As part of SI Centenary celebrations, (re)discover every month a project from the last ten years, carried out by SIE Unions and clubs.
Soroptimist Unions of Denmark & Romania
The project “STOP Trafficking,” a collaborative effort between Denmark and Romania has been chosen as this year’s overall winner. Denmark initiated an awareness campaign against trafficking, and Romania, a source country for trafficking, implemented a hands-on approach to prevent young people from becoming victims. Denmark has been successful in raising awareness and funds through the sale of purple ribbons. They collaborated with the Nest International, an organization that provides assistance to trafficking victims. The provided help includes medical treatment, abortion assistance, anonymous health checks, psychological support, interpretive services, legal assistance, preparation for repatriation, financial support in case of expulsion, housing in women’s crisis centers, language lessons, social counseling, and job assistance. Other initiatives of the Danish Soroptimists include hearings within and petitions towards the Danish Parliament to increase governmental support for victims of trafficking and a letter in which 983 men in positions of power signed in order to commit their support of the Soroptimists in this cause.
To solidify the link between the two unions, the Romanian Soroptimists went to Denmark to receive training in order to start their own trafficking project. The goal in Romania was to educate individuals about the causes and dangers of human trafficking to prevent them from becoming victims. They similarly sold purple ribbons for fundraising and awareness creation. Furthermore, Club Cluj-Napoca along with project partners in Romania made educational presentations using hand-outs, informative films, and theatre performances in high schools in their community. They also organized a two-week campaign to raise country-wide awareness on the topic. The activities in this campaign targeted a wide group of people including high-school students, between 15 and 19 years old, college students on University campuses, youth in foster cares, and people in the street, in both urban and rural areas. Their project had approximately 8,300 direct beneficiaries, over 4,000 of which were from various high schools.