Child trafficking and exploitation has been a prevalent phenomenon in Central and South Eastern Europe in the last decade. Unsafe migration of children within their country or across borders increases their vulnerability to different threats, including trafficking and exploitation.
In 2009, the project Mario – funded by the Oak Foundation – started in response to this phenomenon, to better protect children on the move through the reinforcement of the capacities of national, regional and European authorities, decision and policy makers.
The project Mario implements activities at both national and transnational levels. It targets professionals who come across cases of abuse, exploitation and/ or trafficking of children in Europe or who can bring about positive changes in the lives of those children. It focuses on children coming from Central and South Eastern Europe (C/SEE) and who are at risk or are victims of abuse, exploitation and/ or trafficking. Partners decided to join forces to better protect these children through enhanced cooperation, interaction and professional exchange.
The project Mario, through its network of partners in the region offers a unique expertise to the service of national and European authorities to address child protection concerns in C/SEE. The ultimate goal of project Mario is to ensure the long standing provision of adequate services that meet the needs and wants of migrant children in Europe, at each stage of their migration path.
National level: Albania, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Poland,
Transnational level: Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Belarus, and Ukraine
Objective 1 / Operations at National level: NGOs and State actors coordinate their identification and referral mechanism of children at risk and/or victims of trafficking / exploitation
Results or outcomes: The major result of the objective 1 is to identify, link up and build the capacities of NGOs and state actors active in the field of child protection in the targeted countries of origin.
Objective 2 / Operations at Transnational level: Effective and rapid response is provided to changing trends of child exploitation / trafficking in Europe
Results or outcomes: By establishing transnational cooperation, there will be quicker and better quality reaction for children at risk and/or victims of trafficking. Thanks to increased transnational efforts on investigation, new trends and routes of trafficking are recognized, information is shared among partners and covered by joint activities to achieve suitable services to children in the field.
Objective 3 / Advocacy: Protection standards and rights of children at risk and/or victims of exploitation / trafficking are promoted at national and regional level
Results or outcomes: At national level, the partners will contribute to the establishment / or improved operation of national advocacy coalitions on child protection issues among stakeholders. At regional/European level, strategic alliance and joint action among the most competent NGOs in child protection will be established.
Objective 4 / Coordination: The four leading NGOs in the field of child protection and their networks coordinate their activities and exchange information on a regular basis
Results or outcomes: Information sharing system among main actors of the field of child protection developed, mapping of the existing activities, capacities and overlapping geographical areas clarified among partners, better mutual understanding of methods, materials and model of actions achieved.partners
Annually, three trainings in Albania and Kosovo will target state social services and child protection workers co-implemented by Terre des hommes and Save the Children experts. In Poland, three trainings for professional groups such as police officers, boarder guards, and personnel of emergency shelters will be carried out by NCF. In Bulgaria, the ECPAT affiliate annually will organise three different sort of trainings for social service providers.units
In Albania and Kosovo, the annual child trafficking monitoring publication, while in Poland and Bulgaria, research and situational analysis will contribute to determine the prevalence and nature of the phenomenon of child trafficking in the first and the last year of the project.
2.1 Targeted investigation on new routes and trends of child trafficking in Europe between the countries of origin, transit and destination to find evidences to support advocacy activities and capacity building of professionals. Project partners will be trained on investigation techniques in the first year of the project, while investigation is planned at the second and third year each for one month.
2.2 Linking up professionals in countries of origin, transit and destination. Contacts among same type of service providers in both ends of the migratory movement will be facilitated constantly by project partners
2.3 Joint training for the same professionals as in 2.2 in order to increase their capacity to provide suitable and tailor-made services to children at risk in the third year of the project designed and implemented by all project mixed team of trainers.partners
3.1 Support to national advocacy coalitions in order to facilitate joint advocacy actions at country level to fight for better child protection systems, laws and regulations. In each countries, one national coordinator will be financed by the project. In addition, annual national conferences and other platforms for communication as website in Poland and Hungary, newsletter in Albania will contribute to stronger advocacy activities at national level.
3.2 Formulation of joint statements and advocacy messages based on documented cases and trends explored by partners thanks to their wide experience, extensive networks and international reputation in Europe/in the region during the yearly advocacy meetings for partners. The partners will develop occasional joint advocacy actions of partners to target national and regional/ European institutions (MEP, EC and member representatives). One awareness-raising event will be organised in Brussels to transmit those advocacy messages.states
4. The Inception meeting will serve as a first forum for project partners to plan the following joint activities together. At the annual Knowledge exchange meetings partners will be able to exchange on lessons learnt from the national activities, share information on new transnational trends or potential opportunities for cooperation. The purpose of the final capitalization meeting in the last year of the project is the evaluation and the preparation of the final capitalization document. years
The Steering Committee, as the Mario project main decision maker body consisting of one director/president of each partner organisation will monitor progress in project implementation and oversee the management of the project. The project management will be under the responsibilities of the central project manager based at the leading agency, Tdh-Child relief and the project coordinators at partners.