Rather than present a detached and professional front, it is more effective to seek a relationship of trust with the trafficking victim. A more personal relationship is more likely to provide a point of reference to which a young woman will turn when decides to escape.

The approach of this program is extremely innovative. We felt the need to experiment with something different from the traditionally employed mobile units, which have due great limitations:

1. contact with the woman takes place under the eye of the exploiter;
2. the mobile unit has little impact on a woman’s decision to break out of her situation. The rapport between the victim and mobile unit staff is usually that of beneficiary and service provider. During their contact with victims, staff is able to satisfy healthcare needs, but there is not usually the opportunity to establish personal contact. However, this special relationship of trust is essential if a victim is to approach a staff member for assistance in her escape from her captors.

It is not by chance that the majority of women are supported in their escape by an ex-client. Using a trust-based approach to make first contact with a woman, the volunteer poses as a client having her get into his car. He is thus able to speak with the woman privately and away from the eyes of her captors. He explains that he works for a association that provides help to victims of trafficking, and to avoid raising the suspicions of her pimp, he pays the girl what an ordinary client would have paid. If the first contact is positive, the volunteer returns to look for the girl, once again posing as a client, and continues his discussion with her. These activities are carried out in various zones of Rome and are coordinated with neighborhood police stations.

When a victim decides to break away from her captors and turn them in to authorities, Erythros organizes their escape in collaboration with police and the carabinieri. * Where the situation appears particularly dangerous, law enforcement follows, with utmost discretion, the escape operation.

From January to April 2001 six volunteers worked three nights a week and, using the trust-based approach, succeeded in assisting 12 women escape from forced prostitution: 2 women of around age thirty and the rest between the ages of 18 and 25. Project activities began again in September.