Prevention
HAART conducts trainings from national to grassroots level, sometimes in a hotel with judges or members of parliament and another time under a tree or in a shack. HAART works with art, youth and use its experience and knowledge to create quality training material.
“We have been set to cross the road alone. The community is tired of children going to the Middle
East and never coming back. It’s time to raise awareness that human trafficking is happening with
us.” A female participant, 2020
Whether it is speaking to children or teachers, youths or parents, police officers or members of parliament, one key need is generally expressed: the need for raising awareness about the different forms of human trafficking, the ways in traffickers use to control its victims, the routes the victims are taken and most importantly what people at risk can do to avoid being trafficked. Finally, HAART always has a high focus on how victims can get help.
This need for awareness at different levels and complexities, from basic definition to understanding the legal framework. HAART works diligently towards improving the understanding of the issue of human trafficking in Kenya.
In Schools
HAART has developed a manual for teachers to teach children about child trafficking. The purpose is to forster reslient children who know their rights, how to avoid dangerous situations and how to get help in case they get in trouble. To complement the information HAART has developed an animation film, videos, cartoons and much more.
Grassroots workshops
Traffickers often promise a good job, good education or good relationship, only to exploit innocent victims once they reach the intended destination. Awareness raising empowers those who are targeted by traffickers. Our grassroots workshops normally last for around 2 hours and targets the most vulnerable populations in Kenya.The training is based on a tool-kit that HAART developed in 2018.
Young@HAART
HAART believes in youth, art and expressions. To reach some of the most vulnerable populations which are youth and children, HAART has developed a youth empowerment project called Young@HAART where young people are trained and encouraged to share their knowledge through avenues such as dance and music.
Arts to End Slavery
HAART has since 2015 worked with artists to create beautiful, intriguing and alternative expressions of art that is based on different aspects of human trafficking. This works to reach a different target group than through our usual avenues and also create interesting content and learn from artists’ perspectives.
First responders
Some of the most important stakeholders in dealing with human trafficking are local first responders such as police officers, court officers, and immigration officers but also non-traditional responders such as religious leaders, chiefs and children officers among others. HAART conduct in-depth training for these groups in sessions lasting 1-2 days.
National and regional level training
HAART regularly conducts training and organizes conferences and forums at both national and regional level. The aim is to have knowledge shared and facilitate learning from best practices and improve relationships between stakeholders in the anti-trafficking space in Kenya and East Africa.
Media
HAART is constantly developing media content
When HAART first founded there was not a lot of content about how human trafficking work in Africa and most of the images were showing Eastern European and Asian women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. That is an important narrative, but to explain to people in Africa what human trafficking is it is important that there is relevant content such as video, pictures,graphic art and cartoons with information that is relevant to the target audience’s reality. This is something that we continually work on.
Kitwana's Journey
The most ambitious project to date was the creation of an animation film that was released to the public in 2019 after being shown in film festivals around the world. The film was made by the talented Kenyan film maker Ng’endo Mukii in partnership with HAART and with funding from Misean Cara. We hope to make many more animation films since we recognize this as a powerful tool to show survivors stories without fear of victimization through identifying the victims.
This is the story of a boy named Kitwana,
A boy who laughed and played,
and went to school,
and did all the things that children do.
One day Kitwana’s life would change and not for the better,
This however, no body knew.This short film is based on a true story, and commissioned by HAART.