“Parents do not understand the risk for their children, so I try to talk to them as well.”

Dennis is a peer educator from the Roma community involved in APP-XY’s Green Light Project: Promoting SRHR, for people who are vulnerable or
have been trafficked for sexual
exploitation.

A champion breakdancer, Dennis is quite a well-known figure in his home town in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

"Before, I used to go out a lot and always get drunk. I could get a lot of girls but I didn’t pay much attention to them. Now I consider myself a very cautious person. I watch the girls and I take more time to know them.

I always have condoms with me and my friends often come to me. They also ask questions and sometimes they even want to use 2 condoms at the same time! So I explain to them that it is not the right way to do it.

Also, the parents and other adults now look at me differently.

In the beginning, when I explained how I learned about sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and trafficking issues, they didn’t believe me or trust me.

The parents do not understand the risk for their children, so I try to talk to them as well.

They usually don’t listen to me because I’m a young person.

But now, they seem to show me more respect because they understand that I have some knowledge they don’t have.

We see a lot of advertisements in the newspapers for jobs abroad, like in Italy or Serbia.

I once had the possibility to work with some guy in Slovenia: I had to drive a car, go out in the field but I didn’t trust him. It was a very good salary but I said no. I learned a lot thanks to the training on elements of trafficking recruitment so I’m more careful".