CAAHT Grantee Helps Youth Gain Skills for Employment

Thanks to the Murialdo Social Center, with support from the CAAHT program, 16-year-old Pelo has new ambitions and opportunities. “I want to start my own carpentry business,” he says, adding that “I made a good decision when I came to Murialdo, otherwise I would have been another street child.” ... read the full story

Supporting Anti-trafficking Prevention throughout Albania

North to south, changing lives for the better

From the remote northern Albanian town of Puka to the cultural heartland of southern Albania, Gjirokastra, USAID’s anti-trafficking project, CAAHT, has cast a wide net in its quest to prevent girls and young women from falling prey to traffickers and their deceitful tactics... read the full story

USAID Prevents Incidents of Trafficking of Minors

Shelter provides trafficked youth a place to heal, learn new skills for healthy lives

ELBASANI -- Bathed in warm sunlight, the children’s rooms at Another Vision (Tjeter Vizion) offer a sharp contrast to the harsh lives these youths have recently fled. Clean and bright, each room contains two or three wooden beds covered in colorful blankets. Pastel colored walls decorated with children’s drawings make the rooms inviting – an environment where shaken young lives can began to heal... read the full story

CAAHT Grantees Provide Legal Services and Prevention Strategies for At-Risk Youth

Birth registration is key in the fight to protect youth from traffickers

TIRANA – What is the fate of a child who has not been legally registered at birth and effectively has no name in the eyes of the state? If they fall into the hands of traffickers, authorities have much less, if any chance, of finding them. Such is the reality for scores of Albanian children whose families cannot pay the court fees of about $20 to register a child later, if the child isn’t registered, like so many, at birth. But the Legal Clinic for Minors (LCM) is working to change that as a grantee... read the full story

USAID Support Prevents Re-trafficking of Victims

Grants provide for programs to teach skills trafficking victims need to rebuild their lives

At the Different & Equal shelter, a 15-year-old trafficking victim is provided with a personal counselor, resumes her studies, and learns vocational skills to help ensure her reintegration into society. One of D&E’s residents, Filipa, (not her real name), is considered among the more fortunate because she managed to find her way to D&E... read the full story

Through Grants, Expertise, NGOs are Supported for Sustainability

Strong local NGOs needed on the frontlines to combat human trafficking, reintegrate victims

TIRANA – Seated at a conference table in the offices of Different & Equal (D&E), a shelter for trafficked girls and women, Marjana Meshi describes the frontlines of two battles – keeping her shelter financially viable through donor funding and technical savvy while never losing sight of its primary goal, to help reintegrate victims of human trafficking into Albanian society... read the full story

Coordination - Key to Effective Anti-trafficking Work

Regional Cluster Groups share information to support partnerships to combat trafficking

With growing awareness that young women were being trafficked, NGOs across Albania have sought ways to prevent trafficking and rehabilitate victims. Because many NGOs are located in communities in remote areas of the country and lack the opportunities to meet one-another and build cooperation, the efforts have been at best, sporadic. That has begun to change, however, with the support of USAID’s The Albanian Initiative: Coordinated Action Against Human Trafficking (CAAHT). Since 2004... read the full story