Vietnam October Update

Hagar Vietnam welcomes HOPE Trust

From October 24-28, Hagar Vietnam welcomed Hope Trust staff from the Solomon Islands to visit their Hanoi office and project activities in the Van Chan district of Yen Bai.

During the field trip, the team met and exchanged work with our strategic partner – the Women’s Union of Yen Bai province. At the meeting, a Union representative introduced the Yen Bai province’s characteristics and projects implemented with Hagar. In addition, Hope Trust members joined with children, the community and local partners at Peer Group activities and free English classes. Moreover, all members met and visited beneficiaries receiving support in the area.

Through witnessing and listening to peer group members and officials about positive changes, the team better understood the achievements and impact Hagar’s projects had on the Emergency Response Team, peer group, and livelihood support model. Staff could thus learn and apply similar models in activities in the Solomon Islands. After that, staff also attended a sharing session on Trauma-Informed Care Practice in Hagar Vietnam and how The Whole Journey operates.

The trip was a success as the HOPE Trust team gained many great lessons from Hagar’s work to apply in Solomon Islands.

Hagar Vietnam presents at trafficking seminar

On October 25th, Hagar Vietnam attended the “Sharing experiences in receiving, transferring and supporting victims of human trafficking” seminar. 50 representatives from the Ministry of Public Security, the Border Guard, the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs and NGOs attended the event, organised by the Vietnamese Government’s Department for Social Vices Prevention.

Representatives of the Ministry of Public Security and border guards talked about the situation of human trafficking in Vietnam, especially recent trafficking in person cases in Cambodia. Representatives of the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs spoke about the difficulties and advantages in supporting human trafficking victims to reintegrate into the community.

Hagar Vietnam’s Psychologist Team Leader presented on the psychology of trafficked persons and trauma-informed care. Many participants, including leaders of the state hoped Hagar could share more about the topic for those working to support victims of human trafficking to better understand trauma to avoid triggering and re-traumatization.

JTIP Closing Workshop held in Hanoi

In October, Hagar Vietnam and Yen Bai Women’s Union hosted the closing workshop of the “Covid-19 Victims of Human Trafficking are Resilient” project in Hanoi. Attendees included US Embassy, Call Center 111 staff- Department of Children, Department of Social Evils Prevention- Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Mu Cang Chai and Tram Tau’s district leaders and representatives of IOM, World Vision, Asean-Act, ChildFund and FHI.

Political Officer of the US Embassy, Mr. Matthew Stannard spoke at the opening ceremony.

“The U.S. Department of State was proud to support this project through the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. And this is just part of our work with Vietnam to address the shared challenge of combatting trafficking.”

Stakeholders also spoke about local participation in project activities and the process of coordination to end human trafficking. The remarkable impact results of the project were presented and further directions were discussed to maintain an effective model for preventing human trafficking.

Executive Director of Hagar Vietnam Ms. Giang Thi Thu Thuy also spoke.

“Returnee victims of human trafficking faced many difficulties in their reintegration journey. And thus, we need coordination across departments. This is very challenging for an organisation to do alone. We hope that, after the project, Hagar’s Emergency Response Teams can continue to support victims of human trafficking,” she said.

Heal & Empower Highlights

• 71 clients/survivors are currently benefitting from Hagar’s services
• 5 new survivors have been admitted in the last month
• 7 clients/survivors graduated from the program and were reintegrated into the community
• 92 psychological counselling sessions were conducted for survivors
• 8 clients/survivors received career advice and support