VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #0040/01 0261508
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261508Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0436
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000040 
 
SIPDIS, SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC SMiller, G/TIP BFleck. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KTIP CS
SUBJECT: COSTA RICA - NOMINATION FOR 2009 TIP HERO 
 
REF: SECSTATE 132759 
 
¶1. (U) Embassy San Jose is pleased to nominate Mariliana Morales 
Berros, founder and Executive Director of the Rahab Foundation 
(Fundacisn Rahab) as a 2009 TIP Hero, per reftel. 
 
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NOMINEE DATA 
------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Nominee: Mariliana Morales Berros. 
 
¶3. (U) Title and Institution: Founder and Executive Director of the 
Rahab Foundation (Fundacisn Rahab). 
 
¶4. (SBU) Date of Birth: December 25, 1956. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Contact Information: Phone: (506)2257-7785 or 
(506)2222-1054; mobile (506) 8858-0589; personal email - 
mariliana777@hotmail.com. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Passport Number and Citizenship: 8.011.896-1, Chile. 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Personal Background:  Mariliana Morales was born in the 
northern Chilean Atacama desert.  She is married to Chilean Tomas 
Goi Cortes, and they have three children.  While she lived in Chile, 
her boyfriend at the time (now her husband) became a political 
prisoner at age 16.  When he was freed from prison, the two married 
and left Chile for Costa Rica in search of a better life.  They 
arrived in February 1982.  Mariliana studied Sociology and received 
her masters degree in Social Work from the University of Costa 
Rica. 
 
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JUSTIFICATION 
------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Since 1997, Morales has steadfastly, and at times under 
direct personal threat, built and maintained a faith-based framework 
to help victims of commercial sexual exploitation and their 
children.  Her efforts have helped train and sensitize thousands of 
judicial and law enforcement personnel to trafficking and sexual 
exploitation issues, and more importantly, provided direct 
assistance to hundreds of women and their families in San Jose, Jaco 
and Limon, Costa Rica.  Her Rahab Foundation is the leading NGO 
working with international organizations, local embassies and the 
GOCR to stop commercial sexual exploitation and related trafficking 
in persons in Costa Rica.  Morales has made an enormous, positive 
impact on the way the GOCR deals with these issues, and on the 
victims themselves. 
 
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BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶9. (U) After what Morales describes as an existential crisis that 
led to her belief in God, she prayed to be shown a way in which she 
could serve.  In answer, she received a vision of the word 
"prostitution" across the sky and knew she was meant to help empower 
women who wanted to leave prositution.  On November 12, 1997, she 
created the Rahab Foundation (Fundacisn Rahab) by helping one woman. 
 Within a month, 30 victims of commercial sexual exploitation and 
their children had sought her help.  To accomplish its mission, the 
Rahab Foundation relies on Morales, two to three 
psychologists/social workers, and  volunteers.In fact, Rahab and 
Morales have become so well known for their dedicated work that 
international interns and volunteers, as well as Costa Ricans, have 
been assisting the Foundation. 
 
¶10. (U) With the creation of the Rahab Foundation, Morales became a 
pioneer in Costa Rica in assistance to victims of commercial sexual 
exploitation and trafficking.  Currently, Rahab is also helping male 
victims of commercial sexual exploitation, including transvestites. 
Morales' efforts have helped these victims find a new life with 
their families. 
 
¶11. (U) Morales' task has not been easy. She has struggled every 
step of the way to find funding to keep the program going, often 
operating only on faith that resources would appear.  For example, 
even when she could not pay salaries, she moved ahead with a new 
$100,000 building project to provide facilities for vocational 
training, a daycare, and space where the program beneficiaries would 
be able to run micro businesses, such as a hair salon.  She, her 
staff, and their families have been threatened and/or attacked for 
trying to help women and children escape from their exploiters. 
 
¶12. (U)  Mariliana and her family often receive direct threats by 
telephone at home.  Also, while operating an anti-trafficking 
project funded by the International Labor Organization in Limon (see 
para 15), one of the Foundation's staff psychologists was threatened 
in order to stop her from rescuing child victims of sexual 
exploitation.  When the staffer did not back down, her  two younger 
sisters were successively kidnapped and raped.  Although that 
psychologist ultimately resigned, threats of this nature have not 
deterred Mariliana and others in the Foundation from continuing 
their work. 
 
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THE FOUNDATION 
-------------- 
 
¶13. (U) Rahab assists victims through a socio-educational program 
that provides spiritual attention, education, nutrition, 
psychological assistence and vocational training to the victims. 
Morales created a job pool by networking with private companies, 
thereby providing opportunities for reintegration and medical/legal 
attention.  (Social medical benefits are coordinated through 
workplaces in Costa Rica).  Rahab provides educational scholarships, 
and victims can complete their primary school education at Rahab's 
facility. 
 
¶14. (U) Since its creation, Rahab has helped more than 600 families, 
usually headed by a single mother, with an average of five children 
each (for a total of 3000 persons served) in the San Jose area 
alone, and many more outside of San Jose.  The organization has 
given 11 houses to victims through a partnership with the Costa 
Rican government, and it hopes to provide 44 more residences in the 
coming months - all free to the recipients. 
 
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NATIONAL IMPACT 
--------------- 
 
¶15. (U) Rahab developed two very important projects in rural areas 
with USG funding - one in Limon and one in Jaco.  Drugs, 
prostitution and trafficking in persons are common crimes in these 
two areas.  In 2003, Mariliana instituted a pioneer two-year project 
in the port city of Limon called "Prevention, Protection and Direct 
Assistance to Child Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation."  The 
project, which served as a model for Central America, Panama and the 
Dominican Republic, directly served 464 minors and their families; 
it reached 3000 more indirectly. 
 
¶16. (U) In addition, Rahab trained government institutions that 
worked with children such as:  the Child Welfare Agency (Patronato 
Nacional de la Infancia, in Spanish), the Fuerza Pblica (national 
police), the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the 
federal investigative police, indigenous communities, tourism 
companies, judges and prosecutors, among others, on the topic of 
child sexual exploitation.  The project was funded by the U.S. 
Department of Labor; management support for the grant was provided 
by the International Labor Organization (ILO). 
 
¶17. (U) From 2006 to 2008, Morales and Rahab ran a program called 
"Prevention, Protection and Assistance to Victims and Potential 
Victims of Trafficking in Persons in the Central Pacific Region" in 
the seedy tourist area in and around the resort town of Jaco.  The 
program was funded by State's G/TIP with management support from the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM).  This was a true 
pioneer project in the country to assist both national and foreign 
victims of labor and sexual exploitation. 
 
¶18. (U) The project directly served 347 victims and their families, 
and reached 5000 people in the community.  As in the Limon project, 
Morales implemented a "train the trainer approach" to teach the same 
government institutions, local police and mayors, tourism companies 
and minors about trafficking in persons, for a total of 5191 
trained.  During the Jaco project, Rahab filed several official 
complaints against traffickers and sexual exploiters, leading to 
threats and attacks against Morales and her staff. 
 
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REGIONAL EFFORTS 
---------------- 
 
¶19. (U) Since 2006, Morales has served as coordinator of the Latin 
American and Caribbean International Christian Alliance on 
Prostitution.  In that capacity, Morales is organizing a conference 
for March 2009 to train 150 organizational leaders and individuals 
to work in the "restoration" of victims of commercial sexual 
exploitation. 
 
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RECOGNITION 
----------- 
 
¶20. (U) For her outstanding work, Morales received the 1999 Gandhi 
Foundation and Martin Luther King Foundation "Builder of 
Non-Violence" award, and she is the two-time recipient of the Costa 
Rican National Ombudsman's award for contributing to bettering the 
lives of victims of commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
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EMBASSY POC 
----------- 
 
¶21. (U) Embassy San Jose's contact until April 8 is PolOff Cheryl 
Neely; phone: 506-2519-2256; email: NeelyCL@state.gov.  After April 
8, 2009, Embassy contact is Tyler Sparks, same phone, 
SparksTK@state.gov. 
 
CIANCHETTE