Katjuša Popović, Urška Debelak: A handbook for working with victims of human trafficking.

“When I tell people I meet what I do for a living, many ask me — sometimes quite astonished: »How do you manage it? Isn't it too much? What about all those people's stories that you then carry with you?« Yes, the stories are heavy. The work is heavy too. But it is precisely that weight which gives my profession its meaning — the mission of Društvo Ključ. The weight drives us on all the harder.

And it works like this: when you walk a hard, demanding road, the summit feels all the more like a victory. A victory in the sense that the stories people carry with them, and hand to us with such trust and vulnerability, are no longer only stories of pain and trauma. They gain a new epilogue — one of hope, survival, strength and fresh possibilities for a better, different life.

It is an honour that my profession and my work become a tool for people — something they can lean on, somewhere they can rest — and that we then walk on towards the goal together.

Thank you for trusting us.”

Katjuša Popović: Vidim jutra (I See Mornings)

To mark Anti-Trafficking Day in 2019, Katjuša Popović published the book Vidim jutra (I See Mornings). It gathers many moments — the fateful steps into exploitative situations, and the right turns that lead back out of them. All of it is real, and the people who lived through it were the author's inspiration.

The book was produced under the project Comprehensive Care for Victims of Human Trafficking, supported by the City of Ljubljana, Department of Health and Social Care. It is available in secondary school and public libraries, and can also be ordered by email info@drustvo-kljuc.si.

Društvo Ključ: (Re)integration of victims of human trafficking.

(Re)integration — e-publication

Ministry of the Interior: A handbook on identifying, assisting and protecting victims of human trafficking. Handbook

Katjuša Popović and Polona Kovač: The fight against human trafficking in Slovenia — a review of the field from 2001 to the present. Fifteen years of Društvo Ključ, the Centre for the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings. 

Published in April 2016, this professional publication reviews the field of anti-trafficking work in Slovenia from the beginning to the present day. It also covers the work of Društvo Ključ over that period, with a dedicated chapter on the gaps that remain unresolved within the system and ideas for how to close them.

OVERLOOKED: Human trafficking and corruption. (Contributing authors: Dr Aleš Bučar Ručman, Dr Bojan Dobovšek, Polona Kovač, Dr Janez Mekinc and Katarina Mušič)

An academic monograph.

Polona Kovač: Loverboy

A young-adult novel about the friendship and adventures of three teenagers — Lara, Anja and Peter — spending their summer holidays together. When Anja falls for the good-looking Denis, whom Lara and Peter do not trust, their friendship hangs by a thread; but Lara and Peter do not give up, standing by Anja and trying to warn her of the danger. The story shows how important it is to support the people we love, even when they refuse our help.

The novel is available in Slovenian in public libraries and primary school libraries.

It is available in English at: http://www.amazon.com/Loverboy-Polona-Kovac-ebook/dp/B00IYE45XM

Katjuša Popović: Prodano življenje (A Life Sold)

The biography of a victim of human trafficking in Slovenia. This short novel is based on the true story of a trafficking victim in Slovenia and touches on forced marriage, “tradition”, the erased, violence and abuse.

The novel can be ordered by email info@drustvo-kljuc.si.

Polona Kovač: Shattered Dreams (Shattered Dreams)

A novel about the fate of two girls, one Bulgarian and one Slovenian, sold abroad, exploited, beaten and raped. It is the story of two trafficking victims trying to survive. Despite the tragic circumstances, a genuine friendship grows between them that eases their situation and gives them hope of a better future.

Available in English at: http://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Dreams-Polona-Kovac-ebook/dp/B009TAZWL4

Somaly Mam: The Road of Lost Innocence

Somaly Mam was born into a poor family. She was sold into slavery several times and forced into prostitution at sixteen — by which point she had been raped at least seventy times. In The Road of Lost Innocence she describes her childhood, the abuse she suffered in brothels, and, with great feeling, the fate of the many children who were horrifically tortured.

Mende Nazer: Slave

Mende Nazer grew up in the Nuba Mountains. Her happy childhood ended brutally when raiders came to the village: mujahideen slaughtered villagers, raped women and abducted children — among them twelve-year-old Mende. She was bought by a wealthy Arab woman in Khartoum. Stripped of her freedom and her name, she had to live as a domestic slave, an abda, without pay and without a day off. Using cutlery she alone was allowed to touch, she ate the leftovers the family left on their plates. She slept on the floor of a garden shed, locked in every night. For seven hard, lonely years she did not know whether her family was still alive. In spring 2000 her mistress sent her to a relative in London, where Mende managed to make contact with Nuba émigrés who, together with British journalist Damien Lewis, helped her to freedom.