Los Invisibles
Location
To develop more research on human trafficking so that this issue can become permanent in the public agenda.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sector Focus
Other
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2007
YouTube Upload
Web site (url)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Invisibility of problem
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Mobilize peer groups and communities to raise awareness
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
This field has not been completed. (333 words or less)
Name Your Project
Los Invisibles
Describe Your Idea
To develop more research on human trafficking so that this issue can become permanent in the public agenda.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
To develop more research on human trafficking so that this issue can become permanent in the public agenda.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
In general, human trafficking is shown in the media as just another incident in the police sections. However, this is a central scourge within society, which has politic, social, cultural and economic connotations. Investigating and revealing cases of trafficking keeps this issue in the public agenda and raises awareness among the population about something that can happen to anyone, as the networks work through deceit and the vulnerability of their victims. They also use what is known as “hard trafficking”, that involves kidnapping the victim.
In general, research is a non-profit activity for journalism businesses (they mean time, hotel expenses, transport, communication, human resources). However, financial support is crucial to start a research project and to get it published. Supporting a journalist financially in one or more research projects on human trafficking is a trigger for awareness raising, and at the same time, it can influence decision making on public policies to help fight human trafficking.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The permanent challenge for a free-lance journalist like me is to “sell” an article to an editor. Counting with financial support means having 40% of the problem solved, and this really helps to “sell” the article-research project to the editor.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
It is vital to articulate networks of journalists who deal with human trafficking. I believe that having a blog on human trafficking with articles and research by Latin American journalists would help other journalists who are not familiar with the topic to contextualize the problem and become aware of its scope and seriousness. I am speaking of a multimedia blog, that shows the research projects and but also the support and difficulties found when trying to carry it out (threats, getting access to the field, making contacts). I imagine a contest on human trafficking for radio, T.V., multimedia and graphic journalists in which the prize could be financial support for the research.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
I have fluent contact with the journalist Roberto Navia, from the newspaper “El Deber” in Bolivia, who I met in Sao Paulo when we both got the Avina Scholarship for Journalist Research in 2006/2007. In Bolivia, Navia has written articles and done research on the same field I have, and we have exchanged information and contacts. During the process of interviews with the research sources of information, the contact networks became larger. The proposal that made me win the scholarship was on “feudal provinces”. I was able to see Catamarca, La Rioja and San Luis in Argentina and to meet contacts (social organizations, journalists, data providers) that later were useful during my trip to Tucuman for a research project on trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Those networks are still growing, national and internationally, as for example Foundation María de los Angeles against human trafficking whose director is Susana Trimarco; Fernando Mao and Viviana Caminos from Red Alto a la Trata; Anna Rodriguez from Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Laura Lederer , Senior Director for Global Proyects-Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons-U.S. Department of State, among others.
Ana Rodriguez contacted me through the articles I published in La Nación. She invited me as panel member in the annual conference in Miami, where I did a presentation about my work and showed a video to explain how the situation of thousands of Bolivian workers was revealed when four people died in a fire in a clandestine workshop.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Through research on labor and sexual trafficking, we are able to help raise awareness on this issue and make it visible through a high reach media such as La Nación.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
Getting financial resources to carry out the research and getting it to be published.
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
Incalculable.
Directly
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Indirectly
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Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
The impact of the research can be measured with the amount of newspapers sold in a day in the context of publication. It is known that articles and research projects in the graphic media are used by radio and TV broadcastings to trigger comments, debates, forums, opinions, editorials, etc. The research I made on this topic was reproduced on the internet, in several newspaper websites.
Thanks to the impact of the first publication about human trafficking for sexual exploitation (January 2008), I had the chance to go back to this topic, but this time focusing on labor exploitation in clandestine workshops (May 2008).
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Through the media, this problem could be placed in the public agenda and as a consequence solutions could be demanded from the authorities.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
The beneficiaries are all those who, directly and indirectly, have access to the research or its repercussion through the media across the country.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Right now my research projects are not financed. The minimum resources needed are a journalist who can collaborate, a photographer, contacts in the research field, economic support for hotels, communication, and transport among other things.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization
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What is the potential demand for your innovation?
There are thousands of people who are not aware of human trafficking. Through research projects I intend to go into these issues in depth:
- Argentina-Bolivia frontier. The Bolivia ombudsman denounced that approximately 15,000 children illegally cross the border towards Argentina each year. Their destiny is uncertain and it can end up in labor, sexual and even organ trafficking.
- Misiones, a province in Argentina, is the main provider of children, adolescents and women for trafficking across the country, where, as estimated in research carried out by international agencies such as UNICEF, there are more than 3500 children who are subject to sexual abuse in hidden places used for sexual tourism.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
I can’t find barriers to the sustainability of this initiative.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
I found out about human trafficking through the case of Marita Verón, a young woman from Tucumán who was kidnapped in 2002 as a consequence of trafficking networks in the Argentine northwestern region. Presumably, she was sold for 2000 pesos and drugs. As requested by he editor of La Nación research section, I started checking journalistic files and reports by IOM, ILO and UNICEF to start another research. What called my attention was the lack of concrete data about this issue in Argentina, except for a 2006 report by IOM in Argentina and Chile.
I went to Tucumán to interview Susana Trimarco, Marita Verón’s mother, still looking for her daughter, to learn in depth about the problem in Tucumán, where 70 young girls were said to have disappeared. I contacted the victims of trafficking and their relatives, the local authorities, social organizations, lawyers and judges. I found out that there are no specialists in human trafficking in the security force, nor in the Justice system. Specialization of this issue for journalists does no exist either.
After publishing each research, I still have lots of things to tell. The same thing happens to those organizations that fight human trafficking, who are permanently trying to make this issue visible. I am a journalist, I’m 37. I live with mi daughter, and my 8 month pregnant wife in a former “villa” near Villa Soldati and Pompeya. Since I was I child, I started asking myself why there were people who could live in nice houses and others who couldn’t, why some of my friends were missing for weeks, and why there were people sleeping in the threshold of the church of Nueva Pompeya. When I was an adolescent, I saw how drugs found their way in the most vulnerable sectors in my neighborhood putting and end to the youth and future of many people I knew. Then I became interested in telling everybody about the problems found in these areas, where not even the police dares enter and where only he who is stronger survives. I lived for almost 3 years in California, USA, where I studied and worked. Soon I realized that my place was in Argentina with the people I love. I was lucky to get an internship in La Nación 10 years ago and to learn the about the best occupation in the world: I believe writing can move, alert, raise awareness, denounce and generate changes in society.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
Thanks to a grant I got from La Nación, I did a Master’s degree in Journalism in Torcuato Di Tella’s University. I am now a free-lance journalist in La Nación, writing mainly for the opinion section. When I was still a student I got the first prize for Latin American professionals from La Nación for some articles I wrote on AIDS patients at the neuro-psychiatric clinic Borda. In 2000, I got the 2nd prize from ADEPA (Association of Argentine Journalist Entities) in the field of Human Rights for some articles I wrote on illegal immigration in Argentina which were published in La Nación. In 2006, I got the Avina Scholarship for journalist research, which provided financial support for a project on feudal power in the province of Catamarca.
Emphasis of Work
prevention
Investigación-Difusión-Exposición del flagelo de la trata de personas para posicionarlo y mantenerlo en la agenda pública
 | gustavob said: Sra. Carla Conde. He leído todos los artículos e informes que usted menciona. No me parece, como ya dije en mi comentario, que haya ... about this Competition Entry. - 1289 days ago read more > |
| Carla Conde - F... said: Estimado Sr. Gustavo Barco Arrieta: Me preocupa un poco su información sobre la trata de personas en Argentina. Usted informa: “Lo que ... about this Competition Entry. - 1299 days ago read more > |
| gustavob said: Jasper, muchas gracias por tus comentarios. Desde ya que cuento con tu ayuda para el blog, varios periodistas latinoamericanos se van a ... about this Competition Entry. - 1317 days ago read more > |
| Jasper said: Saludos de Berlin! Soy periodista free-lancer en Alemania también y como eso me ilumina mucho su idea. Sobre todo, me gusta su idea ... about this Competition Entry. - 1317 days ago read more > |
