Fighting slavery at school
27 million people live in slavery. A teaching resource for Serbian schools raises awareness of human trafficking
Belgrade based non profit organisation ASTRA (Anti Trafficking Action) has released a teaching resource aimed at raising awareness of human trafficking in Europe, particularly in the Balkans. With an estimated 27 million people forced to work against their will as slave-labourers, slavery is far from a thing of the past. According to American NGO Free the Slaves there are more slaves today than at any other moment in history and yet only a fraction of the funds spent fighting the drug trade are spent to fight the illegal trade in human beings.
“Fight against Human Trafficking – Teachers’ Manual”, is a resource intended to assist teachers in organising classroom activities that inform and raise awareness of the problem in the hope that this will contribute towards preventing the incidence of human trafficking in the long term.
The manual is a result of ASTRA’s long experience in the fight against human trafficking and is part of its long-term preventive and educational work with the employees of the education system. “It was designed on the basis of our daily practice and efforts in areas of prevention, education and eradication of this global problem, above all the hundreds of workshops organized all over Serbia by ASTRA’s team of peer educators, as well as on basis of exchange of experiences and cooperation with partners in Serbia and the region“, said an ASTRA spokesperson.
The Manual is divided into six chapters, each dedicated to an individual aspect of human trafficking, with general information, proposed workshops and ways to include given topics in the curriculum, ideas for extracurricular activities, anti-trafficking actions and auxiliary materials. All materials necessary to conduct workshops and classes are provided in the chapter “Annexes”, in a way that allows for easy replication.
“Fight against Human Trafficking – Teachers’ Manual” was published with assistance from the OAK Foundation and Save the Children, in both Serbian and English.
To find out more visit: www.astra.org
Further reading: humantrafficking.org
