Sanctuary Focus Group

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Sanctuary Focus Group
Year 1 - Progress
http//www.ashanet.org/focusgroups/sanctuary Asha-
sanctuary_at_yahoogroups.com
Hansa Shah, Princeton (hansa_at_go2g2.com) Venkata
Pingali, LA/USC (pingali_at_isi.edu) Rohini
Muthuswami, Delhi (rmuthuswami_at_yahoo.com) Sunil
Laxman, Seattle (linuslax_at_yahoo.com) And many
others.
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Focus on What?

• Children of women in prostitution and child
  victims of trafficking and prostitution
• Danger of being Trafficked and exploited rights
  violation
• Lack of education opportunities, further trapping
  them in the vicious cycle
• Lack of real options
• Religious and societal sanction to exploitation

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Why Sanctuary?

• Children
• Role of education
• Creating alternative options
• Socializing the issue
• Lack of attention

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Efforts

• Focus NGO Networking
• Objectives
• Improve communication
• Conference (Dec 2003), Workshops (in progress)
• Quarterly Newsletter (in progress, June 2004)
• Bring diverse parties together
• Current partners Child-Rights Groups
• Current partners educators
• Current partners womens rights groups

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Sanctuary Conference Dec 2003

• Hosted by Odanadi, Mysore
• 26 Groups, 10 states
• 3 Days, Budget 2100

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Some more

• Combination of presentations, panels and
  discussions
• More information http//www.ashanet.org/focusgro
  ups/sanctuary/conf/

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Key Outcomes

• Groups saw the need to network
• Preference for non-funding based network
• Groups would like a communication channel
• To share experiences
• Newsletter preferably in hard copy
• Bilateral relationships forged

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Follow Up

• Reports
• Minutes (Sanctuary Website)
• Articles Patrika and Asha Annual Report
• Newsletter
• First issue June 2004
• Editors Rohini, Delhi and Sunil, Seattle
• Workshop
• 2-3 In planning stage
• Focus being determined

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Others

• Exploring collaborations
• Asha-Mgmt (To build organizational strengths)
• Asha-AAPI (Health issues, peripheral)
• AID, IFA (Coordinated efforts)
• Collecting statistics
• Build focus group understanding of issues

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Sanctuary Focus Group
Assessment
http//www.ashanet.org/focusgroups/sanctuary Asha-
sanctuary_at_yahoogroups.com
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Our Take

• Deep rooted problem
• Need to engage people and institutions
• Need for sustained effort
• Support build bottom up
• NGOs vary in effectiveness
• Philosophical differences
• Broad coalition needed not formed
• Several past networks have failed
• Sometimes goal too far into future
• Value vs overhead
• One size fits all

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Current Situation

• NGOs
• Highly motivated
• Limited impact (geographical, depth, range)
• Philosophical differences
• Existing Networks
• ASTEC, NACSET, NATSAP, Informal
• None focusing on children of victims of
  trafficking!
• Government
• (Weak) Legislation and (Poor) Enforcement
• (Poorly implemented) Schemes

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Existing Networks vs Sanctuary

• Existing Networks
• Oriented towards advocacy
• Focused on trafficking related issues
• Sanctuary
• Not a formal network free to evolve
• Oriented towards creating options that give
  meaning to legal freedom
• Focused on the next generation, and younger
  victims of trafficking

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Facilitating NGO Interaction

• Provide neutral platform for diverse groups
• In person (conference) and virtual (emails,
  newsletters)
• Build bridges between diverse groups (address
  fragmentation)
• Free to Evolve
• Network emerges rather than be defined
• Common action items emerge than be defined
• Areas of cooperation emerge than be define

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Near Term Goals Capacity Building

• Focus young and start-up NGOs
• Research vocation options and facilitate
  workshops as needed
• Why?
• Fairly local activity
• Encourages multiple parallel, small networks with
  loose coordination
• NGOs participate out of self-interest

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Asha Focus Groups

• Cross-group coordination needed
• Use as resources for chapters
• Provide guidance in projects

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Questions?

• http//www.ashanet.org/focusgroups/sanctuary
• asha-sanctuary_at_yahoogroups.com

Hansa Shah, Princeton (hansa_at_go2g2.com) Venkata
Pingali, LA/USC (pingali_at_isi.edu) Rohini
Muthuswami, Delhi (rmuthuswami_at_yahoo.com) Sunil
Laxman, Seattle (linuslax_at_yahoo.com) And many
others.