Dear Ananya,
Thank you so much for the submission of your organization to the contest. It seems like a great strategy for informing vulnerable people while getting around the usual limitations of newspaper ads and other mediums.
Two strategic challenges in raising awareness of vulnerable populations are: 1) Many people may be aware of risks of using brokers or send children away, but choose to take them because of lack of other opportunities locally. Awareness itself does not address the underlying push factor for taking these risks, though it does certainly help facilitate a more accurate assessment of risk. How important do you believe it is to combine awareness-raising with other programs to directly reduce the factors that encourage informed or misinformed risk taking? 2) In terms of the overall criminal industry and the market dynamics that drive it, raising awareness helps protect many vulnerable people, but how dramatically does it upset the market forces? Will traffickers who are profiting off the demand simply recruit from others in vulnerable situations, only being marginally inconvenienced? Or do you believe the impact is greater such that it will alter the dynamics of the system in that region?
I can see that your organization also has other impacts in addition to raising awareness, such as increasing reports to police, building relationships with government, and so on. Could you elaborate more on these other activities and their impact?
Derek Ellerman, Polaris Project, Co-Executive Director
Derek Ellerman, Polaris Project, Co-Executive Director
Return to Home Page