Albanian youth use photos to tell story of human trafficking

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Children and youth from World Vision's LIFE (Children in Crisis) project were recently trained to use the power of photography to raise public awareness of human trafficking– first in their neighbourhood and then across Albania. These children and youth live in the Bregu i Lumit area; one of the capital city's poorest. Many of them work in the streets in order to help support their family. Children who work and or live on the streets are one of the most vulnerable groups to trafficking. World Vision, partnering with the UK charity Photo Voice, conducted a ten-day workshop to train these children and youth, (four boys and four girls) first on basic photography skills and later on how to tell a story in pictures. Initially they participated in a discussion about how they perceive trafficking and then they learnt what trafficking is according to Albanian law. Each young person also told their own stories about instances of trafficking in and around their community. Photographs captured by children and youth will soon be displayed at an exhibition in Tirana to raise awareness about trafficking issues in Albania. The children titled their collective photo work 'Come With Me!' – An anti-trafficking photoproject from an Albanian youth group with many dreams'. Their photos will be combined with photos taken by youth in Romania, Armenia, Lebanon and Pakistan, collectively called 'See it our way' photoproject. Resources from 'See it our way' will contribute to the Human Wrong Initiative in 2011– a World Vision US campaign of university students from across the U.S. raising their voices to fight child slavery (www.humanwrong.org). 'I liked the activities that we did during our training. I learned to take good pictures and most importantly I learned more about trafficking,' said Anxhela, 12, who was the youngest participant at the workshop. 'Photography training helps these students develop both their skills as well as building their self confidence,' said Brixhida Xheka, World Vision's Children in Crisis Team Leader. 'They increased their sensitivity about trafficking and now they will use their photos to raise people's awareness about it'. 'I don't go to school anymore, so learning about photography and trafficking issues is a new step in my life. I'm really happy I was part of this programme,' said 15-year-old Adelajda with tears in her eyes. In the early 1990's after the collapse of communism in Albania, the situation in the country spiralled into chaos for several years. In this chaos, the painful and cruel reality of human trafficking increased. Impoverished Albania became a source for trafficked girls for sexual exploitation. According to the US State Department (2007), victims are trafficked to Greece and Italy then on to the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. In addition, there is an increase in the trafficking of children for forced labour (child slavery). 'This was the first time we've talked about trafficking so openly,' said 17-year-old Rodolf, a youth participant at the workshop. 'We learned how we can tell a story with one photo. This training affected us in a special way; we learned a lot. Now we know that we can make a difference in our community.' 'In our photographs we want to send anti-trafficking messages,' said Kledisa, 13. 'We want to make people aware that this is the reality in which we live everyday. We should fight it in any way we can. Photography is one good way to do this because in pictures we can say a lot.' 'We also want to teach younger children to tell their own stories in photos,' concluded 12-year-old Bukurije. -Ends-