The Shaping a Better World through Research and Action in collaboration with Wellesley Centers for Women has completed a day-long training targeting market women in Monrovia.
The trainers of trainers workshop which brought together directors, deputies of governmental and non-governmental institutions will create massive awareness in the incoming months on human trafficking that is commonly practiced among market women.
Speaking to reporters following the training, the head of Wellesley Centers for Women, Layli Maparyan, said the workshop will help participants gain relevant knowledge to create awareness among market women that in most cases, are unknowingly involved in trafficking in Liberia.
She named poverty and unemployment as a major contributing factor for trafficking in the country.
“One major thing people talk about is the degree to which poverty contributes to human trafficking in Liberia. When people are desperate for resources, they will often take desperate measures to meet their needs,” she said.
“Sometimes they can even go so far by releasing their children into the care of other people but sometimes those other people do not treat the children correctly,” Mrs. Maparyan added.
Meanwhile, giving a case study of human trafficking as a way of live in Liberia, with focus on West Point, the Director and Project Coordinator of West Point Women for Health and Development, Nelly Cooper encouraged government’s institutions to work with community NGOs in reducing human trafficking.
According to Mrs. Cooper, there have been a lot of cases encountered by her institution over past years in the community but with inadequate support, they have not been able to achieve all.
She wants the government to monitor disadvantaged communities; such as New Kru Town with high poverty and unemployment rates where trafficking in persons are commonly practiced.
It can be recorded that government’s radio station, ELBC , correspondent from Zwedru, Grand Gedeh reported that several agents from a company called Q-Net including the company’s manager Binta Jallo was taken to the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in Zwedru City .
They were accused of trafficking sixteen West Africans into Liberia from Guinea, Togo, and the Ivory Coast.
The victims are also claiming that Q-Net agents have been preventing them from having access to huge sum of money they claim they’ve deposited into the company’s system.
The correspondent also said that two of the motions currently in the judge’s chambers regarding the matter were dismissed recently.
There is a motion for separate trial for the Q-net manager and another motion for restitution of the monies allegedly extorted from the complainants
Following the training, the participants lauded the Shaping a Better World through Research and Action in collaboration with the Wellesley Centers for Women for the knowledge gained and promised to spread the message against human trafficking in the country in an effort to reduce human trafficking across Liberia.
