Challenging Gender Roles
for Prevention of Trafficking

Åland Islands Peace Institute has started an INTERREG IV A project entitled "Challenging Gender Stereotypes for Prevention of Trafficking ". The project will be implemented in close partnership with Riga-based Resource Center for Women "Marta" for implementing the unique Nordic Girl and Boy Group method, informing the wider audience about the importance of linking empowerment, gender equality and gender based crime, and scientifically researching the outcome.

Annually around 2,000 women from the Baltic States become victims of trafficking. Finland is one of the primary destination countries for many trafficking victims from Latvia. Gender inequality and gender stereotypes in both countries of origin and countries of destination provide a favourable environment for gender based crime. This is why the root causes of trafficking have to be dealt with in cross-border cooperation. An effective way of preventing trafficking is to adopt methods that help the young generation to resist the influence of traditional gender roles and to make their own choices based on knowledge, individual values and beliefs.
The Project, carried out by the Åland Islands Peace Institute, Åland, Finland, and the Resource Center for Women, Marta, Riga, Latvia, highlights the importance of youth empowerment as a tool for promoting more respectful gender relations and thereby reducing the risk of gender based crime.
The boy and girl groups provide the young people with a base from where they can form their own individual opinions on how to act and make choices in everyday life. Group work will lead to enhanced social skills and social networks, which in turn strengthens the participants' possibilities to become active citizens and reduces the risk of them being marginalized.

This project plays a particularly important role on Åland, since the Åland is one of the largest and major transportation hubs in the Baltic Region. Apart from the main Partner in Latvia, the Project will work in cooperation with other organizations, dealing with similar issues in the Baltic Region, and Nordic Countries.