What is REACH?

What is the REACH Initiative, and what does it aim to accomplish?

UNIAP’s REACH Initiative aims to build a stronger global community that directly addresses the issue of human trafficking, particularly human trafficking from Asia to other parts of the world.

From communities and campuses around the world, students, academics and other activists can contribute directly to the global counter-trafficking movement and address the urgent issue of human trafficking from Asia. The REACH initiative links university student teams directly with counter-trafficking responders and arms them with the knowledge and contacts they need to be seeds of change, advocacy, and action against trafficking and slavery in their communities. It also taps these teams as critical sources of information on human trafficking for the UN’s Asia-based counter-trafficking responders, who benefit greatly from being linked with local human trafficking news and reporting from these destination countries, particularly news translated from local languages.

REACH links volunteer student/activist teams in destination countries with UN counter-trafficking responders in Asia so that we can all better understand the realities of human trafficking from Asia to other parts of the world, and so that we can begin targeting and helping more people being victimized and enslaved in these crimes.

How does REACH work?

REACH is based on volunteer teams: student/activist teams in destination countries, linked with each other, and all linked to a UN regional counter-trafficking team based in Asia. REACH Volunteers will be connected to each other and to UNIAP through research and will exchange information on human trafficking using free internet networking softwares.

Teams of two or more can be formed by independent students/activists; part of a university club focused on human trafficking and/or human rights; or, formed by professors who will provide independent study or course credit to students doing REACH work. Timeframes can range from a semester to a year.

Each REACH team will be mentored by one of UNIAP’s technical staff through regular contact via email and Skype, and will engage in two major functions: data mining and advocacy.

Data mining will use all local and international information sources available (in local languages and English) to seek updated answers to the following questions about the country in which the REACH team operates:

• What is the human trafficking situation in the country?
• Who is being trafficked to or from Asia and elsewhere?
• Where do trafficked persons come from and how are they exploited?
• What is the scale of human trafficking in the country? • Who is addressing the problem?
• How is the problem being addressed?
• How many trafficking victims are repatriated each year back to their home countries?
• What is happening to the traffickers?
• What needs to be done?

As the information comes in, REACH teams and the UNIAP team will discuss what to do with the information, how to package it, and what advocacy messages would be most powerful and appropriate for addressing the realities of the trafficking situation. Leads can be followed up by REACH teams to identify additional sources of information, with additional contacts from UNIAP as needed. What we are interested in are facts and data – numbers and good references. The data mining process will culminate in a four-page UNIAP data sheet (in English and the REACH team’s local language), dissemination, and improvement over time by future REACH teams and UNIAP. It also provides valuable insights for the second function: advocacy.

Advocacy by the REACH teams can target local communities, local policymakers, local media, or whomever the REACH team determines to be the most appropriate target audience to learn more about human trafficking in general, and about the REACH data mining results specifically. UNIAP can work with REACH teams on advocacy strategy (and REACH teams may benefit from cross-pollination across campuses and countries as well), with UNIAP providing multimedia materials as requested for events – for example, documentaries, short films profiling trafficked persons, PowerPoint presentations, expert guest speakers, or other awareness raising materials.

At the end of the REACH team’s project cycle (whether a semester or a year), UNIAP will provide a letter of appreciation to each individual of the REACH team, will publicize the work and the results of each team globally, and will invite each REACH team member to UNIAP’s State of Human Counter-Trafficking regional event, held every odd year in Bangkok toward the end of the year. A limited number of outstanding REACH team members (two outstanding members for 2009) will be flown to Bangkok to present the results of their work to the Asia regional counter-trafficking community – including UN counter-trafficking personnel, international and local counter-trafficking NGOs, academics, the diplomatic community, policy makers, advocates, media, and others.

Why “REACH”, and why now?

The name REACH is used to reflect UNIAP’s attempt to “reach out” to the world to empower those interested in playing an active role in the solution to human exploitation and slavery, from wherever they may be.

And why now? Because people are profiting from the deception, control, and exploitation of other people, and this abhorrent crime must be stopped. Counter-trafficking sees successes every day, and victims are reached and assisted every day, but counter-trafficking responders are particularly challenged by cross-regional human trafficking: not enough information is being systematically collected, analyzed, and exchanged; and, language difficulties challenge intelligence gathering, networking, and communication and assistance to trafficked persons.

Clearly, human trafficking between Asia and Europe, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and America is significant: it is a crime that links us all together. We only have to reach out to each other to work together to help stop it.

What do you need to do to get involved?

To be considered for this initiative, please fill out the attached application form and send it to Michaela Re at REACH@undp.org. Each form will be reviewed by a selection committee to determine eligibility.

What is UNIAP?

The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) has as its core functions the coordination of policy and operational responses to human trafficking within the six Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries (Cambodia, China, Laos PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.) This includes maintaining close operational partnerships with governments at central and local levels; local non-government organizations; and UN and international implementing agencies. UNIAP has country project offices in each of the six GMS countries, and a regional headquarters in Bangkok that includes a specialist counter-trafficking technical team. Established in 2000 and currently in its Phase III (2007 to 2010), UNIAP strives to improve the overall counter-trafficking response in Southeast Asia -- from the policy levels to grassroots prevention and from prosecution to victim protection interventions. For more information about UNIAP, find out How We Work.