KUALA LUMPUR – Two civil society groups and the United States embassy here are working on an anti-human trafficking campaign targeted at trainee teachers to increase their ability to recognise and safeguard students.
Launched at the Institut Pendidikan Guru Malay Language campus here, the Human Trafficking Exists: Break the Silence, Break the Chains initiative is a partnership between the Engender, SHUT (Stop Human Trafficking), and the embassy.
The one-day programme, which will be held in teachers’ training institutes in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, and Penang, will be carried out today, August 25, and September 14, respectively.
“Trainee teachers should take advantage of this programme to familiarise themselves with the issue of human trafficking.
I believe the awareness will increase once all three campaigns are completed,” said the Home Ministry’s deputy secretary-general Datuk Mohamad Fauzi Md Isa at today’s event.
Meanwhile, deputy chief of mission at the embassy Michael Newbill said: “We believe the trainees are capable of assisting their communities in combating this issue.”
Engender founder Omna Sreeni-Ong in her speech cited a 2020 UNODC report that said 50% of detected victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation and 38% for forced labour, with half of the number of victims of sexual exploitation being children.
“As educators, you play a crucial role in preventing human trafficking; we hope that capacity-building programmes such as this will help you identify potentially dangerous behaviour, changes in behaviour and emotional state, and signs of abuse and neglect among your students.
“This is just the beginning of this conversation (concerning human trafficking); we will evaluate the effectiveness of this two-month campaign before launching another one.” – The Vibes, August 10, 2022
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