In Northern Thailand, The Freedom Story works with children at risk to prevent human trafficking and child sexual exploitation through our 3 primary programs; Education, Human Rights & Sustainable Livelihoods. Our Education Program provides holistic support to keep at-risk children in school. One way that we do that is by pairing our students with staff mentors to ensure they have stable, adult relationships that they can rely on in times of need.
An estimated 60,000 children are sexually exploited for commercial gain in Thailand every year (U.S. Department of State, 2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practice, Thailand). The majority of these are girls from Northern Thailand where they are forced by poverty to drop out of school at a young age & very few continue past primary school, putting them at extreme risk of being trafficked.
The Freedom Story has developed its holistic approach to prevent trafficking through our 3 main programs; Education, Human Rights & Sustainable Livelihoods. All of these programs are aimed to reduce risk for vulnerable children and their families and give them hope for a better future. By providing mentorship and access to a multitude of resources, we are seeing lives transformed. Drop out rates have plummeted, and graduation rates have soared, with some of our scholarship children
Across all of our programs, the desired outcome is decreased risk of trafficking, and increased resilience. We not only prevent them from becoming victims of trafficking and exploitation, but our holistic approach works to combat the problem at the root. We work with the children and their families to rise from poverty, stay in school and impact their future for the better.
