A recent seminar organized by the International Institute for the Rights of the Child (IDE) in collaboration with the Terre des Hommes Foundation (TdH) "Child trafficking: a fatality ? From field reality to better practices" included a presentation by Ms Titing Martini, Specialist, Save the Children, Indonesia: "Positive Deviance approach to trafficking prevention".
Confident. Self-Directed. Creative. Less than a year after beginning a Positive Deviance project to prevent girl trafficking in one Indonesian village, the local village health workers (Cadres) have cultivated a new sense of self-efficacy and commitment to the program. Exposure to the Positive Deviants has provided them with the experience, skills and desire to share this tool with other Cadres. Some of them showcased these skills during a recent training for the Cadres from two neighboring villages that will be implementing their own PD projects.
Nine months after implementing the pilot PD Girl Trafficking project Save The Children and their local partner, LPKP, had planned a training for Cadres in neighboring villages. The original intention was to have the Cadres from the pilot village talk about their experiences using the PD approach. However, it was discovered that the Cadres were more than ready to share their experiences; they were ready to facilitate the meeting. They were so eager to share the PD tool with other Cadres that they began to prepare for the training on their own! After learning of the proposed training, they had begun to prepare by doing role-plays and critiquing each others' performances, often until midnight.
During the workshop pilot Cadres were able to comfortably raise taboo issues. They shared with the new Cadres how PD had changed their approach to preventing girl trafficking and how it impacted on their personal lives. They also shared a number of tips and tricks, spoke of risks and obstacles they encountered and how to overcome them. They noted that although there are problems they have not been able to solve, they are confidant that they will be able to do so in the near future.
On the basis of the program's initial success, Save the Children was awarded a 5 year grant in July, 2004. Check back for updates on this exciting project!