ALBANIA — The “Association of Albanian Girls and Women” (AAGW)

Shoqa­ta Shqiptare Per Vajza Dhe Gra

(Asso­ci­a­tion of Alban­ian Girls and Women)

The “Asso­ci­a­tion of Alban­ian Girls and Women” (AAGW) is an orga­ni­za­tion cre­at­ed in 2003 by and for vic­tims of human traf­fick­ing in Alba­nia. It is esti­mat­ed that there are over 10,000 Alban­ian girls and women who are cur­rent­ly or who for­mer­ly have been vic­tims of ille­gal traf­fick­ing for the pur­pose of enforced pros­ti­tu­tion, one third of whom are younger than eigh­teen. More vic­tims are arriv­ing all the time. Our aver­age age is sev­en­teen; the youngest girls have been twelve. We are the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of AAGW, but we are also its mem­bers and leaders.

A pri­ma­ry aim of AAGW is to help for­mer vic­tims of traf­fick­ing rein­te­grate into Alban­ian soci­ety. We pro­mote this goal by sup­ple­ment­ing and sup­port­ing job train­ing, job place­ment, and hand­i­craft pro­duc­tion pro­grams. Equal­ly impor­tant, since we are an orga­ni­za­tion run by and for traf­ficked women, our dai­ly oper­a­tion also offers impor­tant lead­er­ship and man­age­r­i­al expe­ri­ence and pro­vides a voice for us in Alban­ian society.

AAGW is a tool for per­son­al empow­er­ment. We have been robbed of our human dig­ni­ty. AAGW helps us restore it. We are the experts on traf­fick­ing; we know best how to deter­mine our own needs and pro­pose solu­tions for last­ing change. AAGW gives us this opportunity.