ADAPT enables hundreds of young women living in impoverished remote border regions to pursue an education, gain a trade and obtain jobs with livable wages. We work in challenging conditions of Vietnam’s remote border regions. Join us in making truly life-changing opportunities possible for these young women. US Office:
Pacific Links Foundation Sobrato Center for Nonprofits – Milpitas 534 Valley Way Milpitas, CA 95035, USA Phone: (+1) 510.435.3035 Vietnam Office:
163/A9 Huỳnh Thúc Kháng Phường Bình Khánh, TP Long Xuyên Tỉnh An Giang Phone: (+84) 76.3853.888 Fax: (+84) 76.3955.440 Email: adapt@pacificlinks.org
www.adaptvietnam.org www.pacificlinks.org Pacific Links Foundation © 2010
Milestones 2005:
ADAPT
How you can help
• Pacific Links Foundation launched ADAPT in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces • PALS awarded 478 long-term academic scholarships to girls with highest risk of dropping out of school 2006: • The first Social Work Summer Institute took place at An Giang University bringing together social work practitioners from US, Vietnam and Cambodia 2007: • Formation of six Grassroots Anti Trafficking Effort (GATE) groups to conduct safe migration campaigns • Additional 100 long-term scholarships awarded 2008: • Expansion to 16 GATE groups to conduct safe migration campaigns • PALS opened Long Xuyen Open House, our first shelter for trafficking survivors in An Giang province 2009: • First class of ADAPT’s Culinary Vocational Program graduated from SaigonTourist Culinary School • First three academic scholarship recipients graduated from high school and started college 2010: • Lao Cai Compassion House, PALS’ second shelter, opened at the Vietnam-China border • First trafficking survivors graduated from high school • ADAPT celebrated its 5th Anniversary
ADAPT is a program of
We gratefully acknowledge support from
AN GIANG DONG THAP ALLIANCE FOR THE PREVENTION OF TRAFFICKING
What 1. Prevention Services
• Long-term Academic Scholarships are provided until high school graduation. Scholarships cover: tuition, health insurance, uniforms, books and school supplies, after-school tutoring, and summer programs. • Vocational training scholarships: Recipients are enrolled in SaigonTourist’s 6-month culinary arts program, receiving a secondary vocational certification upon completion. • Job Placement & Individual Development Accounts (IDA): To encourage fiscal responsibility, ADAPT provides partial matching for savings, income supplements and rent subsidies during the initial transition period into the work force.
ADAPT ADAPT seeks to prevent the trafficking of young girls and women by enhancing their educational attainment and improving their vocational choices. ADAPT operates in the South at the Vietnam-Cambodia border and in the North at the Vietnam-China border. In these impoverished, remote, and porous regions that are plagued with high unemployment and limited economic opportunities, young girls and women face the highest risk of being trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation.
2. Protection Services
• Safe Shelters: ADAPT operates two shelters for trafficking victims at the Vietnam-Cambodia border and at the Vietnam-China border. The shelters provide a supportive, safe environment for survivors to acquire lifeskills and reintegrate. • Immediate Care: Human trafficking survivors are often in poor physical health and suffer severe trauma. ADAPT provides access to medical care, checkups and emotional support. • Vocational Training and Job Placement: ADAPT arranges training for trafficking survivors with local vocational schools in accordance with the recipient’s wish.
3. Partnerships
• Partnering with local, regional, and international organizations and local governments to strengthen referral and reintegration services for trafficking survivors. • Engaging teachers and school officials to increase awareness about human trafficking and minimize dropout rates. • Social Work Summer Institute training: Since 2006, the annual trainings foster skills and cooperation for 100+ social work practitioners.
Who ADAPT works with its partners to identify the most at-risk young girls and women in regions with the highest rates of human trafficking. ADAPT serves the following target populations: • Young girls up until 17 (academic scholarship program). • Young women from 17 until 25 (Vocational scholarship program). • Returning trafficking victims (Protection services) Those most at risk come from poor families with: • women as the head of household • women as the main wage earners • daughters in the high risk age group (12-25) • family members who are handicapped or have long-term illness
How Why The 2010 US Trafficking-in-Persons Report identifies Vietnam as a source and destination country for human trafficking. The chance of becoming enslaved in the modern world is 1.8 per 1,000 people and almost twice as much in the Asia Pacific region. By 2009, more than 4,400 Vietnamese women and children are identified as trafficking survivors; 22,000 are reported missing and perhaps trafficked inside Vietnam or internationally; thousands more have been subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution through internationally brokered marriages.
ADAPT seeks to empower young girls and young women by increasing their access to education and vocational training. Asset-building is at the core of our assistance: high school diplomas, vocational certificates, savings accounts, grant or microloan, etc. ADAPT employs comprehensive and individualized approach to assist its program recipients such as personalized care given by residential coordinators in the shelters, home visits to scholarship recipients, and support for its recipients’ families. A program manager with a large U.S. funding organization said “[PALS] staff know each family personally, look after them like a set of den mothers and give them a level of attention and commitment I have not seen in my ten years working in international development.”