“Don’t sell yourself!”

The slogan “Don’t Sell Yourself!” was unfurled on the squares of Odesa, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Luhansk, and Kyiv. Everywhere public demonstrations took place under the motto “Stop Human Trafficking!” This is how the international civic organization, School of Equal Opportunities, announced its existence.

Officially, the aim of the project is to “form public opinion to prevent human trafficking, particularly trafficking in children and white slavery, to enlist broad community support of campaigns against this phenomenon. Young people in Ukrainian cities and all other concerned individuals will take part in mass protest actions against violations of the rights of people [traded] as a commodity in order to gain superprofits.”

The Chief Directorate for Family and Youth of Kyiv State Administration, Kyiv Social Center of Social Services for Family, Children and Youth, and Ukrainian Youth Center collaborated on these actions.

The School of Equal Opportunities (SEO) has campaigned against human trafficking for the past five years. In 2005 SEO activists, together with the International Migration Service, launched the project “We Say No to Child Trafficking!”

An extensive educational campaign was organized to combat child trafficking and the special exploitation of children. A network of press clubs, training centers, seminars, and information campaigns was organized in large Ukrainian cities, along with performances of the Gender Interactive Theater.

Young SEO instructors gain experience working with homeless children and holding roundtable discussions in boarding schools, orphanages, and shelters for homeless children. This inconspicuous preventive activity is an important component of SEO’s campaign against child trafficking. A total of 261 cases of human trafficking were reported in the first seven months of 2005, a three-fold increase from the same period last year; over 300 victims were returned to Ukraine and 28 organized criminal groups were smashed.

SEO’s activity in Kyiv featured a show with an educational and propaganda component. Among the concerned individuals who joined this effort were Maria Burmaka and Natalia Sumska, as well as the SEO Gender Interactive Theater, which staged the play Zamist Vyriyu (Instead of Paradise), an allegorical story about those who have fallen into the clutches of slavery. The action was supported by alternative rock groups popular among students: Dymna Sumish (Smoky Mix), Transformer, Pomaranch (Orange), Dyvni (The Weird), Wombat, Tol (TNT), Trutni (Drones), and Armada.

During the concert we spoke with SEO coordinator Petro Mlonko. He told us that “human trafficking is the gravest violation of human rights and freedoms in the 20th and 21st centuries. The scope of this crime is huge. According to UN experts, trafficking in human beings ranks third after the arms and drug trade. Every year human trafficking nets criminals some 10 billion dollars’ profit. Preventing these crimes is a priority for the School of Equal Opportunities. For the last few years we have been developing and implementing innovative interactive preventive methods. This is training for youth, based on the principal “equal-to-equal,” and it includes theme discotheques, poster contests, plays staged by the Gender Theater, and yearly all-Ukrainian summer and winter schools for instructors and volunteers currently working to prevent human trafficking in Ukraine.”