On January 27, 2006, Irina Belotserkovets of the NGO “Center for the Prevention of Social Problems,” a Winrock International Path to Success! program grant recipient, organized a round table designed to raise awareness of human trafficking and economic empowerment issues among educators and employees of the orphanage in Volno-Nadezhdinsk, Primorskiy Krai. Participants learned new information about the issue of human trafficking and the scope of the problem in Primorksiy Krai.  They also learned more about the factors that make many of the students in the orphanage one of the most vulnerable at-risk groups, such as the lack of family ties, low self-esteem and lack of adequate support in making positive decisions about their futures. Ms. Belotserkovets provided ideas on ways that orphanage staff can counteract these factors. Teachers and others who regularly work with the orphanage students also discussed the various methods they use to teach students about their basic rights, job skills and the job search process. The discussion format allowed participants to share information while receiving specific suggestions from Ms. Belotserkovets on ways to further strengthen their efforts to empower students at the orphanage. Ms. Belotserkovets encouraged participants to use interactive methods of teaching whenever possible, and provided them with methodological materials to help them in further developing more interactive ideas for the classroom. Educators were very interested in the subject of human trafficking and wanted to find out additional information on the subject to teach the youth in their care. At the end of this meeting, participants were making plans on how to work together and develop their own trainings on human trafficking and job skills development for their students. Immediately following the roundtable, Ira Beloskovets delivered the third part of her series of seminars on human trafficking for the young women at the children’s home. The first one discussed the legal aspects of employment, the second focused on developing employment skills for graduates of Primorskiy Krai orphanages, and the final was an introduction to the problem of human trafficking. This USAID sponsored anti-trafficking program continues to develop innovative methods for working with the most vulnerable at-risk groups, educating them about the problem of human trafficking, and helping them to achieve positive futures for themselves and their communities.

Heads and representatives of non-commercial organizations, which were founded on the initiative of the American-Russian Center (University of Alaska, Anchorage), met in Vladivostok on January 17-19.
At the moment, a total of seven Russian-American Centers work on the territory of the Russian Far East. The centers were founded in the 90s and have been providing services to assist business development. Until the present, the activity of the centers has been coordinated by the American-Russian Center (ARC) in Anchorage.
The aim of the January meeting was discussion of a possibility of creating a network of Far Eastern Russian-American Centers. This issue arose from in connection with the necessity of sustainable development of the centers and their less involvement into ARC grant projects.
Representatives of five out of seven centers from Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Magadan attended the meeting. The meeting resulted in resolution that creation of the network is essential. The participants developed a concept and mission of the network and elaborated a work plan until May 2006.
During the three-day meeting, they also discussed such issues as:
- the current state of the network (analysis of existing model of interaction, strengths and weaknesses, resource assessment and prospects of development for each center);
- positioning of each center for efficient networking;
- network structure: options and prospects.
Among the attendees of the meeting were Nicole Crabtree, Coordinator American-Russian Center, Anchorage, and Irina Isaeva, Project Management Specialist, RFE Office of Regional Development, USAID.
The next work meeting of the network participants is scheduled to be held in Blagoveshchensk in April 2006.