Association Agaisnt Women Export
News
AAWE empowers women
June 21, 2010
(Nigerian Observer)
BENIN CITY-The Association Against Women Export (AAWE) has given out Loan worth over N400, 000.00 to indigent women in Edo State to economically empower them.
Speaking on behalf of the founder of Association Against Women Export, Dr Rose Okosun, Mrs. Phillippa Akpata stated that the non-governmental organization was formed with the sole aim of helping women to realize their economic potentials.
She urged the beneficiaries of the loan to use the proceeds from the business to be set up by them to assist their children to get quality education, saying that as mothers and women, the education of their children especially the girl child is a grave responsibility that is bestowed on them.
The founder of the non-governmental organization pointed out further that the weapon to effectively combat the ugly trend of human trafficking which ultimately metamorphoses into prostitution in foreign lands is lack of formal education.
She challenged the mothers to pay adequate attention to the movements of their daughters and to be very close to them, pointing out that with such an intimate relationship between the mother and the child could yield positive result.
She disclosed further that unsuspecting young girls been lured into prostitution in Italy and other major cities of the world with a promise of lucrative jobs abroad.
Dr. Rose Okosun appealed to the women to put the loan into their existing business to shore up their capital base or to start off a new business all-together, advising against diverting the money into unproductive ventures.
She informed the beneficiaries of the loan that a monitoring team will from time to time visit their business to access their progress and advised them to keep to the terms of the agreement.
It was revealed at the forum that two previous beneficiaries of the loan programme whose stores were burnt at Agbado market have had their loan written-off by the founder of the Association, Dr Rose Okosun and a new loan given them.
Stories from London and region paint a frightening picture.
Human trafficking stuns audience
January 31, 2008
Jennifer O'Brien
Sun Media
They are sex trade workers who dance under duress or farm workers crammed onto farmhouse floors at night -- this region's illustration of human trafficking.
And their plight is a frightening picture, speakers at a University of Western Ontario conference said yesterday (Jan. 30).
"This is happening in London," said Patricia Howe of the London & Area Anti Trafficking Committee. "We are talking about extreme exploitation here... desperate people who are controlled by underground middlemen."
Speaking between presentations at UWO's Human Trafficking Spotlight, Howe would later take the stage and stun many with what the two-year-old committee has found.
Howe said she has met several exotic dancers from Eastern Europe with a similar tale.
"The story starts with poverty... and a recruiter shows up," she said.
Women may be told they will be stripping in Canada, but that they can return shortly, once they make money for their families.
Instead, handlers confiscate their passports and say they must "buy" them back at a ridiculous cost. They often are forced into prostitution, she said.
"Don't kid yourself," said Megan Walker, head of the London Abused Women Centre. "There are women in this community here under false pretenses."
Walker met a "handful" after a large police bust diverted sex trade workers to her agency for counselling.
"Some women who reported to us asked if we could help others get out of the industry," she said. The agency referred women to a lawyer and offered shelter and counselling.
The sex trade worker situation is one local example of international human trafficking, but not the only one, said Howe, who visited a barn in this region where Southeast Asian workers sleep 11 to a room on mattresses on a farmhouse floor. Some are paid $7 a day, she said.
"It's unliveable," she said. Another problem is, Canadian laws do not help most victims. "Canada does not offer protection.
But the case isn't simple for police agencies just getting familiar with fairly new human trafficking laws, said Marty Van Doren, a former RCMP officer, now the force's Human Trafficking Awareness co-ordinator.
Van Doren stressed police intentions to protect victims of human trafficking, and urged reporting such cases.
But Howe said advocates "hesitate to do so." Asked why police have a reputation for deporting the victims, Van Doren said, "It's not clear cut.
"It's touchy. Some people are here illegally and from a law enforcement perspective, that is a difficult situation."
Van Doren also showed compelling pictures of young child labourers overseas.
"If you are wearing counterfeit goods, like a (knockoff) Adidas shirt, know that they were probably made in a sweatshop in a Third World country," said Van Doren, imploring people to think about the social cost of what they buy.
Jennifer O'Brien is a Free Press multiculturalism reporter.
Group Berates NAPTIP Over Human Trafficking
Saturday, 25 December 2010 00:00 From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City? News - National
Guardian Newspaper
A NON-GOVERNMENTAL organization, Association Against Women Export (AAWE), yesterday criticized the National Agency on Prohibition and Trafficking on Human Persons and other related matters (NAPTIP) for not doing enough to check human trafficking and help in repatriating those already trafficked.
The association also implored the Benin monarch, Oba Erediuwa, to place a curse on those involved in human trafficking in the state, saying the crime is worse than kidnapping.
President of the organization, Mrs Rosaline Okosun, stated this yesterday in Benin City when she met with beneficiaries of the activities of the association as part of activities to mark the association’s 10th anniversary.
She expressed worry over the number of Edo State girls languishing in Libya, Morocco and Italy, saying that serious steps need to be taken to check the activities of he perpetrators.?
“NAPTIP doesn’t want collaboration and that is why we are working with other NGOs on ground to be able to do the work. The government agency is to get funding. If NAPTIP was working, they would have been in Libya, they would have been in Morocco to bring our girls back today and that is my challenge to them. I am challenging them to bring our girls back from Morocco and Libya.
“How long does it take? If the federal government is interested in our wellbeing, then they should support our project and bring the girls back home. I challenge NAPTIP to do that, they are a federal agency, they should do that. If a smaller organization like AAWE is doing this, they can do better by going to Libya and bring our girls home,” Okosun said.
She disclosed that the association has concluded plans to travel to Italy next February to bring back girls stranded in hospitals and different areas in Italy. “The moral values are what we are talking about, that is what we need to bring back to our society. Without that, no matter what we try to do, people will want to go to Europe. You can work harder and get happier back home rather than selling yourself. Some of these young girls do not know what they will face when they get there.
“Parents should also not be putting pressure on their children to go abroad to bring back money. Can you imagine a 10-year-old or 11-year-old girl sleeping with a man as old as her father or grand father ? It is painful when you hear the stories of these girls and that is the anger in me and other women that we said we must open this NGO.
“You know that there was a curse on kidnappers in Edo State and we are appealing to our father, the Oba of Benin to also place a curse on human traffickers in Edo State. If you are taking another man’s child to go and prostitute, there should be a curse on that person because what they are doing is modern day slavery,” she said.
Women group awards scholarships to 75 girls in Edo
Vanguard Newspaper News Dec 25, 2010
The Association Against Women Export, AAWE, has awarded scholarships to no fewer than 75 girls in Edo State over the last 10 years as part of its effort to banish exploitation of women and trafficking in human.Besides, the non-governmental organisation has given out awards to 35 well behaved female secondary school students in the state to mark its 120th anniversary.
To each award is attached N5,000 cash, a certificate, a plaque a wider tape entitled Ebuwa.
Meanwhile, the association has appealed to the Benin monarch, Oba Erediuwa, to place a curse on those involved in human trafficking in the state, saying that the effects of human trafficking in the state are worse than kidnapping.
The President of the organization, Mrs Rosaline Okosun, who stated this yesterday in Benin, on the celebration of the ten years anniversary of the group, expressed worries over the number of Edo state girls languishing in Libya and Italy, saying that serious steps need to be taken to check the activities of he perpetrators.
She said the association would be sending a delegation to Italy in February to bring back the girls stranded in hospitals and different areas in that country, saying, “the moral values are what we are talking about, that is what we need to bring back to our society. Without that, no matter what we try to do, people will want to go to Europe . You can work harder and get happier back home rather than selling yourself. Some of these young girls do not know what they will face when they get there.
“Parents should also not be putting pressure on their children to go abroad to bring back money. Can you imagine a ten year old or eleven year old girl sleeping with a man as old as her grand father or the father?
“It is painful when you hear the stories of these girls and that is the anger in me and other women that we said we must open this NGO.”