Our Corporate Profile

SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVE  is an NGO, without religious bias, political affiliation and nonprofit making, based in Nigeria but working across the world, especially in the Middle East countries, where lots of human trafficking of Africans is taking place. We are particularly concerned about young ladies and women who are lured into countries like Oman, Saudi, Arabia,Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a host of others.

SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVE  n has worked assiduously to facilitate the release and return of as many as 680 illegally trafficked ladies and women of Nigerian dissent from many of the earlier mentioned countries, mostly in dehumanized state. We normally facilitate their release through our network of contacts and visitations to these countries and raise money personally from family and friends’ sources to process flight tickets to return these vulnerable class of people to Nigeria.

We also work to reintegrate these people with their family members on arrival in the country. In addition, our organization has helped in settling down these affected people by providing some funds for job/trading.

Furthermore, SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVE  is also involved in community sensitization on the prevention of Human Trafficking in some states/communities that are notorious for such practice.

Prior Experience in Working with International Organizations and/or Government Actors:

Though, SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVE has been working for the past 2 years without any support from any international organisations. All our activities have been self-financed.

However, the past experience of our Executive Director, Mr. Adefemi Sharaf has seen him working with The World Bank, Australian Embassy in Nigeria and a couple of others as the founder of Eminent Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, and NGO working on health and development. His experience in the organization lasted for up to up to a decade from 2007 to 2017 and was able to manage projects funded by national and international donors, before this venture into working to reduce human trafficking in Nigeria.

Context Analysis/Problem Description:

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery in Nigeria which victims are deceived and coerced into providing forced labour or sexual services for the benefit of their traffickers. Of late, human trafficking has had a particularly dramatic impact on the nation Nigeria.Thousands of women and children are particularly victimized by traffickers every year in Nigeria, luring them gulf countries of Oman, Qatar, U.A.E, Saudi Arabia and a host of other Asian countries.

Nigeria is particularly vulnerable to human trafficking because of factors such as poverty and huge number of unemployed youth populations and uncanny zeal for people in search of greener pasture. When eventually women and children are baited to these countries, they become objects for sexual exploitation, organ removal, forced criminality, domestic servitude, etc, thereby exposing them to life threatening dangers.

While many legislative efforts have focused on how best to prosecute and punish traffickers, through our partnership with the concerned government agency (NAPTIP) the difficulties for the victims do not end when the perpetrators are brought to justice. These victims require specialized programmes that offer them to return to base, nutrition, and appropriate medical treatment, as well as psychological evaluation and counseling programmes, community sensitization and education programmes and life skills training. 

SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVEcurrently makes sure some of the tracked and identified victims were returned to Nigeria and reintegrated with their families. We are therefore soliciting for fund to provide comprehensive services to victims of human trafficking, including critically needed social services and legal assistance. This is essential to ensure victims are provided long-term, trauma-informed services to help them escape their traffickers, receive the support they need, and move forward with their lives.

Project end-Beneficiaries (specified by gender and age):

The project end-beneficiaries are children, especially young girls under 18 years and ladies/women age 20 to 40

Expected Results of the Project:

At the end of the project, the following results are envisaged;

a) Victim-important expected result:

• 5,000 trafficking victims tracked, identified and resettled with their families in six states in Nigeria
• Establishment and strengthening of a strong anti-trafficking control mechanism in the six proposed project states of Nigeria

b) Population-level results:

• Contribute to reduction in global number of human trafficking by 40% when the proposed programme comes to an end after 2 years.

c) Elimination of trafficking in human, especially children and women in Nigeria is accelerated and sustained.

Activities to be Implemented:

1) Evacuation/Returning Component:

) Identification of Trafficking victims:

• We use our existing platforms in all the gulf countries to track and identify traffic victims where they are being subjected to series of inhuman treatments.

ii) Returning of Traffic victims to Nigeria

• We also compile a comprehensive list of identified trafficking victims and facilitate their return to Nigeria.

• On arrival in Nigeria, we organize a counselling Sessions with the returnee victims

• Reintegration of traffic victims with their families and friends to begin a new lease of life back home in Nigeria.

2) Prevention Component:

i) Awareness Raising:

• We are planning to increase the awareness of the trafficking perils among “high-risk” groups, minors and the general public through information dissemination campaign in the 6 states.

• We also raise the awareness of the trafficking phenomenon among the relevant Nigerian governmental agencies, NGOs and other caregivers and concerned entities.

• We equally ensure professional and responsible coverage of trafficking-related issues by mass media and create a dedicated pool of journalists.

ii) Addressing the Social Problems underlying the trafficking phenomenon:

• Through the proposed project, we shall increase the awareness of the employment opportunities among “high-risk” groups in their regions.

• We are equally proposing to promote alternative income-generating opportunities for “high-risk” groups in the selected regions through the involvement of complementary initiatives carried by the International Labour Organization.

3) Reintegration Component:

• We are to establish a model facility for the rehabilitation and subsequent referral of trafficking victims, offering a comprehensive inventory of rehabilitation for Nigerian citizens who are victims of exploitation returning from countries of destination.

• We promote further inter-agency cooperation and coordination in assisting victims of trafficking through the establishment of sustainable referral mechanisms in the selected states with participation of governmental agencies, NGOs and international organizations.

Project Indicators and Monitoring Provisions:

SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVE has a viable and vibrant monitoring and evaluation mechanism in the organization that will work continuously with the programme staff to achieve the project objectives. The organization will make use of questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion, among other tools to collect data on the project if need be. The data would be analyzed and the result disseminated to anyone that is component part of the project.

SYNERGY RESCUE INITIATIVE will constantly use the designed work plan and the project objectives as the gold standard with which what is being done will be compared monthly, real time corrective actions will be taken should there be a negative indication.

In addition, we will also make use of the project’s monthly programmatic and financial reports to justify compliance with the donor’s approved maximum standard in the project implementation process.

Our Monitoring and Evaluation Officer will be directly in charge of M & E activities.

Risks and Mitigation Measures:

The main risks that may delay or reduce the effectiveness of the proposed project are:

1. The social- cultural and political environment in the proposed six states in Nigeria should it not remain conducive;
2. The project causing confusion in project states/communities, thereby making communities turning un-cooperative
3. Bureaucratic bottleneck from government’s MDAs
4. Delay in fund disbursement by the donor

Our plans for mitigating these Risks are:

1. Developing protocol and procedure for dealing with people from different social-cultural backgrounds and environment.
2. Making consultative discussion with all gatekeepers at the initial level.
3. Involving government at the federal, states and local government level to enlist their buy-in into the project, thereby making them major stakeholders.

Workable disbursement plans and adherence to Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the donor.