Public discussion on single mother in Yogyakarta 2014

RGS in collaboration with local church authority in Yogyakarta conducted the meeting 15 May 2014. 

Public discussion was aimed to disseminate issue of single mother among parish priests and church activists in Yogyakarta. 80 participants consist of priest, nuns, male activists, and female activists attended program.

After seminar, 80 participants decided to do follow up action by collecting name list of catholic single mothers in their neighborhood. They will contact the good shepherd and parish priests for further action.

Monitoring Bylaw (Local/village law to combat human trafficking) 2014

RGS conducted 4 activities to monitor Bylaw (Local Law)

• 23 January 2014 RGS conducted meeting in Ulu Belang village to monitor the progress of local law implementation. 20 village stakeholders attended the meeting and agreed to socialize the local law to villagers in adat houses.
• 23 january 2014 RGS conducted meeting with church leaders in Papang Parish. RGS visited 3 priests and monitored their role in implementing  local law of Ulu Belang Village.
• 24 January 2014 RGS discussed with village stakeholders of Todo to monitor the progress of forming local law to combat trafficking. Todo village has difficulties to continue the making of local law because village stakeholders were dissagree to have anti-trafficking law in their village. RGS found out that some of stakeholders were money lenders and they got benefit from people who want to work abroad.
• 28 October 2014 RGS conducted meeting in ulu belang village to monitor the implementation of local law. 18 vilage stakeholders attended meeting to share their experience in implementing local law. They informed RGS that worker recruiters were not come to their village since they socialize local law on anti-trafficking.

Training Anti Trafficking for Seminarian 2014

Empowering community to involve in combating human trafficking was the outcome of training for seminarian in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara.

Training was held in Seminari Yohanes Paulus II Labuan Bajo on 5 November 2014.

Seminarians were enthusiastic on discussion session. RGS showed movie "Empty Man" as the way to start discussion. It was surprising because one of seminarian was family member of victims in the movie and he told that the movie was real. Seminarian agreed that human trafficking is serious issue in their village but only few people knew it. Seminarian suggested that they could be part of group to combat human trafficking. The first action they would write articles on human trafficking in Seminary magazine and school magazine. 

After training the principal of seminary requested 211 seminarian to conduct socialization in their place of origin and make report to the seminary. Seminarian came from 35 villages in Manggarai East Nusa Tenggara. Approximately more than 1000 people received socialization from seminarian.

In December 2014, seminary student produced wall paper on trafficking topic.

Initiative to Create an Integrated Services in Local Government of Manggarai and Diocese of ruteng 2014

Providing better services for victims of human trafficking from Manggarai, RGS initiated an integrated services in Manggarai Distrik. In collaboration with, JPIC Ruteng Diocese, IOM, and Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, RGS conducted two initiative meetings

·      Socialization of trafficking and the working group to combat trafficking for religous leaders of Ruteng Diocese and Manggarai stakeholders. It was held in STKIP Ruteng on 2 November 2014 with 67 participants.

·      Meeting to discuss steps to establish anti-trafficking task force in Manggarai. It was held in Diocese Ruteng meeting room  on 3 November 2014 with 37 participants consist of government apparatus and church delegates.

RGS worked together with IOM, Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (MoWE) and Ministry of Social Welfare to initiate anti-trafficking task force in District Manggarai. We began lobby with Diocese of Ruteng to invite church leaders and local government apparatus to have training on trafficking and to discuss how government and church can help the victims of trafficking. Outcome of the program is Anti trafficking task force initiative group consist of government and church delegates in Manggarai.

Day of girl Activism to combat violence 2014

RGS conducted day of girl celebration on 11 October 2014 at Function Room Gramedia bookstore in Jakarta. 215 participatents attended the event. RGS divided the event in three activities as follow:

Ø  Group discussion

RGS divided participants into 10 groups and facilitated by trainers. participants discussed about violence against girls on everyday activities in society and family. They also learned about the root of gendered based injustice and commented on it. Through role short movie, participants understood about violence against girls and the way to stop it.

Ø  Interactive talk

3 experts shared their experiences to deal with children victims of violence. In the talk participants learned how to stop violence and how to report violence against children. Participants also learned about problems of child marriage.

Upon the program, 215 participants know the international day of the girl as the way to give equal rights for the girls. The activity gave 150 children information on how and where they file reports if they experience physical, sexual, and gender based violence. RGS involved 4 NGOs to conduct the program. RGS also invited 6 NGOs attending program. As the result 6 NGOs together with RGS formed a networking group to combat violence against children especially girls and planned to create girl day campaign in October 2015

Publication on human trafficking: Film

In colaboration with Social Communication Commission of Diocese Ruteng, RGS published an exclusive film on Human trafficking. Title of the film was “EMPTY MAN”. RGS has distributed 235 copies to religious leaders and grassroots activists.  

The movie narrated life stories of trafficking victims died in Malaysia. Family members found out that the corpse were empty without organ. The movie explained Manggarai people migrate to Malaysia for money. They smuggled into Malaysia from kalimantan and Batam without knowing any risk they would have in destination country. Most of them were uneducated and unskilled but they thought Malaysia would be best place to get better income.

The movie was viewed in 10 places with more than 800 viewers. It received positive responses from religious leaders and Flores communities. RGS used this movie to socialize trafficking issue among Manggarai people in Flores and other places.

Basic Christian communities to combat trafficking in Batam

Providing up to date information and knowledge to identify trafficking threat are the outcome of program assisting basic Christian communities to combat trafficking in Batam. 

The meeting was held in Punggur community on 9 September 2014 with 23 participant shared experiences of human trafficking cases in their neighborhood. "I don't know that I was trafficked by my relative to Malaysia 15 years ago if I don't attend this meeting" said one participant. "In this area, we see a lot of people recruit job seekers from their villages and accommodate these people in small houses with very bad facilities and they could not go anywhere like a prisoner. I am sad but I don't understand that this is as a form of human trafficking" said Darsono. All participants were enthusiastic telling their experiences. They realized that they might not be able to stop it but they could stop their family members from trafficking vicious cycle.

The activity received positive responses from 4 Parishes in Batam. The activity is redesigned due to the responses of parishes. RGS provided modules on trafficking topic for basic Christian community facilitators of 4 parishes. Together with Commission of Migrant Diocese Pangkal Pinang, RGS made a planning to train community facilitators of four parishes at Batam in 2015.