Local NGO Helps Trafficked Woman Readjust
Life can change dramatically and in unexpected ways, just ask Lena from Vinnytsia. In 2004, Lena was working as a bartender when she agreed to a radical change of unemployment to assuage her boss. She could never have guessed that she would be sold into forced prostitution in the Czech Republic. Today, Lena is back in Ukraine and with the help of a local Ukrainian NGO is successfully employed, married and expecting a baby.
Victims of trafficking need comprehensive care and support to recover broken lives and make their way forward in life. The USAID project, “Combating Trafficking in Persons in Ukraine” supports the International Organization for Migration and NGOs such as the Vinnytsia-based organization, Progressive Women, to provide comprehensive reintegration assistance to victims of trafficking, including medical and psychological support as well as vocational training, among many other forms of support.
 |
| A bar similar to the place Lena once worked |
Lena’s story is in many ways a common one among victims of trafficking.
Despite completing an agricultural technical degree after high school, she held a variety of jobs, including work as a salesperson; at a stall in an outdoor food market; and as a waitress. Lena even worked for a short time waiting tables in Germany and returned to Ukraine without any problems.
While working in a Vinnytsia city bar, the bar owner accused Lena of losing approximately $150 from the register. The boss began to threaten to hire someone to kill her if Lena did not pay back the money immediately.
The bar owner then suggested that Lena take a job in the Czech Republic to more quickly earn the money to pay her back, and even recommended a Kyiv-based employment firm to help her find a job there. Scared and intimidated, Lena decided that the suggestion offered the best possibility of resolving her problem quickly.
The employment firm was eager to help her get an external passport and a visa. Staffers told her about a job available in Prague. They even told Lena that she could pay for their services after earning the money in the Czech Republic.
However, not everything was at it appeared. After entering the Czech Republic, Lena was taken to a hotel, where another captive young women from Belarus explained to Lena that she would not only work as a waitress, but that she would have to provide sexual services to clients provided by her new “employers”.
It was then that Lena learned that her former boss at the bar and the so-called employment agency had sold her into sex slavery.
Her owner freed her a few months later when he found out a police raid was planned at his bar, and Lena returned to Ukraine. However, when her former boss from the Vinnytsia bar found out Lena had come back, she began to threaten Lena again.
Providentially, a friend of Lena’s told her about the civic organization, Progressive Women, which is supported by the International Organization for Migration as part of the USAID-funded project, “Combating Trafficking in Persons in Ukraine.”
Progressive Women first helped Lena to stop the bar owner’s threats as well as to provide reintegration assistance to help her adjust to life after surviving the horrors of sexual slavery. Lena received medical and psychological care, as well as vocational training in accounting.
Today, Lena is married, and she and her husband are expecting their first child. Lena works as an accountant in a small company and earns a comfortable salary.
Back to Top ^ |
