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Legal counsellor Mariana Yevsyukova warns young women about bogus job offers via La Strada-Ukraine's phone hotline.
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Although there are no official statistics on the number of trafficked Ukrainian women, Mariana Yevsyukova, a legal counsellor at La Strada-Ukraine, says that "Women from 18 to 28 years old and from small towns and villages are the most vulnerable." La Strada-Ukraine, which receives funding from CIDA through a partnership with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization with a full-time staff of 15 that is dedicated to preventing the trafficking of human beings, especially women and children. In 2002 La Strada-Ukraine introduced a nationwide toll-free hotline to provide women with information on their human rights and to consult with them on the validity of job offers. Since its inception, the hotline has received more than 29,000 calls. In 2005 La Strada-Ukraine helped 198 victims restart their lives, and speakers conducted lectures in high schools and universities to raise awareness.
Faith, hope and love
After just one week, the police raided the hotel where Irina was kept, arresting the pimps and girls on prostitution charges. For two weeks, Irina was detained in jail before the police made the pimps pay for her deportation back home. And so, 20 horrific days after arriving in Istanbul, Irina stepped off a ferry in Odessa, Ukraine's largest seaport, with no money, no passport and nowhere to go.
She was found by Natalia Savitskaya of Faith.Hope.Love., a nongovernmental organization that like La Strada-Ukraine, receives funding from CIDA via the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Twice a week, Natalia stands at the base of Odessa's famed Potemkin steps and watches for girls without any belongings coming off the ferry from Turkey. When she spots one, she approaches and asks if she needs help. "They don't believe that I'm actually going to help them at first," says Natalia. "They are afraid and ashamed from what they've been through."
Natalia was Irina's saving grace. Faith.Hope.Love. not only provided Irina with psychological and medical assistance, including HIV/AIDS testing, but also put her in its re-integrational centre, where trafficked women returning to Ukraine can live. It is here that Irina met Snejana and the two became fast friends. Snejana's sister had escaped from her pimp and reported her ordeal at a police station. When the gang told Snejana to go to the station and say her sister had been lying, Snejana too filed a complaint. Though the sisters were then able to return to Ukraine, the pimps were never arrested.
The sex trade puts women at a much greater risk of HIV infection, through both sexual intercourse and drug addiction. And the recent criminalization of prostitution in Ukraine threatens to make HIV all the harder to combat, since prostitutes and ex-prostitutes are even less inclined to seek treatment for fear of incarceration. When women need medical attention, Faith.Hope.Love. flies them to a medical rehabilitation centre run by IOM in Kiev. For those women who test HIV positive, additional psychological counselling is provided by trained social workers.
Faith.Hope.Love. also provides skills training, and, through this program, Irina is now working as an assistant hairstylist at a local salon while Snejana is completing computer courses. Luckily, the HIV tests of Irina and Snejana both came back negative.
AIDS around the world
In 1981 reports began circulating in the United States about a mysterious disease that defied medical classification. By 1982 the disease was being referred to as AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and by 1985, when AIDS cases had been reported in every region in the world and it was determined that HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) caused AIDS, the first International AIDS Conference was held
in Atlanta.
In the summer of 2006, 25 years after AIDS came onto the public health radar, Toronto hosted the XVI International AIDS Conference from Aug. 13 to 18. Scientists, doctors, health workers, policy makers, people living with HIV/AIDS and community members from around the world who are committed to the fight against AIDS gathered to share the latest medical research, answer important questions, enhance collective global action and foster accountability among all parties. To learn more, go to aids2006.org.
A century of friendship
Canada's long connection with Ukraine goes back to 1891, when the first recorded Ukrainian immigrants, Wasyl Eliniak and Ivan Pilipiwski, stepped off the ship Oregon in Montreal and took the train out west. By 1914, 200,000 more Ukrainians had settled on the prairie. Another 37,000 came to Canada after the Second World War, and 20,000 have come since 1991. According to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, there are currently 1.2 million Canadians of Ukrainian background.
Since Ukraine achieved independence in 1991, Canada has contributed $302 million to support Ukraine's transition to democracy and a market economy. CIDA's 2005-2006 budget for Ukraine allotted $18 million to almost 30 projects committed to strengthening civil society as well as improving the environment, gender equality, overall health care and youth health and combating HIV/AIDS. CIDA has also contributed more than $46 million to the Chornobyl Shelter Fund, a project aimed at safely enclosing the remains of the Chornobyl plant so the ruins cannot collapse and release more radiation.
Meanwhile many private organizations carry out their own projects. Among them: The Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (chornobyl.ca) equips hospitals in the Chornobyl region and supports a summer camp for orphans; The Canada-Ukraine Foundation (wwwold.macewan.ca/nw/urdc/cuf) supports careers training, social welfare and health and medical assistance; The Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada (infoukes.com/uwac) defends the human rights of women; and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (ucc.ca) sends volunteers to help run elections in Ukraine.
Photographs by Heather Buchan. Produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency.
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