Stories in another country

TANIA BUTTERFIELD

My jaw dropped as I emerged from the subway at Prague's "New Town". In front of me was the statue of St Wenceslas covered in red candles. From a short distance away it looked like a poppy field had grown around and over the statue, but I knew straight away what was going on.

Just a week earlier, the Czech Republic had said goodbye to former president, playwright and leader of the Velvet Revolution Vaclav Havel, who died aged 75. He was obviously a well loved man. Scattered between the melted candles and withered flowers were notes of gratitude, love, and admiration.

While I am not familiar with the rise and fall of communism in Eastern Europe, it was interesting to see the effects of it 20 years on.

Foreign correspondent and our mentor for two weeks, Michael Jordan, noted that everywhere we turned we could see how things had changed. Before the Czech Republic's borders were opened to the world there was no graffiti, no homelessness, no trafficking. Now, practically every building in the suburbs had some form of graffiti, homelessness is a big problem – although, according to a manager of a shelter I interviewed, the Prague officials don't like to acknowledge how much of a problem it really is – and the battle against human trafficking continues.

While Europe had never been on my list of places to see, the opportunity to try my hand as a foreign correspondent under the leadership of reporters and freelance foreign correspondents whose clients include The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, BBC, and The Economist was too good to miss.

In the month leading up to the trip, we had come up with story ideas and researched and organised interviews, so when we landed in Prague we hit the ground running.

I decided to do a story on human trafficking because last year the US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report (TIPS) described New Zealand as "a source country for underage girls subjected to sex trafficking within the country".

The report also claimed New Zealand is "reportedly a destination country for women from Asian countries, such as Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, and China, and Eastern Europe trafficked into forced prostitution".

As with most European Union countries, the Czech Republic has a problem with human trafficking and I arranged interviews with the International Organisation for Migration in Prague and non-government organisation La Strada who specifically deal with trafficked people.

While we traditionally think of human trafficking as being for sexual exploitation, the big problem in Europe since the start of the 2008 financial crisis has been with labour trafficking.

On one of the reporting days, myself and a reporter from Kenya went out to a street where the head of La Strada Prague said migrant workers hang out in the early hours of the morning hoping for work and prospective employers pick them up.

We spent an hour on the street between 6am and 7am in the dark, freezing cold, but nothing appeared to happen.

Later in the day, we went in search of "colour" for our stories. I took a translator and went door-knocking on a shelter for homeless men and trafficked people called Project Chance and managed to secure an interview with the founder and meet some of the men they help.

I must admit we didn't really know what to think when we were escorted to a room with what can only be described as "mood lighting", but we definitely found our colour.

The speakers on the course were incredible and had some really interesting stories to tell as well as a lot of practical advice about how to break into the industry as a freelance foreign correspondent. I particularly enjoyed a session with photographer/multimedia journalist Dean Cox of The New York Times, where we were introduced to mixed media reporting with stories comprising video, audio and still images.

Prague itself is beautiful. I have never been into architecture but all the photos I took while there were of intricate buildings. Even McDonald's had gargoyles!

One night, I and a few others from the United States and Moldova went to Prague Castle.

We were wandering around taking photos of random things, such as a giant Christmas tree, when we turned around and saw the Gothic-style St Vitus Cathedral lit up. It was amazing. We stood there for a good 10 minutes just staring at it. No wonder it took 600 years to finish building it. Every corner has gargoyles and the inside, which I saw when I returned to the castle on my final day, is covered in stained glass windows.

- The Marlborough Express