UKAHT Purple Teardrop Pub Quiz

12 February 2015

Hello everyone!

The year of 2015 has commenced with great excitement for our society! We have established new connections in the field of human trafficking and introduced new ideas and initiatives towards our awareness and campaigns against modern slavery. Following this line of thinking, we have successfully run a “PUB QUIZ” event on 12 February 2015 in Woody’s Bar at Kent university campus in Canterbury, https://www.facebook.com/UKAHT2014. The aim was to fundraise on behalf of a charity “Purple Teardrop” (http://www.purpleteardrop.org.uk/) in the hopes to raise money to support their anti-trafficking initiatives and to support the work of our society. Purple Teardrop charity is established by Soroptimist International:

“That is a dedicated imitative to stopping sex-trafficking in UK by raising awareness of the issue with the public, supporting safe houses for trafficking victims and campaigning to support the demand for the services of trafficked women.”

The event turned out to be very successful and to our surprise more than 30 people had attended and we are very pleased to announce we have managed to raise £83. Let’s not forget our biggest highlight of the night was “the participants” whom without we would not have been able to raise money for our chosen charity. Indeed, the spirit of the participating audience was uplifting and overall it was a very satisfying experience to see that our interventions to raise awareness of human trafficking are making a bigger impact across the university and beyond.

On my final note, we would like to express our biggest appreciation for the raffle price donations we have received from generous individuals and UKC Amnesty International Society as well as Woody’s Bar for helping in organisation of the venue:

1. FEATHERS (Retail shop) “Established in the heart of Canterbury in 1986 as a picture framers and art gallery, having the largest collection of prints old and new in the area,” http://www.feathersofcanterbury.co.uk/home/4586566136.

2. Canterbury Ghost Tour (Local tourist attraction) “A 90 minute tour of Canterbury’s dark and entertaining blend of history, humour and haunting, http://www.canterburyghosttour.com/.

Thank you once again for those who supported this event!

Anti-Slavery Day and New Vice President Elected

The Anti-Slavery Day Bill became law in 2010. It was introduced in Parliament as a Private Members Bill by Anthony Steen MP for Totnes, South Devon, in 2010 and passed through both Houses. The bill defines modern-day slavery as child trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and trafficking for sexual exploitation.

For our activist work on this year’s Anti-Slavery Day, inspired by the Anti-Slavery Day Bill our SLVG aimed to continue the work that was started last year.

I found myself sitting in a trolley, with posters raising awareness of Anti-Slavery Day, and two of our members – Alex Tiley and Philip Stephenson-Oliver – pushed me around campus in a safely designed route set out by University of Kent Against Human Trafficking (UKAHT) safety officer Kez Cawkwell. 

We had little pots and a huge tin, collecting money by explaining the impacts of Anti-Slavery Day to people walking by Essentials on the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus.

UKAHT raised £103.96 on Anti-Slavery Day on Friday 18^th October 2013, with huge thanks to everyone who helped for all of your hard work: Alex Tiley, Kez Cawkwell, Maya Esslemont, Philip Stephenson-Oliver, Charlotte Temple-Camp and everyone else who contributed.

I also would like to congratulate Mabel Samba for being elected as UKAHT’s VP. We look forward to working with you in the future.

We are currently planning an event at the end of November with two guest speakers so watch this space!

To keep up to date with all events and article related to UKAHT please follow us on Twitter @UKCAHT and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/414408248620443/

India’s child slaves have been rescued after police raid with the help of police raids and Global March Against Child Labour

Parents in India sell their children for less than £35 under the expectation that they will have a better life and get more money once they part from their child. Instead the reality is that these children are trafficked and moved into big cities where they are sold to contractors and put into forced labour.

Once contractors have trafficked these children they have to work in inhuman conditions earning little or almost no money with no prospect of seeing their family in the near future.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Delhi is a hub and transit point for child trafficking as sweatshops encompasses the capital.

In this raid Sky News went on in India activists had information that over one hundred children had been employed in a three-storey building but only thirty-one children were found. The owner had been tipped off and therefore the children were made to disappear.

Global March Against Child Labour is a worldwide network of trade unions teachers’ and civil society organisations that work together to eliminate and prevent all forms of child labour and ensuring all children have access to free good quality public education.

The Salvation Army – Transporting Victims of Trafficking

 

By Kez Cawkwell

We recently had the opportunity to speak to Paul Harris, who works with the Salvation Army, who organizes transportation to safe houses for trafficking victims. These safe houses are centers where victims are protected and cared for in secure accommodation, it is in these places that they are given the support that they need.

The Salvation Army is contracted by the Ministry of Justice to manage support for all the adult victims of trafficking in Wales and England, which makes them a vital part of helping victims get the support that they need. Human trafficking is the buying and selling of human beings, the victims are often deceived into going with the traffickers, or they are simply forced into it. The traffickers sole aim in moving these the victims around is to exploit them in any way that they can, be that through manual labour, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.

Cases of human trafficking are now being reported by the media, both local and national, but there are still many cases that go unreported, and the only people that know what has happened are the victims, the police, the Salvation Army team and Stop the Traffik, who are trying to spread the success stories, and highlight how a similar situation could be prevented in the future. Trafficking victims can be from all races, both genders and all ages, they are not just brought from abroad, but internal trafficking of UK residents happens frequently.

In Kent and Sussex, the average male victim is from East Europe, Romania in particular, whereas the women are mainly from Nigeria. However, Mr. Harris emphasized that “it’s difficult to give you a profile of the average victim as they are all unique individuals”, the victims have to be assessed on an individual basis, rather than as part of greater statistic, something which too often happens when talking about the problem of human trafficking in the media.

The Salvation Army is a first responder to trafficking cases; and when they have a report of a possible victim, they have to refer them to either the UK Human Trafficking Centre or the UK Border Agency. It is then up to the two organizations to decide whether they are an actual victim. If it is decided that the person is a victim of trafficking, then they must agree to be referred to the National Referral Mechanism, which means that they can begin to get help and support.

Mr. Harris told us that overall, in 2012, the Salvation Army made 332 journeys across the UK taking victims to safe houses, of which around 52 were in the area of Kent and Sussex. This averages out to mean that one person a week was being rescued from their traffickers and taken somewhere where they are able to get the help and support they need to re-establish their lives away from the manipulation and fear they face whilst working as a slaves.

The number of people needing transporting is large, but the Salvation Army relies on volunteer staff from its various churches and centers around the UK to be drivers and chaperons. Mr. Harris said that in the Kent and Sussex area, he has about 60 people on the rota, all of whom are Disclosure and Barring Service (the new Criminal Record check) cleared in order to work with vulnerable adults. These volunteers are ordinary people who are willing to go out and drive a victim, who is probably terrified and trust no-one, and take them to a safe point, whether that be a centre, or to another team of drivers if the distance is too great to travel in one go.

Once the volunteer team has dropped the victim off at the centre, they go through a forty five day reflection period, where they receive counseling as well as health care and legal advice. It is during this period that the decision is made as to whether the person are a victim of trafficking, and if so they will be assisted to get access to education and training. The victim will also be able to discuss what they wish to do with the rest of their life and receive assistance to either remain in this country, or return home to their families. This period is vital, as the victim needs to be able to trust that the staff are on their side and they need to know that they are now truly free and able to carry on with lives as best they can.

As a student led volunteering group to be able to discuss human trafficking with such a vital part of the human trafficking support team the Salvation Army, has been really enlightening and helpful, and we would like to thank Mr. Harris for taking the time to answer our questions.

If you would like to find out anymore information about Salvation Army please contact:
Website – http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/humantrafficking
Twitter – https://twitter.com/salvationarmyuk
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/salvationarmyuk

* BIG NEWS* 150 stickers distributed to Canterbury Taxi Drivers!

Last night, 22nd May 2013, we attended the Canterbury forum for Taxi Drivers to present the launch of our “Taxis against Trafficking” Campaign.

I am absolutely THRILLED to announce that at the end of our fist academic year, we have successfully managed to set up a society at the University of Kent, run stalls and events and guest speakers to raise awareness with students that labour trafficking and sex trafficking are happening RIGHT here.

Now we’ve also managed to reach our wider community. We’re joining Ashford, Thanet, Broadstairs and Folkestone to have a fully fledged and sustainable anti-trafficking campaign in Kent with a highly visible transport and information network.

The Taxi drivers in attendance thought the campaign was highly commendable and were keen to participate, as a result of that one meeting, 150 drivers in Canterbury will now have the hotline stickers, with Cab Co taking 50 in one go for all their drivers!

It has also received glowing support from the Canterbury city council licensing officers- who are distributing a sticker to every NEW driver who gets their license, every OLD driver who gets their license RENEWED, and are even going to personally speak to taxi drivers about human trafficking and distribute the sticker on their rounds.

This means that in the next 18 months nearly every taxi cab in Canterbury (up to 700) could be covered..

At the end of the presentation, one driver has already come forward to say that he strongly suspects a couple year ago that he transported a group of chinese men to an agricultural farm that could have been trafficked.

He said that there are plenty of farm labourers in Kent but his suspicions are raised as a result of knowing the signs of potential trafficking as they had a minder, couldn’t speak any english and were shaking with fear or nervousness.

By taxi drivers being aware of the signs of human trafficking and aware that they could possibly be transporting victims, they now have a way to report any concerning activity to a specialist police hotline, and can be a link between community awareness and real police investigation into potential cases.

It makes Kent a more hostile area for traffickers but must importantly is also providing a real chance that human trafficking victims in Kent can be found.

Special thanks to Canterbury Council Licensing Officers, David Stevenson and Louise Bentley-Sinstadt for your support and the opportunity to attend the forum.

Thank you to Stop the Traffik for your campaign design and resources. Very well done to Dipa Vaya, Kez Cawkwell for your presenting and Maya Esslemont for being our resident journalist. Amazing stuff guys. I couldn’t be prouder, what a great way to finish off the year.

Participating firms that we know of so far: (to be updated)

• Cab Co Canterbury: 0845 2502 209
• Canterbury Cabs:  01227 255000
• Cab 49
• Direct Cabs: 01227 495495
• Herne Cars/ Herne Bay Taxi

“We Suited Up!”: ‘Taxis against Trafficking’ campaign gets go-ahead from Canterbury Council.

“We’ve suited up!”:  Friday 19^th April. Meeting with the Canterbury Council Taxi Licensing Officers about supporting Stop the Traffik’s ‘Taxis against Trafficking’ campaign- to be launched in Canterbury 2013-2014.

The meeting to get the council’s backing on launching Stop the Traffik’s ‘Taxis against Trafficking’ awareness campaign in Canterbury went exceptionally amazing. Once we explained the scale and variety of human trafficking in the UK and Kent, that it can happen through and around small cities; even Oxford and Canterbury and particularly the significance of our proximity to Dover; they were extremely supportive and we got all the aims we wanted out of the meeting, and more…

1) Canterbury council to endorse the campaign to give it more credibility. (Checking with their Legal office before official)

2) Distributing a sticker and leaflet into the welcome pack of every NEW taxi driver and cab that is licensed with the council (6-8 new a month) … starting from now – dropping off 100x stickers and accompanying information this week.

2b) OLD cabs that are getting their annual license renewed for the best longer term difference so the campaign and awareness is sustainable and it means that eventually EVERY cab will have a sticker (even the independents). Licensing Officer mentioned that it could be possible to make it a compulsory condition in taxi regulations (will have to check with legal).

3) Allow us to attend one of the Taxi Forums to inform taxi drivers and companies about the campaign. TAXI FORUM DATE: 22nd MAY . 40-60 drivers average in attendance and we can present about the campaign, set up a stall and distribute stickers to them to give to their drivers.

4) Supply us with a list of currently licensed taxi companies and independent drivers so we can make sure we cover as many as possible… didn’t get this totally because it’s over 700 cabs and x2 the amount of drivers, but as they will get a sticker when their license is renewed they will eventually be covered within 12-18 months. Aiming for 500/700 cabs if all goes well.

5) As this means we’lll need another 300-500 stickers in the long-term, we’re certainly need to get some external funding and/or more fundraising. One of the officers mentioned it might be something they could ask for funding for us from the council  (a long shot considering the budget cuts, but it’s worth an ask). We’re going to speak to Kent Union if it’s possible to apply for a project fund of £200-300 from Volfed for the campaign for the committee next year.

6) Publish information about it in their newsletter and email blast that goes to everyone- We need to send them a press release ASAP.

7) Mentioned ways we could get more publicity e.g doing a taxi ‘wrap’ – so getting funding to have the campaign poster on the WHOLE of a taxi cab or one of the doors or getting a large door sticker produced- this type of advertisement is extremely expensive but lasts 12-18 months. We can also contact stagecoach about putting a poster in their buses.

7b) At the Taxi Forum on 22^nd May to publicise that we have a website that we will be publishing all the taxi firms that are supporting this campaign with their phone numbers for their publicity. The sticker will be like the Fair-trade logo of the taxi world!

7c) We are getting another radio interview with CSR (University of Kent Radio) set up for end of May for publicity but also as a taxi company wants to pledge their support live on air. We will be contacting other local radio stations and particular local newspapers to spread the word of mouth.- Need a press release.

8) Help us get in touch with the licensing officer for Crawley which covers Heathrow and Gatwick airport to see if the campaign can spread to that area. Need to get in touch with Stop the Traffik to see if this is already happening and if not where funding can come from.

8b) The campaign can now spread to Medway now that we have Ashford, Canterbury, Thanet and I think Shepton and Folkestone on board, Maidstone/Sevenoaks & Tonbridge & Malling are also possibilities.

9) They recommended we contacted our local councillors as the elections are in a couple of weeks as well as speaking to our MP Julian Brazier and PCC Ann Barnes to weigh in on making Kent a Hostile area to traffickers. As former police officers themselves, the licensing officers agreed on how important it was to make it an issue that was a performance indicator for Kent Police for it to start to be taken more seriously. Research done recently by the Centre for Social Justice said, “there is more incentive to investigate a shed burglar”  than to investigate human trafficking.

For more information on this campaign, check out the ‘Taxis against Trafficking’ page. For our contact information, ‘Does Human Trafficking really happen in and through Kent?’ and our events this academic year- check out our ‘About’ page.

2nd April team meeting update- Exciting stuff!

      UPDATE                    UKC AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING   2^nd April 2013

Just a quick update on the minutes from our end of term meeting, was one of the best! It’s a shame not many people could attend but we had 3 guests, here’s what you missed!

• Cliff Grieve, our partner from Ashford’s Kent Community against Trafficking and the advisory forum to the All Parliamentary Group joined to meet some of the group, share his experiences on the taxi campaign and give some exciting news that what they’ve been campaigning rotary for 12 years for has finally happened: Rotary and it’s (1.2 million members worldwide) have adopted child-slavery/trafficking as a cause they’re going to campaign against. Rotary have been a major organisation that have been part of the near-eradication of Polio which goes to show what they can do.

• We filled people in on some exciting stuff from the government advisory forum we went to in London a couple weeks ago (will upload notes) where we heard Baroness Butler-Sloss speak, Anthony Steen, ECPAT UK, Salvation Army and the guy who literally WROTE the Centre for Social Justice Report which has been shaking up Westminster by calling for government reform on tackling trafficking speak.

• Elom, a student from Medway & charity Rwareness attended, they are doing some awesome awareness via social media and graphic design (check out their website http://www.rwareness.com/gallery-2/ and Facebook page) and they want to work with us maybe on the taxi campaign and joint events next year which is really exciting!

• Beth, who is a friend of Maya and next year’s Kent Union women’s officer (I think I’ve got that right) and signed up with us at Freshers Fayre really wants to get involved with us, and she has a petition we can weigh in on over a new “entertainment/strip club” they want to build here. More details to follow.

• Taxis against Trafficking UPDATE: Sadly our meeting with the Canterbury council was cancelled and rescheduled until 19th April. But in the meantime we’re going to coordinate phoning a couple taxi co.’s a week to start to plug the campaign and update the blog on progress.

• We also agreed on doing a stall at Eco-fest on campus in the 3rd week of May with a Fair Trade theme which will be a great opportunity to plug consumer awareness, get involved in a different campaign and team up with the Fair Trade society on Campus.

•  Summer Volunteering Opportunity! Stop the traffik are doing another volunteering campaign ‘European Communities against Trafficking’ during the summer, a bit like the Olympics Gift. Box project that Dipa, Alex and myself did last year. The project involves engaging and communicating with the local community about what human trafficking it is and how they can be part of bringing about a stop to trafficking. They are looking for volunteers for schools work, community talks, street awareness raising, leaflet distribution and/or business engagement in London.

I can’t stress how much we got out of doing this kind of thing because they give great training, builds up confidence, you get much more understanding of what human trafficking is and how to stop it and it’s awesome volunteering experience for your CV. The next training day you can join up for is Wed 17th April so not far! Email Katie.barker@stopthetraffik.org for an information pack and details.

WELL DONE FOR AN AWESOME YEAR SO FAR. Check out  the ‘About’ page on our blog for a list of our events and articles especially if you’re logging E&V volunteering hours and need a refresher. https://ukcagainsthumantrafficking.wordpress.com/about/ .

• ! If you’ve loved what we’ve done or been involved, nominate us for the Kent Union “best new SLVG” award ! https://unionkent.wufoo.eu/forms/kent-union-awards-2013-entry-form/ . Nominations close Friday 12th April.

Have a great Easter. Any questions email us ukcpeopletraffikfree@gmail.com or comment below.

End of Term Update

First of all apologies for not updating you all sooner this term has been mega busy with essays, society work and just generally enjoying university life!

At the beginning of second term, the committee started attending meetings planning future events and how to gain more volunteers on board for the taxi campaign.
We also held elections and now have a newly elected committee. Gail is President, Ian is Vice President, Michelle is Treasurer, Alex is Social Secretary and I’m media officer. Our team along with volunteers are determined than ever to combat human trafficking in Kent.
Refreshers Fayre held on 7th February 2012 allowed students to sign up to new societies and we even managed to receive a snippet of university television station Kent TV promoting the Refreshers Fayre!

A few members of the society also went to the university of East Anglia conference about Human Trafficking, where they learnt more about how to combat human trafficking and worked with other people at the conference to think of future ideas

The society decided to have another film night to see Taken starring Liam Neilson the synopsis of the film was a father trying to save his daughter from being a victim of human trafficking. We also served Fairtrade chocolate at the event to persuade people to buy Fairtrade chocolate instead of chocolate that may have been made from child traffickers.
Stop the Traffik has enquired to Mondeléz formally known as Kraft, who buy more cocoa than any other chocolate company to lead the way in making the chocolate industry free from child trafficking. Stop the Traffik campaigned last year to make Toblerone traffic free, Mondelez responded by saying the company would spend $400 million making their cocoa sustainable.

The next major event for UKC against Human Trafficking held was the society’s first female football match held in March, where we raised awareness in co-ordination with Love146 campaign- Run for Love 1000. Run for Love 1000, aims to raise £150,000 to go towards “the first national programme dedicated to the care and recovery of children who have been trafficked into the UK”. The event was a success with the girls split into two teams competing and raising awareness about Human Trafficking. We also had donation buckets of which the money raised would be going towards UKC against Human Trafficking and the Love146 campaign. Alex and I also went on the Kent University radio show ‘Colours of Canterbury’ to raise awareness about Human Trafficking and the event which was nerve racking but good fun!

 
In the future the society hope to start the taxi campaign to raise awareness in Kent about Human Trafficking especially as taxi drivers are essentially the eyes and ears of the community. If they can recognise the signs of Human Trafficking and do something about it then, that would be great and a huge step in combating Human Trafficking. The society also hopes to work with a safe house in Kent that helps those who have dealt with human trafficking.

Women’s football match hailed a “huge success”

Football fans at the University of Kent battled it out on Thursday for the much-coveted chance to win a combination meal at Nando’s. The charity event, hosted by UKC Against Human Trafficking, offered football players a peri-peri-coated reward for raising money and awareness for Love 146, an anti-human trafficking charity which aims to build Britain’s first safe house for trafficked children.

Gail Commandeur, president of the society, told volunteers about the lack of support for trafficked children and reminded spectators why fundraising events like these are so important. In a moving half-time speech, she said: “The problem is, these children may not speak English and will trust their traffickers more than they trust the care system. Because of this, 60% of trafficked children who have been taken into care go missing.”

The match was hailed a success by the footballers, spectators, and committee members of the student-led volunteer group. Michelle Siyanbola, organiser of the event, was amazed by the response she received. She said: “I didn’t envision this kind of result! So many girls were willing to join the cause by playing and, despite the harsh weather, so many people actually turned up to watch, support and give to the charity.”
“I just want to thank everyone that made this event a huge success in one way or another.”

Many travelled from elsewhere to join in, including Cara Lockwood, 21, who took the free Medway shuttle bus to take part. Talking about the event, she said: “I really enjoyed the game and it is all for a great cause.”

After the match, Woody’s Bar kindly offered beer and burger deals to all involved in the event and spectators definitely made the most of this generosity!

The money raised through the match is currently being counted by Raise and Give, Kent Union’s charity branch, before being sent to Love146.

UKC Against Human Trafficking would like to give a big thank you to Nando’s for providing four free meals for the winning team and to Woody’s bar for the beer and burger discounts.

 

Written by: Maya Esslemont

UKC Against Human Trafficking to hold awareness-raising football match

Excerpt from, ‘UKC Against Human Trafficking to hold awareness-raising football match‘ by George Hopkin, InQuire,  our University of Kent student newspaper!  Click on link above to see the FULL article.

“On Thursday 21st March, UKC Against Human Trafficking, a student-led volunteer group (or SLVG), will be hosting a Female Football Match to raise awareness of the modern issues surrounding human trafficking.

The event, involving a football game exclusively for females, aims to raise money for the charity Love146, which provides care and support for children who have been victims of human trafficking. The organisation’s campaign that the SLVG is supporting, Run for Love 1000, aims to raise £150,000 to go towards

“the first national programme dedicated to the care and recovery of children who have been trafficked into the UK”.

…Click here for the public facebook event by UKC Against Human Trafficking and to find out more information.”