Young generation contributes to counter-trafficking efforts

Seeking to unlock the potential of young people and provide them with a space, where they will feel free to share their opinions and discuss the most important things, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Republic of Belarus has been organizing its youth summer camp called “Learn. Act. Share” for the fifth year in a row.

Every year this summer camp gathers 18 initiative young people from throughout Belarus in order to inform them about the problem, which is not given enough consideration and still can affect a person of any gender, age or nationality, that is the problem of trafficking in human beings. 

With the aid of lectures and workshops provided by experts from UN agencies, non-governmental associations and private companies young camp participants obtain a comprehensive understanding of the problem as they view it from a different angle and via related topics such as migration, gender equality, sustainable development, information security, etc.

The aim of the initiative is not only to inform about the problem but also to inspire young people to take action in order to prevent it and share the obtained knowledge.  Over a period of five days the participants learned to develop projects, promote them online and create their own social video. These knowledge and skills enabled them to come up with the ideas and work out the detailed implementation plans for five projects aimed at countering hate speech, raising awareness of the problem of human trafficking and methods of its prevention, and informing about safe international travel.

The camp has already inspired its 70 alumni to learn, act and share knowledge as during the past few years they have conducted events for over 4300 peers.  2021 alumni are full of enthusiasm to contribute to this joint work.

“Here I met a lot of interesting and well-informed people and my eyes blazed! Now I am anxious to implement what we plotted out together with my colleagues.  As the new academic year starts we will try to deliver on all our projects so that our activities here would not gone to waste,” - camp participant Yana Astashonok shares her plans.

Learn. Act. Share summer camp is conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Republic of Belarus under the IOM-X global campaign and coincides with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons.  The initiative is supported by the US Agency for International Development USAID together with the partners: UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, WHO offices in the Republic of Belarus, UN Department of Global Communications, partners from NGOs and private companies EPAM, LigaturaBel and NOTAKITCHEN.