Chennai: The Rights Education and Development Centre (READ), with support from the US Consulate General Chennai, hosted a day-long awareness building workshop entitled ‘Frontline Defenders Against Trafficking in Persons in Tamilnadu: Building Capacity of Community Leaders’ in Erode on Wednesday.

According to a press note here, this is the first of four workshops for panchayat, community, women, and youth leaders that US Consulate General Chennai will support this year. The remaining three workshops will be held in Thanjavur, Trichy, and Tirupur in the coming months.

The workshop aims to build the participants’ awareness of human trafficking, their capacity to identify at-risk and vulnerable populations in their districts to prevent it, and their ability to work closely with judicial, law enforcement, and governmental agencies to rescue and rehabilitate victims. Around 40 participants attended the workshop in Erode,’ it added.