ADAPT

ADAPT MISSION STATEMENT: seeks to prevent the trafficking of young girls and women by enhancing their educational attainment and improving their vocational choices through a supportive web of services.

An giang/Dong thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking (ADAPT) is a collaborative effort of three Vietnamese American NGOs, including East Meets West Foundation (EMW), International Children Assistance Network (ICAN) and Pacific Links Foundation (PALS). PALS is the main implementing partner for ADAPT. ADAPT currently operates in the provinces of An giang, Dong thap and Kien Giang; all three provinces bordering Cambodia in the Mekong Delta.

ADAPT Components

PALS maintains an office in An giang’s main city - Long Xuyen to carry out the program. The main communities where ADAPT operates are at the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, about 2.5 hours of motorcycle travel from our Long Xuyen office.

SCHOLARSHIPS

In August 2007, ADAPT entered its third year of operation. We are proud to report that we have done a very successful job at achieving our goals. We currently are supporting 495 scholarships for young girls ages 10-18. These scholarships are comprehensive and promise support through high school graduation.

Our scholarship program is uniquely designed with the goal of following the same at-risk cases year after year, supporting a recipient until she graduates from high school or, in the unfortunate instance, decides to drop out of school.

Scholarship Numbers

We work with 25 schools in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces. Our scholarship recipients have a drop out rate of approximately 11.6%. This drop-out rate, lower than the provincial averages, is evidence that our scholarship program is effective in preventing drop out.

Committed to the mission of preventing trafficking, we strive to push our work on scholarship beyond simply providing tuition. Every effort is made to create the most comprehensive assistance to keep our students in school and away from trafficking risks. For this reason, we do not simply hand the parents tuition money and hope that it gets to our recipients. We work closely with the schools to cover the expenses. In addition, we pay a significant amount for private tutoring lessons in order to improve the students’ academic performance. We also look out for ways to add more to the students’ ability to enter the workforce including computer training (pilot phase) and additional summer English programs.

We ask our donors to contribute $150/year to cover a scholarship, with consideration for at least a 3-year commitment. Scholarship recipients enter the ADAPT program in 4th or 5th grade with our promise to continue support until high school graduation.

A scholarship covers:
Scholarship Coverage

Bicycles
Scholarships Girls and their bicycles
ADAPT has also been able to mobilize additional support and fundraise to award 256 new bicycles to scholarship recipients since 2005. These recipients desperately need bicycles as many schools are located far from home and taking public buses would have been an extremely costly burden on students’ families. Thus, we remove yet another reason for children to drop out of school. As our students enter middle and high schools, we have determined that a bicycle is necessary to strengthen their ability to attend school. ADAPT will make the commitment to furnish all of our recipients in middle and high schools with a bicycle.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING & JOB PLACEMENTS

The ADAPT vocational training and job placement component has the goal of providing at-risk young women with a skill to increase economic stability and thus offer viable alternatives to being trafficked.

From 2005-2007, we have trained a total of 793 young women. The women enrolled in one of the following classes:
- Embroidery
- Craft/Mat weaving
- Sewing
- Childcare

Vocational Training and Job Placement Numbers

One challenge for both vocational training participants and ADAPT staff is trying to orient the young women to professional work culture. Many participants are not familiar with the work culture and environment of their companies, which can lead to misunderstandings with employers and peer employees. ADAPT continues to
provide guidance and follow-up support in this area.

Program partners include the District Office of Labor and Social Affairs, the commune Women’s Unions, and various employment companies in the Mekong area as well as in Saigon.

The amount of $400/year cover the cost of training and placing a young woman in safe and stable employment, including support in the first few months of on the job training.

REINTEGRATION

Dealing with reintegration cases has proven to be some of the most demanding work in terms of physical, monetary and especially emotional resources. Our USAID grant commitment is assistance to 50 young returnees. So far, we have worked with 12 returnees who have been identified from the ADAPT provinces.

Once a returnee is identified, ADAPT takes immediate action to provide medical care, vocational training, emotional support, and other needed assistance to help stabilize the returnee’s situation. In many cases, if these young women and girls do not receive instant and much-needed assistance, they are likely to drift back into the risky human trafficking underground. ADAPT has grown up with each case reinforcing our resolve to prevent the tragedies from recurring.
Learning to embroider
In our experience, to truly support a returnee and give them a fighting chance at successful reintegration, we need to provide comprehensive assistance that also covers her family and not just the returnee alone. In this vein, we also retain a strong emphasis on prevention by paying particular attention to the siblings of returnees, who are especially vulnerable to trafficking risks. In some cases, we also seek to assist the parents in finding stable income-generating activities, especially when there are younger siblings involved.

This kind of customized and comprehensive assistance is very time-consuming and very demanding in terms of ADAPT staff efforts and our resources. ADAPT was built to be scalable, with a lean structure to focus on prevention work, and now the needs have come in. Long term volunteers who can serve as qualified social workers, counselors and/or provide connections with good local healthcare providers are much needed to assist the mental and physical health of these returnees. We also encounter difficulties in finding safe places to house the returnees who do not want to return home or have a need to remain elsewhere for vocational training. As the numbers of returnees are expected to increase this year, we are looking for long-term solutions to house and provide training for some of the returnees.

Beginning in July 2007, we began to work with 11 reintegration cases. In addition to health care check-ups and mentoring, we offer specific vocational assistance to the victims as well as to their family members in order to bring about quicker stable family environments.

Reintegration Numbers

In 2007, ADAPT also obtained permission to expand our reintegration component into Kien Giang Province, another hot bed of the trafficking trade from the Mekong Delta.

We are asking for $1,100 to support each of the returnees to help with their reintegration back to the family and community.

FINANCIALS

ADAPT is built to be scalable and the three main components can expand as funding becomes available. The three partner organizations know that this amount is inadequate for the needs we face and have made the commitment to channel more resources, especially in-kind contributions, towards serving the needs and averting the threat of human trafficking with our best efforts.

Financials

2008 PLAN
In 2008, ADAPT will push forward on all 3 components.

• Scholarship: Continue support our scholarship recipients. With additional long- term funding, we will look into adding new scholarships to address the growing problem of school drop-outs, especially in the high-risk areas. Our scholarship model has proven to an effective and efficient way to prevent trafficking.

Life in the Delta

• Vocational training: We have met our initial objective of training 400 young women. In 2008, we are looking to open up small classes with the focus on certification, sustained employment, and publicity to raise awareness on the trafficking problem. We seek interested organizations/experts willing to help us to develop the training curriculum and partners to create jobs.

• Reintegration: ADAPT is going to open a safe house to provide a secure and stable place for the returnees and at-risk young women to live and regain footing in their life during their time-limited stay. We seek interested organizations/experts willing to provide counseling, vocational training, and healthcare for the returnees.

OUR SPONSORS

In 2007, we experienced overwhelming support from new and a diverse range of groups and organizations in addition to the existing, continued support from our current donors. This invaluable morale support is certainly one of the highlights in our work that motivates us to keep moving forward. In addition to individual donors, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the continuing support of groups and organizations, including:

Existing Partners and Sponsors:
- Room to Read
- Piedmont Community Church, California
- MAST – Limited Brands
- PSD
- VIA
- VoVi Association of Canada

New Sponsors 2007:
- DiLuna
- Banyan Tree Hotel and Resorts
- Rotary Club of Spring Valley, New York
- Gia Long Alumnae Association

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