As Head of the All-Ukrainian Charitable "Faith, Hope, Love"
(Ukrainian Orthodox Church), Father Ioann has worked tirelessly
over the past several years to engage the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
in the fight against human trafficking in Ukraine. His
organization’s achievements include the establishment of
three successful church resource centres to counter human
trafficking and the creation of the first strategy for the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church in combating trafficking. Just as
importantly, Father Ioann and Faith, Hope, Love are making
significant efforts to engage other Churches on
counter-trafficking, both in Ukraine and abroad and to create a
common inter-church ground for action against the crime. In
recognition of his work, Father Ioann has been given an award by
IOM at its Third Annual Counter Trafficking Awards Ceremony in Kiev
funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
(Sida) and the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID). Here, the remarkable priest talks to IOM about why human
trafficking is on his agenda.

IOM:
First, congratulations on your award. How do you feel about it?

Father
Ioann: We are very glad that IOM has awarded the
Church’s work but we realize that we there is still much to
do, especially regarding interchurch collaboration. The interchurch
situation is very difficult in Ukraine.

IOM: Why
have you engaged in the fight against human trafficking?

Father
Ioann: Two personal experiences made me want to be involved
in counter-trafficking efforts. A few years ago, I met two girls,
both victims of trafficking, in Odessa. As I didn’t know
about human trafficking, I didn’t understand that they were
victims and I didn’t help them. I then read about the issue
and understood that priests can help.

The second incident happened when I was
travelling to Italy. Half of the people who were in the bus that
took me there didn’t return to Ukraine but stayed in Italy. I
later heard that these people had not only been trafficked for
sexual exploitation but also for other forms of exploitation.

IOM: What
role do you think the church can play in fighting trafficking?

Father
Ioann: The young women trafficked from Ukraine come from
rural areas. The only institution that we have in these areas is
the church. The priests are very powerful there but they usually
don’t know about human trafficking. Our mission is to inform
them. The first step is on preventive information and the second is
on giving support to victims of trafficking. Just today, an article
on a priest who helped a victim of trafficking was featured in a
Ukrainian newspaper.

IOM: Women
victims of trafficking usually have to face stigma upon their
return. They can be rejected by their own family and friends. How
can the clergy help overcome this difficult hurdle?

Father
Ioann: We have to change the negative opinion the priests
can have about victims of human trafficking to enable them to
explain the problem to the population. We talk about the issue of
stigma during our trainings to student priests. Last year, we
taught 3,500 student priests in 20 universities and organized 12
trainings for 200 priests working in rural areas. But there are
9000 priests in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 6,000 of whom are in
rural areas. So there is still much work to do.

IOM: You
work on a Strategy for the participation of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church in Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. Could you please
tell us what more you are doing to ensure this happens?

Father
Ioann: First, the Church should provide full information to
all priests regarding human trafficking. The information should be
translated into "church language". Information regarding active
priests who already worked on this issue should also be collected
so that we can run local centres against human trafficking. There
are currently three local resource centres (in Lviv, Simferopol and
Dnipropetrovsk). We have also opened a reintegration centre in Lviv
where victims can receive first assistance from priests. Another
one will be opened in Dnipropetrovsk at the end of the year.

IOM: Can
you elaborate on what these resource centres do?

Father
Ioann: They gather information about human trafficking and
then put it in a comprehensible way for priests in the area. At
first, 90 per cent of these priests are reluctant to participate in
the trainings that we organize. They have to deal with several
issues and they don’t understand the importance of human
trafficking in our country. They have a negative reaction because
of the lack of information compounded by fact that there is
confusion in Ukrainian society between victims of human trafficking
and prostitution. After the trainings, however, the priests usually
change their opinion.

In an effort to strengthen the capacity of
faith-based organizations and personnel in fighting the crime, IOM
training is carried out in collaboration with the International
Union of Superiors General (UISG) and the United States (US)
Embassy to the Holy See and is part of a multi-country programme
funded by the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees
and Migration (PRM).