Ambassador Dina El Sehy, Executive Director of the Fund for Assisting Victims of Trafficking in Persons, held a series of meetings over Monday and Tuesday, 19 and 20 January, as part of her first official visit to Minya Governorate. The meetings aimed to explore areas for cooperation with various entities to strengthen the Fund’s role in providing protection and prevention for all segments of society against exposure to any form of trafficking in persons, as well as providing support to victims to reintegrate them into society.
H.E. Ambassador Dina El Sehy began the tour in Minya Governorate by meeting with Major General Dr. Mohamed Anis, Secretary-General of Minya Governorate, to strengthen cooperation mechanisms between the Governorate and the Fund in combating trafficking in persons, assisting victims, and providing them with all forms of support.
Ambassador Dina El Sehy discussed mechanisms for providing training and awareness programmes targeting different segments of society, particularly Social Women Leaders, with the aim of enhancing their awareness of the risks and various forms of trafficking in persons and ways to prevent it. The Minya Governorate affirmed its full support for all national efforts aimed at protecting human rights and strengthening cooperation with relevant entities in a manner that ensures complementarity in performance and contributes to the optimal implementation of these activities.
Ambassador Dina El Sehy also participated in a meeting organized by Dr. Fatma Al Zahraa Ali, Director of the Child Protection Committee and the Women, Motherhood and Childhood Department at the Governorate’s General Office, in the presence of representatives of Human Rights Units, to discuss all aspects of cooperation between the Fund and the Unit. The meeting also addressed potential partnerships in several areas, most notably training members of Protection Committees on the concepts of trafficking in persons and its various forms and manifestations, enabling them to properly understand the cases identified and documented by the Committees pursuant to the judicial police powers granted to them, before referring them to law enforcement officers to take the necessary legal measures.
H.E. Ambassador Dina El Sehy highlighted the plans to be implemented by the Fund during the visit, including the establishment of a Victim Support Unit to follow up on and finance the psychological and health support and legal assistance provided by the Fund to victims in cooperation with relevant entities. Also, H.E. Ambassador Dina El Sehy noted the imminent launch of the Fund’s hotline (17616) for reporting any trafficking in persons crimes. She pointed to the close cooperation between the Fund, the National Council for Women, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, and Human Rights Units, and stressed the importance of coordination with these entities for reporting trafficking in persons crimes through their respective emergency hotlines.
H.E.Ambassador Dina El Sehy also met with Dr. Nagah El-Telawy, Rapporteur of the National Council for Women’s branch in Minya, to discuss cooperation areas between the Fund and the Council in organizing awareness campaigns and disseminating awareness messages for women aimed at informing them about the risks and various forms of trafficking in persons. The meeting also addressed the continued provision of training for women and groups most in need of care, particularly victims, to teach them various vocational skills, with the aim of empowering them economically and helping them cope with the burdens of life.
As part of the tour, H.E.Ambassador Dina El Sehy visited the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) in Minya, where Her Excellency met with Marwan Mohamed, Director of the MSMEDA Agency’s Minya Branch, in the presence of representatives of several civil society organizations working in the fields of rehabilitation and project financing. The meeting aimed to explore ways for the Agency to finance projects for victims of trafficking in persons referred by the Fund.
During the tour, H.E.Ambassador Dina El Sehy also visited the Directorate of Social Solidarity, where Her Excellency met with Abdel Hamid El-Tahawy, Director of the Minya Directorate of Social Solidarity, and Amany Tamer, Deputy Director of the Directorate, to develop a joint action plan between the Fund and the Directorate on combating trafficking in persons, with the aim of strengthening the social protection system and maintaining coordination between the two sides. Officials of the Directorate of Social Solidarity in the Governorate expressed their interest in continuing the training courses targeting Social Women Leaders, given their significant impact on raising awareness among all segments of society about the risks of trafficking in persons.
Ambassador Dina El Sehy also met with Dr. Omar Khalifa Mohamed, Director of the Minya Directorate of Endowments, who affirmed the Directorate’s willingness to cooperate with the Fund in all aspects of combating trafficking in persons by integrating awareness messages into sermons and religious lessons to educate all segments of society about the risks of this crime. The visit also included introducing the role and responsibilities of the Fund for Assisting Victims of Trafficking in Persons, in addition to exploring cooperation areas between the two sides regarding the training of approximately 100 imams and female religious preachers at the beginning of next May.
The visit concluded with a visit to the Minya Diocese, where H.E. Ambassador Dina El Sehy met with Bishop Makarios to discuss cooperation areas between the Church and the Fund to raise awareness. The Fund will also provide the Diocese with all brochures and promotional materials explaining the meaning of trafficking in persons and its various forms and manifestations.
