DEALING IN SEX SLAVES
Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa are the primary zones of global human trafficking, and according to estimates by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a million people are illegally transported annually across borders around the globe. In a joint statement by the HSRC’s Gender and Development unit and the Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme of the Southern Africa office of IOM, the organisations appeal to civil society and government institutions to play a role in the prevention of ‘this foul practice’ by bringing perpetrators to book. The statement was issued after a workshop, where it was revealed that women and children, usually from poor countries or from poor areas within countries, are especially vulnerable. But in the modernday slavery practice, there are also records of instances where educated professionals were lured with false promises of marriage, and cases where children were kidnapped. The statement reads: Trafficked persons are often lured, sometimes kidnapped, to distant areas where they are forced into sex work, sex slavery, forced labour or domestic servitude. They may be sold to pimps, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorised, and raped over and over again. ‘Being in a strange area or a foreign country with no friends or family to turn to and having little or no money makes it hard, if not impossible, to escape. They may not be allowed to have contact with the outside world. Often their travel documents are confiscated, and they are threatened with violence against themselves or family members should they try to escape or complain to law enforcement officials. They are trapped in a cycle of violence – sometimes from as early as the stages of their recruitment and transportation to the place of exploitation.
HSRC REACHES MIDDLE AGE
The HSRC is entering her roaring forties this year. This is no reference to turbulent sea conditions, but to the fact that the organisation is now entering the grand middle-age of 40. So, work it out: the organisation was established in 1968. Since then it has come a long way and has faced many boisterous winds of change, but is ready to take on another 40 years. With the mandate to inform public policy, contribute to poverty alleviation in South Africa and the region and to conduct collaborative research, our brand has become a familiar name in the media, both print and broadcast; our researchers are most sought after for expert opinions; and our research has been used extensively in policy development. In celebrating our 40 years, the HSRC will host a series of events, so watch this space.
APPROACHING 2010 FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES
As part of the HSRC’s FIFA 2010 World Cup Research Project, a colloquium on Alternative Voices aimed to move away from conversations about the physical legacies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to create a space in which alternative voices could engage with one another. Co-hosted by the Wits Centre for Urban and Built Environment Studies (CUBES), the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), and the HSRC, the colloquium featured a series of plenary and round table discussions. The programme included a blend of speakers drawn from academic, activist, local authority and other spheres. Cheche Selepe (World Class Cities for All Campaign) called for the urban poor to be included in the drive towards the 2010 World Cup. Many delegates were particularly interested in Sheila Meintjies and Ursula Scheidegger’s (both from Wits) session on taxi violence and 2010. Equally stimulating was a session on crime, violence and policing strategies which featured contributions from Nazira Cachalia (City of Johannesburg), David Bruce (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation) and Yvonne Johnston (The International Marketing Company of South Africa). Nazira Cachalia viewed 2010 as a valuable opportunity to engage communities around issues of safety and security. Udesh Pillay (HSRC) reflected on descriptive and analytical 2010 media coverage. He observed that reporting will become more positive as the games approach. His discussion was complimented by Birgit Swartz’s (Investigative Journalism, Wits) critical considerations of the media’s engagement with 2010. Margot Rubin (CUBES) unpacked a series of gendered media images associated with previous World Cups, stimulating much debate. For the conference report, go to www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-2614.phtml
NEW HSRC OFFICE IN MTHATHA
The Mthatha (previously Umtata) office of the research programme on the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Health in the Eastern Cape, houses the 23 staff members behind the Marang Positive Prevention Project. The project is funded by the United States (US) President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Mthatha office was set up in September last year. The project is a collaborative initiative with Walter Sisulu University, the main campus in Mthatha, the Pretoria office of the CDC, and the University of Connecticut in the USA. The main aim of the project is to pilot two interventions targeting people living with HIV/AIDS, with the main goal of preventing them from infecting their sexual partners and avoiding getting secondary HIV infections themselves. The Mthatha office is in close proximity to the seven municipalities in the district: King Sabata Dalindyebo, Nyandeni, Qaukeni, Mbizana, Mhlontlo, Port St. Johns, and Ntabankulu. The fieldworkers undertake trips from Mthatha on a daily basis. Each team of five to seven fieldworkers visits a different site each week, with existing support groups for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) throughout each municipality. The fieldwork entails undertaking assessments through interviews and running groups at each intervention site. Follow-up assessments are also conducted after a month, three months and six months – to determine the resilience of the effects of the intervention.
IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN
Professor Linda Richter (HSRC) is one of only two South Africans invited to participate in plenary sessions at the XVII International AIDS Conference to be held in Mexico City, from 4–8 August 2008. The other plenary speaker is Judge Edwin Cameron of the Supreme Court of Appeal, who will address the criminalisation of HIV and AIDS. The Conference, held every second year, is regarded as the most important international event on the calendar of scientists, activists, and other interest groups involved in HIV and AIDS. Prof. Richter, executive director of the Child, Youth, Family and Social Development research programme, will present a 25 minute plenary on HIV and children, which will address the following: - The impact of HIV on early childhood, including the support needs of children affected by AIDS and lessening the long-term affects of HIV on children.
- Paediatric issues in HIV, including diagnosis, treatment, formulations, adherence, and disclosure.
- The prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, including voluntary counselling and testing, rapid testing, treatment availability, formulas, and breastfeeding.
- The state of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), and the challenges for developing countries.
- Evidence-based research on children, and how research findings and their use can potentially help children. This aspect will include research findings in the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS, and how small scale applications of this research can be applied to have a large scale impact.
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