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The programmes, supported by the European Commission (EC) and UNICEF, will dovetail Moldova's national action plan to counter human trafficking.
The EC supported project focuses on prevention by combating gender based violence and by targeted awareness raising, economic empowerment through income generation, skills development, vocational training and small business activities and activities to prevent the trafficking and re-trafficking of children.
The target group for the programme includes both actual and potential victims - 90 per cent of them female with an emphasis on the 6-30 age group.
NGOs, the police, government and civil society partners will also be included in the project, which will give special attention to Transnistria and the autonomous region of Gagauzia and to remote rural areas.
The UNICEF supported project provides continued support to the 'Mother and Child Friendly Wing' (MCFW) of an IOM rehabilitation centre for women victims of trafficking in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau. It includes the development of a sustainable referral mechanism to and from the MCFW in close cooperation with relevant government agencies and NGOs and provides protection, rehabilitation and reintegration services to children, the most vulnerable of trafficking victims.
"With these projects, we try to balance our attention between actual and potential victims of trafficking. We believe that true prevention work must be done with women and children at risk of being trafficked. Our experience has taught us how to identify potential victims and to help them," said Martin Wyss, IOM chief of mission in Moldova.
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