimated 100,000 homeless children in Ukraine. There are few, if any, transition programs, funded either by outside agencies or local/national governments to foster job skills for orphan youth. According to MiraMed Institute in Moscow, approximately 30 to 50 percent of orphans in the Ukraine are recruited into crime, prostitution and trafficking within one year of leaving the orphanage at age 17. The Ukraine is widely recognized as a source country for human trafficking for both sexual exploitation and physical labor, and the government does not yet meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Russia
In Russia alone, the number of youth living in orphanages has risen 50 percent, from roughly 400,000 to 600,000 in the last 10 years, according to a UNICEF report. Because of continued ethnic strife, poverty, neglect, abuse, and HIV/AIDS, many families resort to placing their children in orphanages. Many will live in these institutions their entire lives until age 16 to 18. Human trafficking is a serious problem in Russia. The UN reported that over 380 crimes related to human trafficking and coercion of minors into prostitution were detected in 2004. Russia ranks high as both a source country and a destination country for women and children sold in to slavery.