When World Renew partners in Nicaragua began a series of trainings on human trafficking in indigenous communities on the Atlantic coast last year, they did so with the intent of raising awareness on the topic. According to a 2013 report by UNICEF, human trafficking is considered to have a growing societal impact in Nicaragua both internally and in terms of people being trafficked from the country by international organized crime. Furthermore, the indigenous communities of eastern Nicaragua are profoundly isolated from the rest of the country. Given their cultural and geographic marginalization, World Renew realized the need to bring a human trafficking training to the communities in this region where there was little awareness of the issue.
Stories poured out from the participants who now had a name to put to what many of their friends and family members had experienced unknowingly.
What the facilitators of the workshop were not expecting was the number of personal testimonies that came from the participants during the training. Stories poured out from the participants who now had a name to put to what many of their friends and family members had experienced unknowingly.
One of these stories came from Maria*, a mother of two boys and a leader in her church. It was by participating in the workshop that she was able to identify that what had happened to her son, Simon*, earlier that year was in fact a case of human trafficking. The following story was told by Maria and one of the youth involved:
There was a young man named Walter in our town, and he was involved in the community leadership. Earlier this year, he invited many of the young people in our town to a five day training in Managua, the capital located on the opposite coast. We did not suspect anything at first because his involvement in the local political sphere led him to often organize workshops and trainings.
The youth who were invited were told if they just paid for their transport to Puerto Cabezas, a nearby city, they would then be reimbursed for their expenses, have their flight to Managua paid, and be given $100 per day for travel costs. This was an attractive offer, given that the reimbursements would more than cover their travel costs and the participants could pocket the extra cash. 12 youth in their late teens and early 20’s confirmed their participation in the trip.
One young woman involved explained, “We were interested in learning, but we also saw it as an opportunity to make some extra cash with the travel money we had left over from the trip for things like school costs, make-up, clothes, cell-phones and other needs.”
Walter went from door-to-door confirming identification numbers and permission of the parents of all of the participants. Despite this, Maria was reluctant to let Simon, who had been invited, go. But the youth felt like Walter was their friend – someone who could be trusted – and they were excited about the opportunity.
The day of the trip came, and Maria went to the town hall to ask for more information about the trip. The authorities there knew nothing of a trip to a workshop in Managua. Before Maria could stop her son, Simon left for the trip without her permission.
Difficulties arose when the bus to take everyone to Puerto Cabezas never showed up. Walter collected some money from each one of the participants and rented a truck to take them all there, stating that the money, too, would be reimbursed.
Maria and some of the other mothers of the kids who were invited were already suspicious of the trip. However, none of them knew how bad the situation was until one of the people involved with planning the trip, who had been excluded by Walter last-minute, got drunk and told the truth to a relative of one of the youth: the final purpose of the trip was to harvest organs.
Frantically, Maria went to the police and told them of the situation. The local police alerted the authorities in Puerto Cabezas and a search went out for Walter and the 12 adolescents.
Meanwhile, Walter had brought the youth to a Catholic church in Puerto Cabezas, not a hotel as promised. The youth began to protest and one of the young girls began to cry. At this point, Walter told them he was going out to get some money for a hotel and he left. Two of the youth decided to follow him, and they saw him enter a bar where he was talking with a foreigner and two other men.
Frightened, the youth returned to the church and with very good timing, the police soon showed up. The youth were brought to the police station where their parents could come pick them up and Walter was detained, transported to Managua, and sent to prison for three months. Now, however, Maria and the community report that he walks free.
Although the parents and youth involved in this story – and the many other stories expressed during the training – knew a crime had been committed, they did not realize there was a name for it nor that it is part of a chain of international organized crime. Maria expressed her gratitude for the World Renew training that helped her understand the dangers of human trafficking and better identify a situation like the one her son Simon experienced.
The workshop trained 35 community and religious leaders in how to identify human trafficking cases and culprits, common routes of transit, the national laws protecting victims, and the national human trafficking hotline 133 which has been set up in response to the growing issue. All of the lessons were taught through skits, games and participative activities. The 35 trained leaders were then equipped to replicate their own awareness campaigns in their communities. As a result of the training, an estimated 452 men and women in six communities on the Atlantic Coast have received educational talks on human trafficking.
*Names have been changed.
