I see education as a mission, as part of the journey to a freer world
The global ambassador of the Unitas Foundation, Ana Krstajić, is a young woman and mother, working in the world of influential people from America, Europe and Serbia, dedicated to the Unitas Foundation since 2014. In 2014, thanks to her personal and team effort, she provided several houses for families in Serbia, whose homes were destroyed in floods. A year later, Unitas started to focus on human trafficking prevention and education and Ana became the Foundation’s global ambassador. In an interview with Diplomacy&Commerce, she reveals what challenges she faces every day to implement her idea of a safer world.
Interview by: Maja Guzijan
What are the Unitas Foundation’s mission and vision in Serbia?
Our vision is clear and uncompromising, and that is to live in a world devoid of human trafficking and exploitation. We resolutely defined an almost utopian vision, because only when facing the horrors that victims of human trafficking have survived, do you realize that there are no compromises that can be, conditionally speaking, less ambitious. I truly believe that educating parents and children carries the greatest power in creating a safer world and I am very proud of the personal and team contributions towards accomplishing such a great goal. I understand every education as a mission, as part of the journey to a freer world.
In your effort to implement Unitas’ goals, whose support is most important to you?
Unitas’ project that focuses on protecting students from human trafficking was implemented with the support of experts from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and the Centre for the Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking. I have to single out those two institutions as the most relevant. Under the auspices of the mentioned project, we designed and printed a manual for the educational sector, which is intended for educators. The film “The Observers” (“Posmatrači“) is an integral part of this project, which depicts three separate stories based on true events. The film focuses on the ways young people are groomed and abused through various types of exploitation. We have great cooperation with the Ministry of Telecommunications in terms of joint education aimed at teachers and children, which is related to knowing the risks and behaving safely on the Internet. Together with the Ministry of Tourism, we plan to hold a training session on how to recognize what constitutes human trafficking in the hotel industry. Without tooting our horn too much, I have to say that our ideas and results are extraordinary and this motivates us to constantly create new ideas and to keep up with all trends in technology development along with the risks that this development carries.
Educating parents and children carries the greatest power in creating a safer world
Is the topic of human trafficking sufficiently talked about in Serbia and what is the current approach to it?
This topic is still very abstract and insufficiently talked about in the media, except through impermissible sensationalistic reporting which only goal is to ensure a large number of shares and clicks when a tragedy occurs. For this reason and with the support of the EU Info Centre in Serbia, Unitas held free lectures for citizens. Time and time again, parents are struck by the fact that the physical presence of a child in the same room as them does not mean that the child is safe. Every time a child goes online, they are exposed to the rules of a completely new world, a “new planet” where there are more than 750,000 predators every given second.
You hold training sessions to educate people in different areas so that they recognize human trafficking when it occurs. What do these training sessions look like and what doubts do the participants face?
With every training session, we try to reach the most vulnerable population, meaning our children. We educate young people, educators, hoteliers… In cooperation with the Serbian branch of the Red Cross, we educate children from 3 to 5 years old through age-appropriate games. We are present at children’s fairs where we always have our own stand, as well as regional children’s basketball tournaments and throughout our educational system – from elementary schools to faculties, which also support us by understanding the importance of education in this area.
What challenges do regional organizations and individuals with whom you cooperate face? What good example from practice do you think should be adopted and applied in Serbia, relating to the fight against human trafficking?
The biggest challenges concern the rapid development of technology, so we constantly need an update. Human trafficking, from the grooming stage to the actual sale of a person, takes place on the Internet, and traffickers always have new and more innovative ways to approach children and young people. The second challenge lies in the fact that, due to personnel changes in the institutions, we have to constantly re-present the content and goals of the projects that were stopped in the implementation phase due to the restructuring of the institutions or re-election. Financial resources are generally a big problem because companies that invest in socially responsible business often do not make decisions about financing projects based on the priorities of the environment in which they operate. We cannot deal with talent development until we provide every parent and child with basic knowledge about primary safety and personal protection.
What does safe online behaviour imply?
It implies a possibility for a person not to be harmed, i.e. to preserve their physical, psychological and emotional integrity. For instance, psychological violence, the so-called cyberbullying, as one of the risks on the Internet, can cause serious injuries to young people from which it is difficult to recover, and entering the chain of human trafficking means a complete loss of free will and personal identity. A victim of human trafficking lives in a world of the most brutal psychological and physical violence which is almost impossible to escape. Safe online behaviour should become an important part of the pedagogical culture, upbringing and education. This is a growing need of all people in all societies, which is why the Unitas Foundation directs all activities and actions precisely towards this goal.
Social media are the basic platform for finding victims, but at the same time, they are the key places for education
What are the advantages of the Internet and social networks in the fight against human trafficking?
Social media are the basic platform for finding victims, but at the same time, they are the key places for education. During the pandemic, we launched the Surf Safely campaign in which influential figures from Serbian culture and theatre, who have a large following on social media, took part. They recorded educational clips every day which reached a huge number of children and young people. The regional campaign called Hope On is also ongoing. It takes place on social media and currently gathers 50 organizations from seven countries in the region. We created a special website – hopeon.today – for this campaign, where you can find all hotlines for victims and potential victims of human trafficking in Europe.
How much has your perception of this topic’s importance changed over the years?
Honestly, from the very beginning, I understood the importance of the topic, and over time I became familiar with the unsuspected prevalence and horrors of this phenomenon. In the early days, I could not believe that anyone can be a victim of some form of exploitation, that human trafficking is not an accident that happens to some abstract person in a distant world and that human trafficking is an objective danger for all people, without exception.
What advice could you give to all of us when it comes to staying safe online?
First of all, a parent should not post photos of their children on vacation on social networks. Each child’s profile must be locked, nobody online should be able to locate or tag the child and the child should only have those people they know in real life as friends on social media. Posting photos of children from parks close to their place of residence, as well as photos showing the name of their school, should not be allowed. These are the basic premises that most parents and children do not adhere to due to ignorance of the problem, so the appeal for them to get educated on this topic is perhaps the most important.
What should everyone keep in mind when talking about human trafficking? What can potentially save us from trouble?
The first wrong step in potentially entering the chain of human trafficking is starting communication with an unknown person online, instantly trusting persons we do not know in the real world and sharing information from one’s private life. Every job ad abroad should be checked through the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR), the police and/or at border crossings. Modelling agencies or sweepstakes that require entering personal information require special caution. The Internet provides unimagined opportunities for improving human life in modern society, but only on the condition that we know the rules of safe online behaviour. That’s why Unitas’ comic book for children is called “On the net, not in the net”. This slogan also applies to adults.