Fatima Crisis Center

I had my first meeting with the Director of the anti-trafficking organization that I will be working with while I am in Kazan. The name of the organization is the Women's Crisis Center "Fatima" or ЖКЦ «Фатима» for short. The office of the organization is one room (and a safehouse at an undisclosed location) but I am excited to see what I can do to help them with their human trafficking programs. The Director is a really nice women who was very excited to meet with me. She told my tutor when we called that she spoke English but when I arrived at the meeting she said my Russian was better than her English and so we spoke in Russian. Luckily I understand the field of human trafficking so the terminology was familiar but I still got about 70 percent of what she was saying. Since Tatarstan is a rich republic they have a lot more social programs than other places in Russia and so the Center provides not only trafficking rehabilitation services but also domestic violence, incest, and other problems faced by women in this region. So it will be very interesting to see what all these programs entail and how the regional and central government provide support without a real legal framework to work with. I am headed back on Wednesday when the real work begins!