ANNUAL REPORT 2019 1 “As an innovati ve model of social inclusion, the Special Rapporteur has been impressed by the work carried out by the Free a Girl NGO, in the context of the School for Justi ce project implemented in India and Nepal.” - Report to the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on traffi cking in persons, Dr. Maria Grazia Giammarinaro Free a Girl Foundati on Hendrik Figeeweg 3 G-10 2031 BJ HAARLEM +31 (0)23 2049400 freeagirl.com [email protected] Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam: 34308169 Rabobank: NL 40 RABO 0306898799 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. VISION, MISSION AND CORE VALUES 5 1.1 Vision 5 1.2 Mission 5 1.3 Core values 5 1.4 Objectives 5 1.4.1 Stop the sexual exploitation of children 6 1.4.2 Confront the public with the existence of child sexual exploitation 6 2. STOPPING SEXUAL EXPLOITATION 7 2.1 Bangladesh 7 2.2 Brazil 12 2.3 India 14 2.4 Nepal 20 2.5 Thailand 25 2.6 Laos 27 3. RAISING AWARENESS 32 3.1 Target group 32 3.2 Alliances 32 3.2.1 Down to Zero 32 3.2.2 Don’t look away 32 3.3 Online communication and free publicity 32 3.3.1 Ambassadors 32 3.3.2 Media value 2019 33 3.3.3 Website 33 3.3.4 Social media 33 3.4 Communication with stakeholders 33 3.4.1 Donors 34 3.4.2 Business partners 34 3.4.3 Foundations and private charitable foudations 34 3.4.4 Alliance partners 34 3.4.5 Ambassadors 34 3.4.6 Regional ambassadors 34 3.4.7 Employees 34 3.4.8 Partner organizations 34 3.4.9 Integrity and complaints procedure 35 3.5 Highlights 35 3.5.1 Fight as if she was your own 35 3.5.2 Fighting child prostitution in Laos and Thailand 36 4. FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES 36 4.1 Income from individuals 36 4.2 Companies 36 4.3 Lock me Up - Free a Girl 37 4.4 Lottery organizations 37 3 4.5 Government subsidies 37 4.6 Institutions and foundations 38 4.7 International fundraising 39 5. LOOKING AHEAD TO 2020 39 6. ORGANIZATION 40 6.1 Personnel 40 6.2 The executive 41 6.3 Supervisory board 41 6.4 Committee of recommendation 41 6.5 Freedom Fighters 41 6.6 Transparency 42 6.7 Policy documents 42 6.8 Risk analysis 42 6.9 Finances 42 7. ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 43 4 1. VISION, MISSION AND CORE VALUES Free a Girl campaigns for a world free of the sexual exploitation of children. We rescue girls who are imprisoned in brothels and give them back their freedom. We focus on the worst forms of sexual exploitation, such as Indian brothels frequented only by local men, dance bars in Nepal, and Brazilian favelas where thousands of girls are abused. Free a Girl was active in six countries in 2019. We work through local rescue organizations that cooperate with the police, and the rescued girls are cared for in shelters. The care they receive ranges from medical and psychological assistance to education and vocational training. In addition, our partners provide legal support and prepare the girls for their return home. If the latter proves impossible, they are helped to return to society and build an independent life. Free a Girl also invests in prevention schemes, by informing boys and men about gender equality and issues such as sexual violence. In addition, Free a Girl invests in education to prevent girls from falling victim to sexual exploitation, and to reintegrate them into society. Free a Girl tackles impunity. In the countries where we work, few perpetrators are convicted for the suffering they cause. This is changing, thanks to Free a Girl’s campaigning. The victims play a central role in our campaigns. After training in law, sociology or journalism, or as a police officer or social worker, the girls speak out and make the difference themselves. 1.1 Mission Free a Girl fights the sexual exploitation of children. 1.2 Vision Our vision is of a world free of child prostitution. Every child has the right to grow up in a safe environment. All children around the world must be protected from every form of exploitation. 1.3 Core values • Action-oriented.We take action to prevent and fight the sexual exploitation of minors. If we need to, we shake up established systems. • Results-oriented. We are a professional organization with objectives that we strive to achieve, and we expect the same from our partners. • Effective. We’ve proved ourselves since Free a Girl was founded, eleven years ago. There are places where very few minor girls are abused anymore, more people in local communities are aware of how human traffickers operate, and 4,500 girls have been rescued from brothels in Asia. Thousands of girls can look forward to the future again. • Transparent. We are an open organization, both in terms of how we work and our operational management. Figures, facts and activities are recorded each year in the annual report, which is published on the website. • Distinctive. Free a Girl is a small organization with global ambitions. Compared to other organizations, we can respond quickly and we are not afraid to speak out. 1.4. Objectives Free a Girl has two global objectives: 1. Stop the sexual exploitation of children: at Free a Girl we pursue our objective of stopping sexual exploitation by working together with partner organizations. 2. Confront the public with the existence of child sexual exploitation, so that they support the fight against it. 5 1.4.1 Stop the sexual exploitation of children To stop the sexual exploitation of children Free a Girl divided the projects in programme countries into six pillars: prevention, rescues, liberation, tackling impunity, lobbying & advocacy, rehabilitation and reintegration. • Prevention: by ‘prevention’, we mean carrying out awareness-raising activities in areas that are home to many girls who are at an increased risk of being trafficked. In these, we pay particular attention to children growing up in red-light districts: children whose mothers work in brothels, putting them at an increased risk of joining the next generation of prostitutes. In order to carry out these activities successfully, we need to work with partners that have been operating in red-light districts for some time. Often, these are not our rescue partners. The activities consist of programmes that focus on education and creating a safe environment for the girls. • Rescues: by raiding brothels and rescuing victims, Free a Girl stays true to its word and takes action to tackle the problem of child prostitution. We believe in this approach, because it allows us to send out a clear signal. We have to take a tough line on child prostitution, and all the girls who are detained must be rescued now. • Tackling impunity: impunity is one of the most important reasons why child prostitution continues to exist. Our research shows that in India in 2015, just 55 lawsuits on the commercial sexual exploitation of children resulted in the perpetrators being convicted. Free a Girl helps victims to get hold of the legal documents they need and to report their cases to the police, gives legal advice and prepares them for their lawsuits (by doing practice lawsuits). By working with the police and the legal system in this way, Free a Girl wants to ensure that human traffickers, pimps and brothel-keepers are arrested and convicted. This tactical focus on impunity means that the supply side of child prostitution is tackled. • Lobby & advocacy: as we want to create sustainable change, we believe that it is important to have local support in the fight against child prostitution. Lobbying & advocacy activities will be used to draw local attention to the problem. Where possible, money will also be raised locally. • Rehabilitation:rehabilitation covers the funding of shelters, vocational training, life-skills training, medical assistance, counselling/trauma therapy, non-formal education and formal education. • Re-integration: as well as continuing to focus on breaking through the stigma affecting victims, we will focus on employment opportunities. This is an essential element of successful reintegration. In poor regions where work is limited, implementing this element is a great challenge. Free a Girl works with local partner organisations. Because our partners are familiar with the culture, speak the language and have the necessary experience, they are best placed to offer the girls the help they need. The six pillars and results per country will be dealt with in chapter 2. 1.4.2 Confront the public with the existence of child sexual exploitation Through various alliances and communication projects, such as high-profile PR and free publicity campaigns. We use campaigns to raise awareness of the problem and this will be further elaborated in chapter 3. At Free a Girl, we pursue our objective of stopping child prostitution by working with partner organizations. 6 2. STOPPING SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Our projects in the program countries are divided across six pillars: preventi on, rescues, tackling impunity, lobbying & advocacy, rehabilitati on and reintegrati on. 2.1 BANGLADESH Poverty is rife in Bangladesh. Many children are traffi cked with their parents’ ‘permission’, as their child is oft en promised a marriage or a well-paid job. But the children are in fact sold to brothels in their own country or traffi cked elsewhere in South Asia, where they are sexually exploited. Although there are no offi cial data on the number of victi ms of human traffi cking, various studies show that more than 1 million women and children have been traffi cked out of the country in the past 30 years.