At this very moment, children around the world are being enslaved and trafficked for sex.
The human trafficking industry generates over 150 billion dollars in revenue each year and there are an estimated 40 million people currently enslaved worldwide.
The statistics are horrifying, and the problem can feel overwhelming.
Restoration for survivors is possible, and powerful.
Thousands of children are being rescued from slavery and abuse every year. But rescued survivors are traumatized, and often feel ashamed and unworthy of love. They need safe spaces to receive counselling, create healthy friendships, and work towards an independent future.
The healing process doesn’t happen quickly: it takes years of care and love. We believe every survivor of trafficking deserves a safe home, education and work opportunities.
Over the last 20 years, we’ve witnessed over 600 vulnerable women and children be empowered to heal, grow and thrive through our safe homes.
But we've seen hope and redemption up-close:
How do we facilitate healing for survivors?
Every survivor (or at-risk individual) we invite into our safe homes is cherished. When they arrive, they are welcomed, hugged and showered with gifts from every resident. They are given a warm bed to call their own, new clothing, toiletries and stuffed animals.
Healing begins from the very first day.
Our safe homes function like a family. With love and care, we help survivors work through trauma and heal alongside children and young adults of all ages with similar backgrounds.
Many children arrive at 15 years old and live in our homes for 8-10 years. We are committed to long-term care and meeting the unique needs of every boy or girl.
Often, rescued survivors did not attend school as young children and lack basic literacy skills. Entering the school system as a teenager can be detrimental to self-esteem and development.
When needed, we create safe schools and hire caring teachers that will respect the unique backgrounds of our students.
Safe Homes
Education
We encourage students to discover who they want to be and to pursue their individual dreams. After high school, we support the next steps through vocational training and/or post-secondary scholarships. Our goal is to empower young adults to independence and see their dreams realized.
When young adults are ready to be independent, our staff offers support with a reintegration plan. Sometimes, reintegration means returning to their families but often, it’s finding full-time work and living locally with other young adults.
This process happens on a case-by-case basis and no individual is ever forced to move. When they leave our homes, we empower them as extended family with continued support and care.
Scholarships & Vocational Training
Reintegration
AAROTI
When I first came to the safe home, everyone hugged me. From the youngest to the oldest, everyone welcomed me. I felt loved like it was family. Now, I can enjoy friends and my studies in school! I want to become a nurse. I’m deeply thankful.
"
Our international projects
Our project in Nepal started in 2000 with one safe home. We’ve expanded to 5 safe homes, caring for 150 boys and girls who are at-risk of trafficking, or survivors of abuse.
We also facilitate a vocational training centre, a safe school, robust prevention programs in rural communities, financial aid scholarships, social business enterprises, and an agricultural sustainability project.
Nepal
- 5 Safe Homes caring for 150 Children
- 300 students in our safe school project
- 300,000+ lives reached through prevention programs
- 600+ individuals restored
Our project in Laos began in 2008 and we currently care for 45 girls (across 4 safe homes) who have been rescued from human trafficking.
We facilitate vocational training, robust prevention programs, 3 social business enterprises and an agricultural sustainability project.
Laos
- 4 Safe Homes caring for 45 Girls
- 400 lives impacted in last 11 years
- 3 social enterprises providing safe work
How are we preventing trafficking?
Human traffickers tend to prey on uneducated rural villages, manipulating the truth and luring children into slavery. Without education about the process of how trafficking occurs, children are left unprotected and vulnerable.
Working with local authorities wherever possible, our social workers hold annual anti-trafficking seminars in rural and remote areas.
Our social workers research by hiking for long hours into rural villages. We learn about the community and look for gaps in education or previous trafficker activity.
We visit rural villages (with a generator and projector screen) to share educational films about the dangers of trafficking. Films attract hundreds of viewers every time they are shown.
RESEARCH
Education
Most victims of human trafficking were not attending school at the time of their recruitment. We sponsor textbooks and school supplies required to attend public schools as a safeguard against trafficking.
SPONSORSHIP
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of an individual by coercion for forced labour or sexual exploitation.
The most common way individuals are trafficked is by the promise of a job. Many vulnerable communities lack education about the warning signs of trafficking, and the poor are easily preyed upon.
Human trafficking is an organized crime and can take many forms:
Forced Prostitution
A victim is forced into a situation of dependency on their trafficker and forced to provide sexual services to customers. Sex trafficking crimes include acquisition, transportation and exploitation.
Bonded Labour
Bonded labour often appears to be an employment agreement, but a worker begins with a debt to repay, only to find repayment of the loan is not possible. Their enslavement in brutal working conditions becomes permanent.
Domestic Servitude
Live-in domestic help is often used as a cover for the exploitation and control of someone, usually from another country. Involuntary domestic servitude is forced labor, but warrants its own category of slavery because of the unique contexts and challenges it presents.
Forced Marriage
Statistics on forced marriage are hard to confirm, due to the often undocumented and unofficial nature of most forced marriages. An individual who is forcibly married may be trafficked for labor or sex by and for the financial gain of their spouse.
Child Soldiers
The unlawful recruitment of children by armed forces as combatants (or for other forms of labor) is human trafficking. Through force, fraud, or coercion, child soldiers are exploited and often abused by armed groups.
Individuals believe promises of work or educational opportunities, only to find themselves trapped in forced labour or prostitution. Captors abuse and threaten victims into submission until they accept there’s no way to escape.
It’s abuse, violence, coercion and manipulation of the poor and vulnerable.
Human trafficking is a horrific crime that does not discriminate against age or gender.
