USAID & MTV Join Forces to Fight Human Trafficking in Asia
Friday, April 18, 2008
USAID’s Regional Development Mission in Asia and the MTV Europe Foundation are working together in a unique public-private partnership to raise awareness about and prevent human trafficking in Asia.
The MTV EXIT – or End Exploitation and Trafficking – campaign has on-air, online and on-the-ground components. Its cornerstones are a pair of edgy, fast-paced documentaries telling the stories of three people plucked from poverty and thrust into even more harrowing situations, along with traffickers, police and end-users in the trafficking chain.
The drive, which was launched in September 2007, includes anime and live-action shorts, public service announcements, and an anti-trafficking website that highlight the dangers of trafficking in the Asia-Pacific, the region that accounts for half the people trafficked in the world. The campaign will include live events in the future.
"This campaign is meant to save lives. Through MTV, it will reach millions of young people, the group most at risk in Asia," said Deputy Mission Director Richard Whelden.
The broadcasts blanketed most of Asia, from Mongolia and Japan to Australia and New Zealand, reaching more than 300-million households on the MTV networks and independent channels.
The campaign was financed with US$3 million from USAID. MTV's local affiliates are providing roughly US$7 million in airtime. The partnership uses USAID's Global Development Alliance model to leverage funds, increase involvement by the private sector, and help ensure the sustainability of the program.
"USAID is providing the money for development and production, as well as expertise in trafficking-in-persons issues. MTV is attracting internationally-known artists to work on the project, lending it 'street credibility,' and providing the means to spread this message across all of Asia," Whelden noted. "The success of this campaign is due to our alliance."
The films are hosted by local stars speaking in their native languages. Artists who volunteered for this project include pop singers Rain from South Korea, Tata Young in Thailand, Karen Mok for the China/Taiwan market, and Christian Bautista in the Philippines. U.S. film star Lucy Liu hosts the English-language versions of the documentaries.
The movies are available rights-free and are being picked up by independent television stations for translation into even more languages.
The Asia-Pacific documentary, "Traffic," which covers all of Asia except the Indian subcontinent and surrounding countries, was launched in Bangkok, Beijing and Manila in late 2007. Film star and former Miss Universe Lara Dutta hosted the South Asian documentary, "Sold," and appeared at the film’s launch in Mumbai in September 2007.
There are Bahasa Indonesian, Khmer and Vietnamese versions of "Traffic." Additional versions of "Traffic" and "Sold" are being planned.
MTV, meanwhile, has established an Asian MTV EXIT website in eight languages (http://www.mtvexit.org/), an expansion of a website it founded in 2004 to combat the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in Europe.
The on-the-ground phase of the Asian campaign will take the MTV EXIT campaign to urban areas and rural communities. The goal is to sponsor events where the films will be shown and NGOs, who will have free copies of the documentaries, can distribute leaflets and audio-visual materials about human trafficking.
USAID RDMA is looking for additional partners to help underwrite this critical part of the MTV EXIT campaign.
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