Is prevention better than cure in modern slavery?
In this episode, Fuzz Kitto delves into the fascinating divide between those who focus on service delivery in areas like rescue, aftercare, and remediation, often working with individuals, and those who concentrate on prevention through systemic change, education, and broader approaches. We'll introduce you to two remarkable organisations, Alongsiders in Cambodia and MV Foundation in India, that are making a substantial impact by empowering vulnerable children and communities through education and support. We ponder on the of question how best to prioritise our time, resources, and contacts to effectively combat modern slavery together.
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This is Fuzz Kitto and welcome to Slavery Unravelled. Please feel free to invite your friends, family and work colleagues to listen to Slavery Unravelled podcasts as well. And of course, you can subscribe to get it each week as well.
When we look at the landscape of people and organisations trying to work on tackling modern slavery. There is such a diverse number of approaches. Some concentrate and specialise in sectors, like sex trafficking, chocolate, fashion, forced labour, child labour or legislation.
All of these are important and each have a part to play. There is however a general divide in the approaches and the biggest difference is between those who are doing service delivery in the areas of rescue, aftercare, and remediation. Most of these are working with individuals. The other big area is prevention - which tend to be systems, education and broader in its approach.
When our treasurer Rob Shelton, was considering coming on board. He told us that he wanted to invest his time in an organisation that worked beyond helping 10s and 20’s, but worked at hundreds and thousands. We were able to insure him that what we do affects tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and possibly even millions. And he became our treasurer – and a great one at that!
When you work at rescuing people you can quote numbers and give clear statistics of how many people you have helped. Generally, it is not large in numbers – but each individual is important. It is very important and we support so many of these NGOs and organisations. We so need this!
But the other area – prevention – is very hard to give clear statistics. But it affects very large numbers.
We often say “it’s Better to build a fence at the top of the cliff than run an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff” or as Carolyn Kitto says “it’s best to make sure the road goes no-where near to the edge of the cliff in the first place!”
The big question as we try and think through what we best spend our time and resources on is to prioritise what is going to be most effective with what we have, what we can get and what contacts we have?
People get caught in modern slavery because they are vulnerable. So, one of the strategies we use to prevent modern slavery is to work on the systems conditions that make people vulnerable. This is a big task which is why we partner as much as we can. We often say the only way we are effectively going to tackle modern slavery – is together.
Sometimes we partner with big organisations, big companies or big governments. And we feel like the mouse walking alongside the elephant across a bridge. And we look up as the mouse and say, “Boy, we really rock this bridge don’t we?”
Other times we partner and try and support and promote smaller organisations who are innovating and experimenting with some really effective approaches.
Let me tell you about a couple of these.
The first is a community development approach:
Alongsiders is based in Cambodia and was started by Craig Greenfield, a Kiwi married to a beautiful and wonderful Kami lady. They have lived out what they talk about a slum in Phnom Penh Cambodia. Alongsiders is a faith based Christian Organisation which started in South-East Asia and has now spread to more than a dozen countries across Africa, Middle East and Europe in the last six years. There are now more than 20, 000 children and youth who are part of this movement, they are making a simple but powerful commitment—to walk alongside those who walk alone.
Today, the populations of many Non-Western countries are disproportionately young (under 30 years old) - up to 70% in some nations. What others see as a problem, they see as an opportunity. As an old youth worker I love that they see that throughout history, young people have been at the forefront of every movement for change.
So they empower young people to reach out to vulnerable children in the communities they live in or are close to, to mentor and equip compassionate young Christians through several resources such as comic books and animation videos, all around the world to walk alongside those who walk alone: to love, welcome and encourage the most vulnerable children in their own communities. One thing they do is to teach the children about being groomed. And what slavery is - And give them decision making skills. They teach life skills, help with schooling and homework and often help the families the children are a part of.
Here’s one of their many stories:
Bourmey lives with her mother, grandmother, and two sisters. Her father divorced her mother and left the family three years ago, when Bourmey was ten. Bourmey's mother works at a hotel where she earns about $150 per month. Her older sister is also working, but her ailing grandmother can't work anymore. The five of them live on less than $2 per day each. That amount might be sufficient for rice farmers in the countryside, but they live in an urban tourist center with a higher cost of living and no way to raise their own food.
Theary finished by stating, matter-of-factly, that soon Bourmey will have to drop out of school. The family simply can't afford the cost, and they would like her to go to work somehow. So there it was, the unspoken question: Can Alongsiders (as an organisation) help Bourmey?
This photo of Cambodian school children was posted online with a request for $10 donations to a respected organisation in order to "send a child to school." It wouldn't take much to make a difference, just a few dollars (or a few kilograms of rice) every month to take the pressure off the family. That's all it would take for Bourmey to stay in school and on track for a better life. If only it were that simple.
In the Alongsiders movement, many little brothers and sisters are among the poorest of the poor economically. Many of their lives seem to hang in the balance for lack of a few dollars a month. I've written here on the blog about Piya who is ashamed to attend school because she can't afford a uniform, and more recently about Saron, a compassionate Alongsider who feels like her future is in jeopardy if she can't get into a free nurse training program. Surely, we could raise money for children and Alongsiders in need, and many people would gladly contribute. Why not?
Here are three important reasons we have decided not to use funds in this way:
The most important reason that we are cautious about bringing in outside funds is that many young people who serve as Alongsiders would no longer see any need to give from their own, seemingly meager, resources to support their little brothers and sisters. They would lose the opportunity to be generous and part of the solution. Generosity is an important aspect that we want to nurture - but outside funds usually overpower rather than empower.
Future Alongsiders would be under pressure to pick relatives and friends as their little brothers and sisters, rather than being motivated primarily by love and choosing the most vulnerable children. It's simply expected, when you come from a family that is struggling with poverty themselves, that you share lucrative connections and opportunities with family and friends first.
The majority of little brothers and sisters come from very poor families, so many of them have clear and pressing needs. Once the word got out that Alongsiders was helping financially, the Alongsiders staff would be flooded with requests. And if requests were not met, or if some families received more than others, there would be jealousy and anger. To meet the requests fairly, each situation would have to be investigated, analysed, and administrated. Soon Alongsiders as an organisation would be running a centralised program based on distributing money. It would no longer be a grassroots movement with nearly unlimited growth potential.
It's not hard to read the list above and agree with the reasoning in principle. Though the Alongsiders movement is having a widespread impact, it should still be clear that Alongsiders is not a "magic bullet" that solves every problem under the sun. They don't drill wells where there is a lack of water. They don't build houses or schools or factories. And they don't give school fees. There are many good NGO's who do those things - and together we make up the community of care. Still, it's another thing to face Bourmey knowing that the organization could help financially, but it won't.
But understanding the story doesn't end there. We must give credit for what people even in hard circumstances can do to help each other. And we need to have faith.
In 2013, Alongsiders International worked with an independent research team to measure the impact that Cambodian Alongsiders were having in the lives of their little brothers and sisters.
One of the most surprising findings was that 99% of the little brothers and sisters reported they were attending school. That was much higher than the percentage of their peers in the same communities attending school – only 49%. It shows the power of the relationships that Alongsiders have with their little brothers and sisters and their families.
Alongsiders is an exciting, growing movement that empowers people at the margins. They are making a significant impact on hundreds of children and families in Cambodia - and now in other countries, too.
Can you see why we would want to protect this movement by not getting into the money distribution and management business?
(For the record, they say- there ARE admirable organisations working with Cambodian families and providing school uniforms and other subsidies to help keep children in school. The intent here is not to say we should never give them money.)
It may seem unsatisfying to not know how Bourmey's story will end. Often blog posts like this one finish on a happy note. Know this they say: Bourmey is well loved, and her story is far from over.
Another group we connect with and is on our Child Labour Webinar series. Based in India called MV Foundation (MVF). They believe children and young people have A Right to Survival, Development, Protection, and Participation in their communities and society.
MVF’s approach is based on a firm conviction that no child works and that all children in the 5-14 years age group must be in school. In other words, it recognises the inextricable link between the program for universalisation of education and abolition of all forms of child labor. MVF follows an ‘area-based approach’ as against a target based approach. In an area based approach it focusing on protecting the rights of all children and ensuring that all of them attend full time formal schools.
For those children who are out of school, it draws up specific plans to withdraw them from work and make all arrangements to prepare such children to be integrated into schools. For those who are already in schools, it plans to ensure that they are retained in school and continue to be so without any disruption. By doing this, child labour is prevented and children’s rights are protected. Ultimately, the area based approach enables the declaration of ‘child labour free zones’ which would act as an inspiration for all others to join the movement
The outcomes of an area-based approach include:
The sustained norm within a community becomes ‘no child should work’.
The school is developed as an institution that takes care of all aspects of a child’s development.
Community takes ownership of child rights.
Neighbouring communities change their norms.
Institutions are sensitised to reduce the barriers to communities changing their norm to ‘no child should work’.
All children are in schools and enjoy their right to education in the project area.
The project area becomes a resource centre for all other areas in the country.
Over a million children have been withdrawn from labour and enabled to join and complete full-time formal schools; 1500 villages are child-labour free; over 25,000 adolescent girls – a notoriously hard-to-reach group – have been enabled to complete secondary school; and 20,000 child marriages have been prevented in its programme areas.
The MVF, a registered Trust, was established in 1981 as a research institution on issues relating to social transformation. In 1991, MVF began working actively on the issue of child labour and released the first 30 children from bonded labour in Ranga Reddy district.
Frank Warren said “It’s the children the world almost breaks who grow up to save it.”
The most important, and often the most inspiring, stories that emerge from MVF are stories of the children themselves. MVF has had the privilege of watching these children transform from beaten down child labourers to inspirational leaders in their own right. They are living proof that the circumstances of your past do not dictate your future. They are both the cause of MVF’s existence as well as the motivation for MVF’s persistence.
These are a couple of examples of what prevention looks like in helping children from vulnerable situations get educated, teach skills and help the communities protect them.
So what can you do from this aspect of prevention?
Search our website and the internet for prevention organisations.
This has been Fuzz Kitto and may you have a slavery free day.