Local Leaders Share Lessons Learned and Plan for Sustainable Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Three months after being trained on trafficking and safe migration, local leaders committed to protecting their communities met in Svay Rieng province in Cambodia to share their lessons learned and create plans for community-led anti-trafficking activities.

At this refresher meeting, held by the Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights with the support of USAID’s Cambodia Countering Trafficking-in-Persons program implemented by Winrock International, local leaders including village representatives and school directors shared their best practices and strategies for preventing and responding to trafficking in their communities.

Importantly, at the refresher meeting the leaders planned how to identify local resources and develop action plans for future trafficking prevention activities to ensure efforts are sustainable in the long term.

The previous training equipped the leaders with knowledge and tools to educate their communities on safe migration, trafficking and child rights. The leaders also learnt how to collect information on migration in their villages to keep migrants safe. Since the training, the leaders started to work with local police to identify people suspected of illegally transporting people out of the village.

Srey Yary, who works for her commune’s local Commune Committee for Women and Children, shared that she had built better knowledge on migration and trafficking through the training and gained experience in conducting educational activities in different villages. She plans to continue these activities and to start holding monthly village meetings to discuss issues related to migration and trafficking with community members.