IT helps human trafficking victims

In Southeast Asia alone, approximately 225,000 people, 80 percent of whom are women, are lured, deceived, blackmailed, or coerced from the relative safety of their homes with promises of work and a better life in the city, only to find themselves trapped in a life of virtual slavery. Their passports and any means of communications with their families are removed. The salaries stipulated by their contract are withheld. And they are forced to move around as zombies, serving their masters as domestic servants in a non-stop 12-hour grind before being sent back to their cramped quarters as chattel. The less fortunate ones find themselves thrown into another kind of hell to prostitute their unwilling bodies to greedy lascivious customers in the whorehouses. That is the heinous, underground, unspeakable but still ongoing and ultimately profitable trade known as human trafficking. The Philippine Republic Act 9208, also known as the “Anti-trafficking in Persons Act of 2003," defines it as the “recruitment, transfer, or harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception abuse of power or of position or taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person for the purpose of exploitation." In the Philippines, the victims are commonly barrio girls from the provinces from ages of 12-22 years old. Many are either runaways and/or desperately looking for employment to stave off hunger for themselves and their families for at least another day. The promise of a job, any job, is irresistible; relocating them to a big city like Manila, which their dreams have unreasonably depicted to them as a bustling beehive of sophistication and streets of gold, is almost akin to being given the keys to the kingdom. It takes only a few days before grim reality sets in, and paradise soon degenerates into a cruel prison of lifelong and inhuman servitude where no escape seems possible. Rose (not her real name), a young lass from the province of Davao, was one fortunate exception. More important, she was not just able to escape, but as of this writing has found a way to improve her life by learning the basic computer software skills, through Step-UP, a partnership program of Microsoft Philippines and the Visayan Forum Foundation. step-UP is the latest local initiative under Unlimited Potential, Microsoft’s global program which focuses on improving lifelong learning for underserved young people and adults by providing technology skills through community-based organizations around the world. Microsoft Philippines has so far invested more than Php100 million in its existing Unlimited Potential programs, including Tulay: An Unlimited Potential Program for Overseas Filipino Workers, Pag-Asa: An Unlimited Potential Program for Amerasians; and Kapit-Bisig: An Unlimited Potential Program for NGOs. The Visayan Forum Foundation is a private, non-profit NGO that works for the welfare of marginalized migrants to provide information and technology (IT) skills training to underprivileged youth and adults, concretely boosting their chances of finding better jobs. Its program enhances the national and international efforts against human trafficking by empowering victims and potential vulnerable groups of trafficking in youth in urban poor communities. Mae Rivera Moreno, Community Affairs Manager of Microsoft Philippines, says this of human trafficking, “It is one of the worst forms of human rights violations. We hope that through step-Up we can help more survivors find better opportunities in life as well as lessen the number of potential victims." Rose was one such survivor. Only a year ago, Rose could barely keep herself awake from the excessive long hours of work that kept her on her feet. Her former employer’s mental and verbal abuse also crippled her spirit and sent her rolling on waves of depression. These days, she gets to tinker with a laptop, courtesy of her new boss, and more important, has rediscovered her capacity to dream gain. Rose was one of 49 girls who were guaranteed secure employment through a signed contract by a recruiter who transported them from their native Davao to Manila under a tarpaulin-covered vehicle under the cover of night. The contract stated that for her services as a domestic helper, she would be paid P2,500 a month and Philhealth and SSS benefits. As soon as she and her friends were distributed to different employers who lived in different houses in Manila, the story took an unexpectedly horrific direction altogether. Rose narrates her own experience in Tagalog, “I was 18 years old then and was assigned to an employer in Kalookan. The employer immediately locked me up along with the others who were assigned with me. The way they treated us was so bad that the only thing we could think of was escaping. There were even times that the employer left nothing for us to eat except spoiled food." Ten months into this hell, salvation came in the form of a disgruntled laundrywoman who said she was determined to leave, come what may. Rose, hearing of her plans to escape, immediately volunteered to come. One night, the laundryman, Rose, and a few more brave souls cut the laundry wires (“sampayan"), strung them into a line, and used them like a rope to climb down from the eighth floor where they were confined to the fifth floor from where they could easily take the stairs and run. Neighbors from the nearby houses heard of their plight and took them in, until it was safe for them to leave. Rose tagged along with a friend who found sanctuary in an aunt’s house. The aunt also knew of the Visayan Forum and, after some time, brought her niece and Rose to its nearest office where they could report their experience and file a complaint. The Visayan Forum also opened a door by which Rose and her friend could enter into a new life through the Step-UP program. Rose continues her story, “I spent two weeks in the Visayan Forum’s Community Technology Learning Center learning computer work. Now, I know how to type. Now I’m also using a laptop. It started when my new employer lent me the laptop where I could play a disc of children’s nursery music to lull their baby to sleep." Rose says she has also started to dream again. She wants to finish her studies and probably continue studying IT-related courses. Rose is one of the victims who had been liberated from human trafficking slavery. Microsoft step-UP projects to set free and educate approximately 10,000 more in the next couple of years. It is facilitated in three of Visayan Forum’s centers, namely Manila, Batangas City and Davao City, which are some of the trafficking hot spots in the country. The training will also be coursed through the Community Technology Learning Centers (CTLCs) that Visayan Forum’s 10 local NGO partners are operating since last year. Two more NGO implementers will be added this year. For more information about step-UP, contact Mae Rivera-Moreno at mrivera@microsoft.com