ASIL Programs > Career Development > Arthur C. Helton Fellowship > Helton Fellowship Profiles and Reflections > 2007 ASIL Helton Fellows > ASIL Helton Fellowship Reflections

Rwanda Trafficking Awareness Educational Manual
Mitchell King

The international community, responding to a growing concern of trafficking in persons, drafted the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in 2001. Rwanda has not passed any specific anti-human trafficking laws. However, Rwanda adopted the Rights of the Child from the African Union Charter. My fellowship project was to create an educational manual of human trafficking awareness; the lessons were designed to utilize the basic human rights of children to teach the dangers of trafficking and how trafficking victims have their rights taken away. The project also included researching the current situation in Rwanda and what the government is doing in response to this global problem.

The major concern I had for the project was whether Rwandans were going to be open to discussing trafficking in persons, and especially allow westerners to talk about the subject with children. The manual would only be effective it was culturally sensitive and deemed appropriate by those that would continue the lessons into the future. This could be accomplished only if the educators would openly give feedback about the content. It was surprising to learn how open almost everyone in Rwanda was to discussing human rights and the problem of human trafficking. The idea of using human rights to children about trafficking was well received.

The manual?s lessons were designed to engage children through theatre and art projects. The lessons were taught to two groups of children, street children and school children. The street children, many of whom are orphans, were between the ages of 4 and 15 and do not attend school because they can?t even afford the public schools. The school children attended a private religious school, and were also between the ages of 4 and 15. Overall the manual?s lessons were successful in broaching the topic of human trafficking as something that happens when the rights of the child are taken away. The street children were very engaged in participating and had a wonderful time with the story drama. They were talking about the lessons for days afterwards. The school children were even quicker to grasp the lessons, as evidenced by their responses to discussions after the art and theatre exercises. The art exercises elicited from a few of the older children very powerful images of abuse, and even frustration in attempted communications to adults about it. There is definitely a need for human rights education and the format of this manual appears to be an exciting possibility for a method.

Losing meaning in translation was a concern. The younger school children could speak enough English to follow. There were, however, a number of school teachers that were Francophone and needed translating. Most of the church leaders and street children required translation into Kinya-rwandan. There were moments when translation tripped-up a discussion, but even without the benefit of professional translators the conversations about the lessons were very productive. The impromptu translators were marvelous when it came to translating while participating in the theatre exercises.

Without the benefit of national laws criminalizing trafficking and protecting victims, a preventative program of education should provide some benefits. At a minimum, discussions and education about trafficking in persons will help raise a community?s awareness. The most difficult aspect of stopping trafficking is identifying victims and even then, getting them to feel safe enough to come forward. In conclusion, the church leaders showed no commitment to carrying on the human rights lessons with the street children once the manual was finalized. There was a group of pioneering school teachers that are eager to incorporate lessons from the finalized manual into teaching their subjects.

The project?s other focus was researching the status of trafficking in Rwanda through the government ministries and non-governmental agencies. The hope was to find resources for victims to include in the manual. Westerners tend to go into different cultures criticizing how they deal with issues and tell them how their laws should work. The approach taken to raising the issue of trafficking was deliberately sensitive. The NGO?s spoken to were open to having discussions but also guarded their responses because of the political climate. NGO?s are routinely dispatched from the country when the government feels they are being too critical and disruptive. Therefore, NGO?s asked that many statements be kept confidential. The U.S. Embassy also spoke of the sensitive nature of working with the Rwandan government on human rights issues. But as one NGO explained, there can also be benefits to the way the government operates. Ideas of changes to the laws, and requests for governmental action, filter up to decision makers very quickly. For instance, one NGO advocating for women drafted a new statute that punishes the buyers of sexual services. The legislature adopted the draft as legislation to be voted on in congress within the year. The research uncovered some anecdotal evidence of trafficking. There was only one NGO that had only received its first human trafficking case. In fact, UNICEF asked why this project was focused on human trafficking in Rwanda. It has not received reports of sexual trafficking, and child soldiering is significantly down in refugee camps.