Prevention and Rehabilitation Approach in Myanmar

The trafficking of women and children in... Myanmar concerns Myanmar as a source country and as a transit country. The main receiving country is Thailand, while many victims from the province of Yunnan in China transit through Myanmar and then proceed to Thailand.....The 1997 report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women notes as follows: "Debt bondage is widely used by traffickers to control trafficked women, particularly women trafficked for prostitution. Often women are forcibly detained in apartments, factories, homes or brothels to foreclose escape prior to paying back their debts. Women and girls from Myanmar typically "serve" 6 to 8 men per day, 25 days a month, and earn AUS$ 600, to 2,500 per month from the brothel owner, of which (she) receives AUS$1/day or AUS$25/month." ²⁵

 The invidious nature of some law enforcers on both sides of the border is self-evident. "Reportedly, officials of both Myanmar and Thailand are involved in trafficking women from Myanmar into Thailand. In many instances, the girls could document instances of being transported into Thailand with policemen in uniform, armed and often in police vehicles. Once in Thailand the brothels are under the protection and the patronage of the police."²⁶

Rehabilitation of Victims of Trafficking

In 1993 September, the Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud and the Ministry of Health, National Aids Project elaborated a pilot project for the 95 ex-commercial sex workers for reintegration into society.

A creative rehabilitation plan was set up by AFXB based on the individual aspirations of young women, their capacities, health conditions and economic realities. The comprehensive approach includes:

• beneficiary's active involvement
• personal situation taken into consideration and assurance of individual follow-up
• cooperation and referral system established with AIDS Counselling Team, Department of Health and a panel of doctors.

Strategies of intervention include:

AFXB originally began the re-integration programme with those living in Yangon, but gradually expanded it in 1995 to include Bago and Mon states. The outcome of nearly two years of intensive counselling, advice and guidance has been positive and encouraging.

• 40 persons have received assistance are now self supporting
• 20 people have been informed about the possibilities offered by AFXB
• 35 individuals have not yet been contacted
• 4 individuals expired as a result of AIDS
• 8 persons joined the Programme in Yangon, but one died of AIDS.

Most of the beneficiaries are no longer involved in prostitution, have become emotionally stable, assertive, happier and beginning to settle into their relationships with others.

 Beneficiaries of the re-integration programme, with badly damaged self-esteem need long term assistance. AFXB is providing a combination of intensive counselling, understanding and perseverance to encourage a sustainable social and occupational re-integration for them.

A prevention program for young women at risk of being trapped by the prostitution trade has been started. Toward this end, a vocational training workshop was set up in August 1994. The objective is to provide necessary formal education and vocational training to improve opportunities in finding professional alternatives.

 The vocational training is expected to bring trainees up to the level of skilled workers. Basic education upto the eighth grade is provided side by side, depending on the ability of the participant.

 In addition to the former commercial sex workers and potential victims, the prevention program target group includes the "reintegration group": family members, single parents (widowed/divorced mothers) and those infected with HIV/AIDS.

 The strategy is to deliver vocational and educational guidance (vocational training, basic education), on an individual case by case basis and through group work. Activities include: counselling on health matters, environmental and HIV/AIDS awareness programmes and "family life education".

Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (AFXB) in Myanmar

The Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud was founded in the memory of Francois-Xavier Bagnoud by his family and friends in 1989. In Asia AFXB is specifically involved in: care for abandoned children in Goa (India), AFXB-Houses for abandoned HIV positive children run by the Support the children Foundation in Chiang Mai (Thailand) and reintegration program for former sex workers and AIDS awareness in Myanmar.

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(Trafficking in Women: A Myanmar Perspective -1997)

 The Ministry for Progress of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs has established eight training centres in the towns adjacent to neighbouring countries... provid(ing) vocational training to girls and women ... In 5 townships, cooperatives have been formed (for) income-generating activities.

The Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association, a local NGO (implements) poverty alleviation and income-generation (activities). The Myanmar Women's Entrepreneur's Association is involved in credit and loan schemes for women who are casual sellers in the market as well as rotating credit groups among store keepers. The Department of Social Welfare has established (2) training schools for girls... which provides educational, vocational and social rehabilitation....

"No one knows I came to Thailand... My step-father used to drink everyday... Sometimes, he was violent. There was no peace in the house.

 My friend had come back to our village from Thailand and told me stories about life across the border... I wanted to be happy like my friend. I told her mother I wanted to go to Thailand with her. My friend said that she could take me to Thailand and pay for all my expenses but I would have to work and pay her back all the money. I was disgusted with my step-father so I quietly ran away from home. I was 13 years old.

 My friend's family ran a taxi service from our village to Myawaddy. We drove down from Pan Eh to Myawaddy...to Cicipat, near Mae Sot. There are many migrant Burmese there...While working on the potato farm...the men were always trying to make friends. I did not like this. So, I discussed with my friend and became a house-keeper at Nakhon Sawan... I did all the housework and helped with the cooking. I became very homesick.

 After six months, my boss sent me back to Mae Sot and I came to live with my friend. My friend began troubling me because I could not pay her back... We had fights everyday... She then demanded the cash immediately. Unable to return home or work elsewhere without my friend's help, I did not know what to do.

Then, my friend said that if a virgin sleeps with a man... the man was willing to give a lot of money. I did not know what this meant. I was desperate to return my friend's money. I did not know that my friend was into prostitution. I did not know that if I get paid to sleep with a man, I was into prostitution. I did not even know that the police could catch me if I Idid this and that what I was doing was against the law.

My friend took me to the brothel. I was surprised to see a lot of girls there. I thought, if they could do it, so could I. When the man came, I could not take it. I shouted and cried but the man did not care. He said, "I've paid for you, I'll do whatever I want." I was raped repeatedly by him.

My friend got 4000 baht for this... and my friend took all the money. My friend cheated me. She is married now.

It was one such moment in time, in 1986, in Bangkok, Thailand that a few women from some Asian countries birthed the AWHRC. The women sought to weave together a new understanding of human rights, articulating their pain, their poetry and the power of women in the Asia-Pacific region.

 They sought to strengthen women's knowledge and wisdom; to create new possibilities for a dialogue; to make way for another discourse.

 The women sought to challenge the dominant world view, proferring new visions towards a just and a peaceful world, for women and men.