The Freedom Story

January 11th, 2023 - January 11, is Human Trafficking Awareness Day - and January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month! Naturally, this is when you’ll see a lot of anti-trafficking organizations sharing important facts and statistics about trafficking and banging the drum about the urgency of the problem. And the problem is urgent. But the urgency of this moment is different than before. Listen to...

December 27th, 2022 - "It leaks everywhere every time it rains." It's a description of Nin's house, but it's also an apt description of the security she's had around her since her parents passed away. Listen to learn more about Nin and what we're doing to help her. To give to support children at risk like Nin, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page . If you give between now and Dec. 31, you...

December 20th, 2022 - At the age of just 13, Pip and his sister Amm (age 10) are left alone to manage the home, care for themselves and complete all the daily tasks and responsibilities. For weeks at a stretch, they’re left to fend for themselves. Listen to learn more. To give to support children at risk like Pip and Amm, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page . If you give between now and...

December 20th, 2022 - Amara dreams of becoming a novelist and already has made a running start for herself writing romance stories, which she shares online for pay. We're working to help her support herself while staying safe from potential exploitation. Listen to learn more. To give to support children at risk like Amara, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page . If you give between now and...

December 6th, 2022 - At the age of 12, Bay is expected in Hmong culture to be responsible for washing dishes, sweeping the house, washing clothes, cooking, and helping her mother with farm work. These aren't all the challenges she faces though. Listen to learn more about Bay. To give to support children at risk like Bay, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page . If you give between now and D...

November 29th, 2022 - Emi's stepfather was pressuring her to work in a massage parlor by the time she was 15, to help support the family. This raised the alarm bells for our staff at The Freedom Story. Listen to learn more. To give to support children at risk like Emi on Giving Tuesday, please donate HERE on that day. After Giving Tuesday, please head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page . If...

November 24th, 2022 - Happy Thanksgiving! It’s been another year of change and uncertainty, but if anything, our bonds and connection have only grown stronger. We have so much to be grateful for and so many people in our community to whom we give thanks. Listen to learn more. A gift for you: Fep's video Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. F...

November 23rd, 2022 - Buiy is the kind of person to skip meals if it means her younger siblings get to eat. By the time she was 14 years old, she already had a lot of experience in doing without. She has been willing to sacrifice almost anything for her family – even if it puts her at risk. Listen to learn more. To give to support children at risk like Buiy, head on over to our End Of Year Campaig...

November 17th, 2022 - As we near the year’s end and reflect on our work to prevent child trafficking, connection is what stands out. Starting Tuesday, November 22 (which is next Tuesday!), we’ll be sharing stories from our students that show the power of this connection. This week's episode is short; just a quick peek at what's coming up in the following weeks. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The...

November 10th, 2022 - Trafficking is such a huge problem, prevention needs to be cultivated in so many more places – in a way that’s ethical, sustainable, locally led, and culturally sensitive. But we don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel. Through collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and mutual capacity-building, we can spread the message of prevention more powerfully. Listen to learn more. Welcom...

November 3rd, 2022 - While news articles about child trafficking, human trafficking, and sex trafficking are likely to be fairly accurate in the details of what they report, they have a tendency to emphasize particular angles or perspectives. Over time, this might lead to a certain understanding that, while not wrong, might be incomplete. Let’s take a look at what regular readers of the news might...

October 27th, 2022 - In-person activities are back in full swing at The Freedom Story’s Resource Centers as COVID restrictions have receded. This week, we’d like to tell you about some of the in-person activities that we’re most excited about: our Family Camp and a visit with trafficking survivors. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in...

October 20th, 2022 - We are happy to announce that our Director of Strategy, Lucy McCray, has accepted the position of President of The Freedom Story! Rachel Goble is gratefully accepting a position as the Chair of Board of Directors. They have both written letters to our community sharing their perspectives on this transition. If you’re signed up for our newsletters you will already have seen the...

October 13th, 2022 -  In our experience working directly with families and children at-risk, recent years have become a particularly challenging time–and it looks like global estimates are telling the same story. Global Estimates released in September have reported that nearly 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021–that’s an increase by 10 million people over the estimates in...

October 6th, 2022 -  Do you know about The Pong? The Ping Pong A Thon , that is! Ping Pong A Thon has been among our most steadfast and generous sources of support over the past decade. They gather people together in a community for a 3 to 24-hour ping pong tournament, in which they help raise awareness about sex trafficking and raise funds to support organizations like us. Listen to learn mo...

September 29th, 2022 -  There's something you should know about sugar–specifically the sugar industry from the Dominican Republic, which is the source of a lot of sugar in America, under brand names such as Domino, Florida Crystals, C&H Sugar, and Tate & Lyle. Child labor is only part of it. This story might seem tangentially related to our focus, but hang tight; we think you'll see w...

September 15th, 2022 -  There’s still so much we don’t know about traffickers. Too much attention about trafficking is still heavily focused on how much trafficking there is when, really, if we want to bring an end to trafficking, we need to know a lot more about who traffickers are, how they got there, and why. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our...

September 15th, 2022 -  There has been a rise in trafficking, whereby people are lured by job offers for positions in call centers or similar ventures, but then find themselves trafficked to Cambodia, subjected to beatings, torture, enslavement, and sometimes even killed. They are forced to work incredibly long hours for crime syndicates and they are forced to perpetuate online scams. Listen...

September 8th, 2022 -  Migration gets a bad rap. Even those who support migrants’ rights tend to focus on the problems: irregular migration, undocumented migration, the dangers of trafficking, and migration’s negative impacts on those who migrate and their families, and on origin and destination countries. In this week’s episode, we take a closer look at the beneficial aspects of migration–an...

September 1st, 2022 -  Relying on a checklist of risk factors to measure vulnerability may inadvertently lead to a misunderstanding of how vulnerability works. On today's episode, we take a look at the importance of narrative, or seeing vulnerability as a process over time. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For...

August 25th, 2022 -  This year’s Trafficking in Persons Report expressly calls out corruption for its linkage to trafficking, going so far as to cite a UNODC report that argues trafficking in persons could not happen on a large scale if it weren’t for corruption. In this final segment reviewing the report, we’ll discuss in more detail how corruption facilitates trafficking and some of the Rep...

August 18th, 2022 -  This year’s TIP Report highlights the looming threat of climate change and its links to vulnerability to human trafficking. Climate change-related disasters disproportionately impact people who are already vulnerable to trafficking, and as environmental conditions get worse, more people will be impacted. It's estimated that human trafficking has the potential to increase...

August 11th, 2022 -  We're back and recovered to good health! Let's get caught up on our podcasts! Today, we’re zooming in on this year's TIP Report's Special Focus on how governments can act as traffickers. Several states have been called out for demonstrating a pattern of using their power to compel their own citizens into sex trafficking or forced labor. State engagement in trafficking mor...

August 4th, 2022 -  We're back and recovered to good health! Let's get caught up on our podcasts! One of the special focus areas in this year's Trafficking in Persons Report is China’s Belt and Road Initiative (or B.R.I.) and the prevalence of forced labor in its projects, not just in China but also in other countries participating in the BRI. We’ll take a look at what the Belt and Road Initi...

July 28th, 2022 -  The 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released last week and we thought it might be helpful if we shared some of the key takeaways from the report with you. We introduce some of the main themes plus some of the most important Thailand-specific takeaways. Listen to learn more. Find the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report here: https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-tra...