Trainers in Ukraine prepared by OSCE will teach social service providers to assist trafficking victims

KYIV, 19 June 2013 - Twenty-four trainers were prepared to upgrade skills and knowledge of social services staff, including state officials and NGO activists, in providing assistance to victims of human trafficking at an event in Kyiv, organised by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) from 17 to 19 June 2013.

The train-the-trainers event targeted representatives of anti-trafficking NGOs and the State Institute for Family and Youth Policy who will subsequently coach social service providers on the effective implementation of the recently adopted Law “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings” and supplementing legislation.

The course participants learned about procedures of and enhanced their practical skills in identifying and assisting victims of trafficking, including through interviewing, situation analysis, risk and needs assessment, development of rehabilitation plans, as well as about monitoring, evaluation and reporting requirements.

“These training seminars are an important contribution to further widening the system for protecting those suffering from this modern-day slavery,” said Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine. “Earlier, we helped Ukrainian authorities to develop a model to provide assistance to victims of trafficking. This model, initially tried in two regions, is now functional in six. With the help of the newly trained experts, the model will be extended to seven more regions, where victims of trafficking will be able to get effective assistance.”

Following the course, its participants will train state officials and NGOs in seven regions of Ukraine, including Volyn, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Rivne, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions and the city of Kyiv. The subjects covered during the course will also be included into the curriculum of regular re-training of public officials from all regions of Ukraine conducted by the State Institute for Family and Youth Policy.

The training was held as part of a project implemented at the request of Ukraine’s Social Policy Ministry as a National Anti-Trafficking Co-ordinator.

From 2010 to 2012, the OSCE PCU helped establish a mechanism of interaction between state and non-governmental entities in the process of assisting victims of trafficking in Chernivtsi, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky, Luhansk and Vinnytsya regions.