Microsoft awards $1 million to RP to fight human trafficking

Microsoft Corp. has awarded over $1 million in grants to organizations in the Philippines and five other Asian countries to provide computer skills in a bid to protect people most vulnerable to human trafficking, the software giant said the other day.

The "Unlimited Potential" grants against human trafficking were also distributed in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, Lori Forman, Microsoft Asia’s community affairs director, said in a telephone interview.

"We believe that technology can help reduce part of Asia’s human trafficking tragedy," she said.

The program aims to help human trafficking victims and those vulnerable to offers of money from traffickers who would sell them into forced labor or sexual slavery to gain computer skills needed to get jobs.

Microsoft wants to "reach out both to those who are vulnerable to trafficking in a prevention mode, and also to those who have been victims of trafficking in reintegration efforts," Forman said.

Forman said the NGOs from the six selected countries will spin off the program, benefiting 130 community technology learning centers that will train about 100,000 people in the region over the next three years, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam.

Cambodia, Indonesia and India are included in the US State Department watch list of countries with high or significantly increasing rates of human trafficking, and which have failed to combat the problem.

The Philippines and Thailand belong to the tier of countries one notch higher, whose governments do not fully comply with international standards but are exerting significant efforts to meet them. Singapore has a good record but is host to a large community of migrant workers.

Microsoft is contributing a total of $9.2 million this year to help Asian countries battle human trafficking, cyber crimes, child exploitation, and improve computer skills for better chances of employment, Forman said. — AP