Milena Stateva
Clinical psychologist
This article presents the findings of the first Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) in support of women survivors of trafficking in women (TIW) and of women at risk of trafficking in Bulgaria. The number of Bulgarian women trafficked abroad is estimated at about 10,000 . Only a small number manage to escape. Most of them remain nameless.
The research was conducted by a part from the team of Animus Association/La Strada programme (Marina Tzvetkova and Milena Stateva, consulted by Nadia Kozhouharova) in the confident and protected environment provided by the care programmes of the Rehabilitation Centre for Women, Adolescents and Children Survivors of violence at Animus Association Foundation on behalf of women survivors. It was thus impossible for the team to stay in a neutral position, as required by conventional comprehensive research. There is no information concerning labour, migration and criminal issues, either. Therefore the purpose of the research is not to provide the full picture of trafficking in women in Bulgaria. It aims at describing the survivors’ situation from the women’s point of view, at studying the situation after their return to the country and identifying the measures to be undertaken to support trafficked women based on their own ideas of rehabilitation. Everything the team of Animus/La Strada knows about TIW in Bulgaria has been learnt from the survivors. The direct involvement in support of women survivors provides the opportunity to Animus/La Strada professionals to represent their point of view and position.
Being directly involved in the work to support to women survivors of trafficking I have often been in touch with my own strong emotions such as despair, helplessness, sorrow, anger… Many times have I experienced the need to deny in my mind that there is such severe violence as trafficking in women, and many times I have felt the need to do something, even beyond human capacity, to stop this crime. As a psychologist I am aware that these strong emotions are a sign of my client’s suffering. I am also aware that most of these emotions have resulted from my clash with the limitations of reality - the impossibility to prevent the pain of so many women, to rescue all survivors or to cure all severe psychological and physical consequences of trafficking. I believe that the only way to offer new opportunities in reality and to bear the suffering of another person without rejection or denial is by means of understanding.
I hope this article will be helpful to all practitioners who face the issue in their work and especially to those from the supportive professions; for the researchers, who have chosen the FPAR methodology even if their interest is not directed towards TIW, as well as for everybody who wants to know more about the issue, the human nature or the research methodology. I hope that by the time you have read through the text many questions and related issues will have arisen, and it will encourage some of you to analyze other aspects or to look for more answers. I also hope that in the end many of you will come up with other ideas for actions in the field of trafficking apart from those outlined here. As far as I am concerned, however, the main aim of the research presented below is to inspire real and effective actions in support of the (potential) survivors.