advocate // for the enslaved and trafficked // a list of organizations
A year ago I was completely oblivious to modern day slavery and human trafficking. Completely.
Last summer I read The Scent of Water and my eyes began to open.
In the last six months I have done some research but I know I have only scratched the surface of a worldwide problem.
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Forced labor, sex trafficking, child farming, involuntary service, bonded labor and child soldiers . . .
There are 27 million people enslaved around the world today. Approximately 50% of those people are children.
There are more slaves now than at any previous time.
And slavery isn’t legal anywhere in the world.
An average slave in the American South in 1850 cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money; today a slave costs an average of $90.
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If you missed the first post in this series, be sure to check it out here.
There are many different organizations that are fighting to end modern day slavery and human trafficking, I’ve just compiled a few here. I don’t have any personal experience with any of these organizations, they were just the more popular ones or organizations that were recommended to me by friends (thank you to everyone who shared organizations and links with me!).
I stayed away from local organizations when making this particular list. The handful of people I know that read this little blog are spread out across the globe so I wanted to share organizations that a person can team up with no matter where they live. I may end up doing a more local list if people are interested, it turns out there is a lot more going on in the Saskatoon area in regards to fighting human trafficking than I ever realized!
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Our mission is to end slavery worldwide. We believe that ending slavery is an ambitious–and realizable–goal.
Everyone has a role to play in this great endeavor: governments, businesses, international aid organizations, consumers, YOU.
How You Can Help
* watch and share their videos
* free a village
NightLight is an international organization committed to addressing the complex issues of commercial sexual exploitation through prevention, intervention, restoration, and education.
NightLight’s mission is to do “whatever it takes” to affect change within the global sex industry. Our local offices build relationships with victims of commercial sexual exploitation and those who are at-risk and provide hope, intervention, rescue, and assistance by offering alternative vocational opportunities, life-skills training, and physical, emotional, and spiritual development to those seeking freedom. NightLight builds support networks internationally to intervene and assist women, men, and children whose lives are negatively impacted by the sex industry.
How You Can Help
* make a purchase
* host a jewelry party
Tiny Hands is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the church in the developing world to help the poor overcome poverty and become lights of the world. We are committed to finding the greatest injustices in the world, and working towards relieving them however possible. We are particularly called to orphans, street children, and the victims of the sex-trafficking industry. We want to find those who are already doing the work, who are called and faithful, and help them do it in greater ways and with more efficiency. We do it all in obedience to, and for the glory of Jesus Christ.
How You Can Help
* join the One Girl Prayer Initiative
* make a purchase
* host a product party
AIMing with Hope…to end child sex trafficking in Cambodia and the world.
To see Jesus Christ, through his church, defeat child sex trafficking in Cambodia and throughout the world.
How You Can Help
* join the prayer team
* make a purchase
* go on a short term trip
International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to secure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that public justice systems – police, courts and laws – effectively protect the poor.
How You Can Help
* make a purchase
* launch a campaign
Using business creation, supply chain evaluation and aftercare aid around the globe. By creating enterprise for vulnerable communities, offering social services to survivors and those at-risk to human trafficking, and evaluating the use of forced labor in mainstream supply chains, Not For Sale works make sure no one is for sale.
How You Can Help
We prevent trafficking through awareness and education. In schools, orphanages, and universities, we have created presentations and curriculum to educate potential victims of trafficking. Young people are equipped with strategies to avoid becoming a victim.
We also believe prevention occurs by educating those not necessarily as victims, but as suppliers in the human slave trade. Whether it’s through our street teams or university awareness, churches or community groups, our prevention presentations in six different countries aim to prevent trafficking through awareness before it begins.
How You Can Help
* become a voice
* take action
* donate
SIS works to prevent, rescue and restore women and girls from abuse and exploitation in high risk places around the world, equipping them to build a life of freedom, faith and a strong future.
How You Can Help
* village gatherings
* run to rescue
* read to rescue <– a good one for the kids!
Bombay Teen Challenge (BTC) was established in 1990 in Mumbai, (Bombay) India by K.K. Devaraj to reach the poorest of the poor that roamed the streets of Bombay. It has evolved into an organization that: rescues and cares for sex slaves in the brothels of Mumbai, cares for the children of sex slaves, juveniles roaming the streets, addicts and runaways.
We are committed to meeting not only the physical needs, but the mental, emotional and spiritual needs as well. BTC accomplishes this by providing medical clinics within the red light district, providing food to the hungry on the streets, day schools to the street children, homes outside of Mumbai for those rescued which include women, children, boys and men.
We provide education to help break the cycle of poverty and abuse. Training is provided in the homes outside of Mumbai where those rescued live, so that they can begin to have hope for a future and escape their life of bondage. Re-integration into society is a high priority and a goal of all the treatment and services provided.
How You Can Help
* donate
Our vision is to be the voice that speaks for the orphans of Moldova, from the smallest child, to the aged out teen. With each voice that adds with ours, we are able to offer a loving home to more of these innocent children, raising them in a Christian environment as our own.
How You Can Help
* start a fundraiser
* join their prayer team
* go on a trip
* start a gifts drive
The Exodus Road exists to empower the rescue of victims of sexual slavery. Operating primarily in Southeast Asia, we believe that a major component of fighting human trafficking and child slavery lies in working with local law enforcement to find situations of trafficking and to then assist in the rescue of victims and the prosecution of criminals. By decreasing the profitability of the trafficking industry for the criminal, we will eventually slow the mechanisms that make the exploitation of women and children so lucrative.
How You Can Help
* blog to fight trafficking (and travel on their dime)
* fund a mission
Three years ago our team returned from a preliminary filming trip. Like most people who return from the front lines of injustice, we battled intense discouragement and frustration because of the sheer enormity of the problem we saw…to the extent that we considered throwing in the towel and parting ways.
But we saw that men were largely absent from the fight on sexual exploitation – so how could a group of us walk away? We decided to dig our heels in and stay. We slowed down, listened and researched how to best engage the men fueling the demand, because in this battle, when you get the men, you get everyone.
Our heartbeat is to see the hearts of men changed – and we want that change to result in a systemic shift in the landscape of sexual exploitation. Join the groundswell of men committed to killing sexual exploitation at its root.
How You Can Help
Abolition and Restoration! We combat child trafficking & exploitation with the unexpected and restore survivors with excellence.
How You Can Help
* tell the story
* join or start a task force
* become a partner
Blackbox International is a faith based organization that was formed on January 1, 2010. It is a Christ-centered, not-for-profit organization that exists to holistically rehabilitate sex-trafficked boys ages 16 and under. Blackbox exists to provide the aftercare component for boys rescued from sex trafficking. Initially we are looking at the specific issue of boys that are involved with sex tourism. Blackbox seeks to help these boys find healing from their past, joy in their present, and purpose for their future. They need help emotionally, physically, academically and spiritually. They need to learn what it means to be a Godly man. They need nothing less than Jesus, and the hope, joy and peace that comes from him. We believe that they will not only be restored from the hurt and confusion that has been inflicted on them, but we believe that they will one day be men who will change the world.
How You Can Help
The photos below were all taken by Lisa Kristine in Ghana and Nepal, she has a great TED talk where she tells the story of each of these photos are more, you can watch it here.
I know this post is an information overload. I thought about splitting this list into multiple posts or doing an individual post per organization but in the end I decided to stick with one post with a comprehensive list, that way if you ever want to come back and look it will be easy to find the full list instead of clicking on a million different posts.
We are not done with this topic. I hope you will take some time today and throughout the week to look into some of these organizations and find a place that you can help. Even if advocating for the enslaved and trafficked isn’t “your thing” please take some time this week to pray for the people trapped in this life.
Prayer. Lots of prayer…
Ronnie xo
So incredibly sad… this world is truly broken and fallen.
Ronnie xo
Thanks for compiling this great list, Chantel!
Thank you for taking the time with such great effort to bring awareness to this issue. I will definitely look into each organization and spread the word.
This is a really great list. I have been working hard with a lady in my town who is joining The Freedom Climb (a project of OM) http://www.thefreedomclimb.net/ and it has really opened my eyes, too.
It’s just so heartbreaking to think about what’s going on all around us. This list is a great place to start. And those photos are just amazing! Hugs xoxo
praying with you!!