Reinforcing the capacities of at risk youth and help them attain self-sufficiency

In 1992, FXB Founder Albina du Boisrouvray led a rescue mission for ninety-five young Burmese women involved in the Thai sex trade. The repatriation of the young women back to Yangon was followed by a comprehensive reintegration program.

FXB’s social and professional capacity-building program in Myanmar was launched in 1993 to reinforce the capacities of young women forced into commercial sex work and infected with AIDS. FXB aimed at enabling victims of human trafficking to regain a well-balanced and dignified life, and ultimately, become self-sufficient. The scope of the program has then widened to include street children, children infected and/or affected by HIV and AIDS, and AIDS orphans.

Providing basic education and vocational training, FXB helps young people develop their skills and their economic status.

STRATEGIES

• Help beneficiaries develop professional skills through vocational training, in fields such as sewing, handicraft, welding and woodwork.
• Help beneficiaries use acquired skills to develop income-generating activities.
• Provide informal schooling for homeless and working children, as well as youth who are too old to resume their education.
• Provide educational support for children at the primary and secondary levels. FXB covers the costs of school fees and supplies.
• Provide medical, psychosocial and nutritional support to people living with HIV and AIDS to improve their living conditions and help them regain self-sufficiency. FXB also encourages beneficiaries to become peer educators and contributes to fighting against the pandemic.
• Protect and empower flood victims and survivors of Cyclone Nargis by rebuilding homes and providing medical attention, counseling, vocational training, and loans.
• Organize HIV prevention, training and information sessions targeting the general community, health care workers, schools, colleges and university teachers.
• Provide adolescent reproductive healthcare training sessions.
• Promote safe sex and behavior change for women involved in the sex industry.
• Develop nationwide anti-AIDS campaign, providing for example anti-human trafficking and HIV information and training sessions for bus and truck drivers.

FXB operations in this country are supported, through financial or in-kind donations, by:

• AIDS Ark
• British Embassy, Yangoon
• Dickler Family Foundation
• Fondation Hermès
• Fondation Raymond Barbey
• Fondation Suisse de la Chaîne du Bonheur
• French Embassy, Yangoon
• Program 3-Diseases Fund
• SDC – Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
• UNDP/UNOPS
• UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund
• UNICEF
• Valais Solidaire
• Private donors