Our Approach
Empower With an Education to Prevent Sex Trafficking.
Why we do what we do?
Focusing on education is widely recognised by experts in the field as a crucial component of preventing trafficking. According to the International Labour Organisation; “getting girls and boys into schools and keeping them there is a vital step to reducing their vulnerability to trafficking.” 1
The number of people in forced commercial sexual exploitation on any given day, rose from 4.8 million people in 2016 to 6.3 million people in 2021. 4.9 million are girls or women and 1.7 million are children (an increase of 700,000 since 2016).2 Within the region, Cambodia has a particularly high incidence of trafficking and is considered a destination, source, and transit country3. Cambodia ranks ninth highest in the world for percent of population enslaved.4 It is estimated that 261,000 Cambodian people are living in modern slavery.5
Trafficking is overwhelmingly driven by poverty and a lack of respect for the rights of individuals. Worldwide, women and girls are much more vulnerable to modern slavery because of larger global patterns of human rights abuses against women and girls, such as sexual violence, family violence, and discriminatory beliefs. Today, of the 6.3 million people in forced commercial sexual exploitation, 4.9 million are girls or women.6
The Six Factors That Increase a Child’s Risk of Being Trafficked
Poverty
70% of Cambodians live on less than $3.20 USD a day.7 Most families on our program are among the 10% poorest in their community. Most do not have regular employment. Hunger and food security is often a daily concern…
Microfinance
In a country where 70% live on less than $3.20 USD a day,8 it is ludicrous that 2.4 million Cambodians hold a total microloan debt of at least $8 billion USD.9 In Cambodia, the average microloan debt per borrower is approximately $3,370 USD, which is the highest average amount in the world…10
Migration
In Cambodia, a lack of jobs leads some women and girls to leave their homes in rural areas to try to find work in tourist destination cities. In many cases, traffickers exploit them in sex trafficking, including in massage parlours, karaoke bars, and beer gardens…11
Orphanages
80% of the eight million children living in orphanages globally are not really orphans. They have at least one living parent or family member who could potentially care for them. Due to financial donations, many orphanages are in a position to provide access to better education than the local village school, leading some families to place their children in an orphanage in the hope of better opportunities…
Irresponsible Travel
Visiting or volunteering in orphanages, schools, and communities has become a popular pastime of tourists in Cambodia who are seeking an inside look at Cambodian culture. But would you volunteer at an orphanage in your home country? Would you want strangers visiting your child while they are at school?..
Family & Domestic Violence
36 percent of Cambodian men reported perpetrating physical and/or sexual violence against a female intimate partner. 50 percent of men who committed rape did so as teenagers.12 A survey undertaken of 2000 Cambodian men, by four UN agencies, found that almost half of those admitting to perpetrating violence stated that they never faced legal consequences…13
How We Prevent Sex TrafficKing
We believe that when communities are safe for children, girls are educated and women are equally represented in leadership positions, the ability for traffickers to work will be diminished.
Goal
Safe Communities for Children
We teach families how to protect themselves from exploitation and abuse. We address complex factors such as poverty, hunger, illness, unemployment, migration, addiction, violence, family breakdown and debt.
Find Out MoreGoal
Educated Girls
While physically in the classroom girls are safe. We provide the materials and funds they need to access their local state school, and keep girls in school by providing access to water, food and shelter.
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Women in Leadership
We model gender equity and invest in the next generation of Cambodian women leaders by providing leadership training to emerging leaders, and funding university places.
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111. ‘Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children for Labour, Sexual and Other Forms of Exploitation’, International Labour Office, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), Geneva: ILO, 2009, 4 v., www.unicef.org/protection/Textbook_2.pdf, (accessed 8 October 2021)
2. 8.7 Alliance, ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: forced labour and forced marriage, September 2022’ International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration (IOM) 2022, p35 and 45, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf (accessed 27 September 2022).
3. Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) Cambodia and End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) International, ‘Sexual Exploitation of Children in Cambodia Submission’, 2018 https://www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Universal-Periodical-Review-Sexual-Exploitation-of-Children-2018-Cambodia.pdf, (accessed 01 May 2020).
4. Walk Free Foundation, ‘The Global Slavery Index 2018,’ Walk Free Foundation, 2018, p.29, www.globalslaveryindex.org/resources/downloads/, (accessed 8 October 2021).
5. Ibid, p. 87.
6. 8.7 Alliance, ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: forced labour and forced marriage, September 2022’ International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration (IOM) 2022, p35 and 45, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf (accessed 27 September 2022).
7. Asian Development Bank (ADB), 'Cambodia', Asian Development Bank Member Fact Sheet, ADB, 2019, p. 1, https://www.adb.org/publications/cambodia-fact-sheet,(accessed 29 October 2019).
8. Ibid.
9. Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), 'Collateral Damage: Land Loss and Abuses in Cambodia's Microfinance Sector', Phnom Penh, Cambodia, LICADHO and STT, 2019, p. 1, https://www.licadho-cambodia. org/reports/files/228Report_Collateral_Damage_LICADHO_STT_Eng_07082019.pdf,
(accessed 29 October 2019).
10. Ibid.
11. United States of America (USA) Department of State, 'Trafficking in Persons Report', USA Department of State, '2019, p. 3, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019- Trafficking-in-Persons-Report.pdf,(accessed 29 October 2019).
12. Men, gender and violence against women in Cambodia: Findings from a household study with men on perpetration of violence. UN Women Cambodia, 2013.
13. Partners for Prevention, 2013 (UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women and UNV)