The RETURN of AATOP!

IOFA is excited to announce the re-launch of the Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project (AATOP) with generous support from Help for Children/Hedge Funds Cares.

AATOP will build upon the pilot project’s efforts to raise awareness, engage the Asian American community and build capacity of AA serving providers to identify, refer and respond to the needs of survivors of human trafficking in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways.

AATOP’s Beginnings:

The International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA), created AATOP as a one year pilot project with funding from the Asian Giving Circle in 2012.  Its goals were to build capacity of Asian American service providers to identify, refer, and respond to survivors of human trafficking from Asian American communities.  AATOP also worked to increase Asian American service organizations to participate in anti-trafficking coalitions and task forces.  AATOP reached these goals by partnering with various Asian American service providers to hold trainings and community events.

AATOP’s Pilot Program Key Outcomes and Accomplishments: 

• reached out to and built relationships with around 25 API-serving social service, legal, research, community, leadership, and educational institutions and organizations
• hosted a general community forum with a variety of service providers
• hosted a meet and greet for attorneys with the Asian Pacific Legal Advocacy Network (APLAN)
• conducted a human trafficking training for attorneys with the Chicago Bar Association (CBA)
• developed a mental health specific training for clinicians working within these communities
• hosted a Filipino-specific community forum with Filipino project partner CIRCA Pintig
• had staff teach as a guest lecturer at University of Illinois Chicago’s Asian American Studies Program.

AATOP’s Relaunch:

With support from Help for Children/Hedge Fund Cares (HFC), AATOP’s 2016 activities will focus on connecting with social service providers serving Asian American children and youth.  AATOP will work in collaboration with these programs to increase their capacity to identify trafficked children and/or youth and refer them to culturally and linguistically appropriate trauma informed services.

AATOP Project Goals:

• Engage and educate Asian American communities across Chicago to create a coordinated response to human trafficking.
• Train a cadre of health, mental health and other social services professionals serving Asian American communities across Chicago to identify and assist trafficking survivors.
• Implement culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach activities and campaigns to to raise awareness of human trafficking in Asian American communities across metropolitan Chicago.
• AATOP’s outreach and training activities will be guided by a Community Advisory Board whose members will represent the diverse Asian American community.  The community advisory board will assist AATOP connect to resources and give input to ensure activies are as culturally and linguistically appropriate as possible.

The Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project (AATOP) aims to fill a critical gap that currently exists in outreach efforts to potential victims of human trafficking in Asian American communities. Many Asian countries are listed as sources of trafficked labor according to the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report. Vulnerable Asian immigrants in Chicago are susceptible to human trafficking in massage parlors, restaurants, factories, and other low-wage, unregulated industries that rely heavily on undocumented labor.  Young people within Asian communities are uniquely vulnerable, as they may be dealing with social pressure and stigma related to their adult development, in addition financial hardship.

Although victims of trafficking have the right to services and benefits under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Asian American victims of this crime face significant obstacles in accessing services in the Chicago metropolitan area to which they are entitled. To date, little has been done to adapt training and outreach efforts to the Asian American community. The need for sensitization within the community regarding victim-centered service and treatment has also been noted by community-based researchers. IOFA’s initial survey of agencies serving human trafficking victims found that while agencies received significant numbers of clients of Asian descent, Asian American-focused organizations remain underrepresented in anti-trafficking coalitions and task forces.

This project seeks to address mental health needs within Asian American communities and promote safe environments and improved service delivery to human trafficking victims and those at risk within this population.  The inclusion of Asian American serving organizations in anti-trafficking efforts in Chicago, coupled with training and technical assistance, will provide organizations working in Asian American communities with resources they need to successfully identify and serve human trafficking victims.

Follow us on social media!

Facebook: AATOP CHICAGO
Twitteer: @AATOPCHICAGO
Instagram: @AATOPCHICAGO
Blog: aatopchicago.blogspot.com

For more information, contact Project Coordinator, Jody Haskin at jhaskin@iofa.org 

or Jae Jin Pak, AATOP Community Advisory Board Chair at jpak@iofa.org

Learn more about IOFA and AATOP at http://iofa.org

The Worst Form of Child Labor: Child Soldiers

Child Soldier in Burma

The Myanmar Armed Forces discharged 42 children from its ranks on July 7th, due to pressure from the United Nations. The UN hailed this action as a positive step for the country towards its integration into the International Community and compliance with human rights standards. However, this is a small step compared to Myanmar's history of use of child soldiers. Myanmar is the only country in the region in which the government run armed forces forcibly recruit child soldiers into the army; children between the ages of 12-16 year old. Johnny and Luther Htoo, twin brother who jointly led the God's Army Guerrilla group, were estimated to have been ten years old when they began leading the group in 1997. According to Human Right's Watch,  as many as 70,000 boys serve in the national military, the Tatmandaw, which children as young as 11. Further, there are 5,000-7,000 children serving in ethnic opposition militias.

Girl Soldier in Burma

What is Child Soldering?

Child Soldiering is a manifestation of human trafficking when it involves the unlawful recruitment or use of children through force, fraud or coercion, as combatants or for labor or sexual exploitation by armed forces. The perpetrators of human trafficking are government forces, paramilitary organizations, and rebel groups. 

Children are abducted from their homes and villages to be used as combatants, porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, and spies. Girls are often forced to marry or have sex with male combatants. Orphans, refugees, and other displaced children are particularly at risk. They are brutally indoctrinated in order to ensure complete loyalty, threatened with death or dismemberment if they do't fight, and forced to kill friends who try to escape.

Over 300,000 children are serving as a child soldiers. According to the Asian Wall Street Journal, a third of those children are in Asia. The reason that children are used as soldiers is because their age lends them to be 

Child Soldiers in Filipino Rebel Force

extremely obedient. They can be forced to become dependent on the military, they are young enough to be brainwashed, they are cheaper to feed than regular soldiers, and are often more fearless than their older 

counterparts, and therefore willing to risk more in battle. Further, opposing armies are less likely to harm children.

In the Philippines, children are recruited by rebel forces for service in the army, most notably for the new People's Army, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the Moro National Liberation Front. An estimated 13% of the 10,000 soldiers in the Moro National Liberation Front are children.

In Sri Lanka, thousands of children are thought to be  in the ranks of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elem 

(LTTE), a rebel group categorized as a terrorist organization by most of the world's government. Sri Lankan 

soldiers nicknamed one of LTTE's units the Baby Battalion, due to the amount of child soldiers serving in its 

ranks. Thanks to international pressure, however, the LTTE promised to discharge all soldiers under 18 by 2007. However, Karuka Group, a splinter group, now has begun recruiting child soldiers. 

Children in the LTTE in Sri Lanka

Ramifications

There are significant ramifications for child soldiers. Often, when arrested, children are charged as adults and treated as war criminals, despite the age that they had been when they committed many of the war atrocities. Beyond legal ramifications, there are significant emotional and physical consequences of child soldiering. Child soldiers are often wounded, disfigured, or killed. They suffer significant emotional trauma, and are often unable to adapt to the ordinary world. Further, many times they had missed out on education and opportunities to develop social and communication skills. They have often been exposed to HIV/AIDS, and in the case of the girls, pregnancy, and early motherhood.

Legal Instruments in Place

The International community has passed a significant amount of legislation to combat child soldiering. Some legislation are:

Optional Protocol to the Covenant on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict: Prohibits the forced recruitment of children under the age of 18 into governmental armed forces. Also requires Parties to criminalize the recruitment of children by non-state armed groups, such as rebel or separatist militias

ILO Convention 182: Defines he forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict as 'one of the worst forms of child labor'

Kimberly Process: An international effort to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the market; children are often used to protect and mine these diamonds.

Paris Commitment and Prevention on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups: A pledge from the international community to stop the forced recruitment of children into armed forces and to support their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Jasmine

Intern

Farmhouse Fundraiser

Dear friends and supporters of IOFA!

We invite you to join us on January 24 at our winter fundraiser at Farmhouse for an evening of food and drinks! Your contributions will go toward IOFA's projects to remove youth from vulnerable situations and transition them into care.

Click here to purchase your ticket. Help us to spread the word and we look forward to meeting you all soon!