by Romy Solomon, Human Trafficking and Prevention Efforts in the U.S., Moldova and Romania
After months of planning, this past Saturday, February 21st we kicked off the launch of the Freedom Fighters Academy. It was a very exciting moment both for the eLiberare staff and the 25 young high school students who were selected to participate.
This was the culmination of something we had dreamed of making a reality in Romania: a platform where young high school students are empowered to be leaders in the fight against trafficking! The project aims to equip students with tangible professional skills and then encourage them to use these skills to implement an anti-trafficking community project.
The first meeting on Saturday was truly a wonderful experience. The topic of the training that day was team building. We played a lot of games to get to know one another and then we challenged the group to complete different tasks as a team.
All together we were very impressed with the caliber and motivation of the students. They were very active and involved and completed all of our challenges successfully while working as a team. By the end of the activities we asked the participants how they felt and comments such as “Super!” “Proud!” “Happy!” and “Encouraged!” were some of the adjectives used.
After our lunch break of delicious pizza, we presented the eLiberare curriculum on human trafficking. We discussed the different forms of exploitation, how to identify traffickers and victims, and what things the students can do to prevent themselves from trafficking as well as inform others how to travel safely without putting themselves in risky situations.
We were extremely impressed not just with the amount of knowledge the students already had about trafficking but how passionate they were and curious to learn more and gain more knowledge. We had long conversations about trafficking as the entire group was actively involved and participated.
Finally, we wrapped up the session with each participant writing down one promise they wanted t
o make to increase awareness of trafficking in Romania before the next meeting in March.
Some of the promises included informing friends and family about trafficking, sharing films with stories of real victims from Romania with family members, distributing flyers at their high schools, and more.
It truly was a great day and very fun and informative for all. We are really looking forward to the next meeting and seeing how these young talented high school students will change Romania for the better!