Education Thailand Project #6718

Prevent Child Trafficking Through Education

by The Freedom Story (Formerly The SOLD Project)

Prevent Child Trafficking Through Education

Project Report | Dec 26, 2023
Cat's Story

By Lucy McCray | CEO

Cat was our very first scholarship student. Her story inspired our founder, Rachel Sparks, to create a fund to support her education, and that idea sparked the beginning of our organization and the beginning of a movement that demands we not wait until children are already trafficked before we act. We wanted to spread the idea of protecting children before they become trafficked or exploited.

Cat grew up in an area where many of the young women around her were being pushed into the sex trade in order to survive. However, Cat was motivated to do something different with her life, and the scholarship enabled her to dream of other possibilities and make choices that weren’t available to so many others around her.

She used the opportunities that The Freedom Story provided to empower herself – and she also inspired others around her to distance themselves from risky situations.

Through the activities available at The Freedom Story, Cat met many volunteers, donors, and other supporters. She was able to observe people from many different walks of life, and this experience exposed her to different nationalities, different languages, and other world views. She developed a love for learning foreign languages.

For many people around her, graduating high school would have already been a major achievement. Cat didn’t stop there, she wanted more for herself – more than many people ever dream of. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in teaching with a major in English from Ratchapat University in Chiang Rai. She is continuing on to pursue a Master’s Degree in an Art program in English for professional development from Mae Fah Luang University. After graduating from our prevention programs, she even came back to help volunteer and work with her younger peers, teaching English. At the age of 25, she’s now happily married to a husband who supports her pursuit of her Master’s, and she is thriving. When she finishes her Master’s Degree, she wants to do more social work.

As our first scholarship student, Cat has been with The Freedom Story since the very beginning and has had a front-row seat to the work the organization has done. She shares her observation that The Freedom Story has worked to empower children. She believes that The Freedom Story’s influence is not just about the scholarship; it’s also the encouragement, love, and care. This support is really like building a person from the inside out. She hopes her story can inspire the younger generations around her.

Recalling what it was like to first receive a scholarship, Cat said, “I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. It was the day I could start to think about my future, and I was very happy. The Freedom Story has completely changed my life. This place is my family, my best friend, my counselor, and a reason to try something new. Together, The Freedom Story and I have grown so much, from a small project with only a few students to a foundation with over a hundred students. I'm so glad to see how far this place has come. Without it, I wouldn't be who I am today.”

Cat says that her experiences have taught her that we all have a choice, and it is on us to choose between right and wrong. She believes that we should give the same opportunities to others as she has received, and she wants to share love with everyone because she understands what it’s like to not have that.

“I want to thank The Freedom Story for all the help and effort they have put into supporting all the kids. You can see that your work is not in vain. I want to tell everyone else who is getting a scholarship that you all have a great chance. Getting this scholarship is like being given a seed. It's up to you to make it grow into a beautiful tree. I want you to keep trying and dreaming, because one day your dreams will come true.”

We are certain that Cat will always be an inspiration to others, wherever she goes. In Cat’s words, “We cannot choose where we came from, but we can choose where we will be.”

We thank everyone who has supported Cat and made this path possible.

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Dec 22, 2023
Merry Christmas

By Lucy McCray | CEO

Dec 20, 2023
Health Care Volunteers to Help Stop Trafficking

By Jade Keller | Research Writer & Executive Editor

So often, the stories the media tells about trafficking victims and survivors are individual stories – how an individual became vulnerable and was exploited, what their trafficker did to them, how they escaped or were rescued, and so on. However, trafficking risk does not exist in a vacuum. The story is usually much broader – about how the local context becomes an environment conducive to exploitation, how few opportunities there are for viable employment, how stressors in the environment weaken families’ ability to care for their children, how significant portions of an entire generation were never fully educated and thus are hampered and unable to thrive or protect. But that doesn’t mean the will isn’t there. In fact, so many times children and families jump at the opportunity to improve their circumstances and strengthen their capacities. In this endeavor to strengthen individuals, it is essential to strengthen communities so that the environment around children does not allow for opportunities for their exploitation. One way we’re doing this is through village health care volunteers.

Who or what are village health care volunteers?
In Thailand, there is a system of volunteers who work in local districts, monitoring potential health issues among residents and advising on public health concerns in the neighborhood. They screen things like blood pressure, symptoms of diabetes, etc. They are typically deeply embedded in their communities and care for their village’s needs.

We’ve recently begun an initiative to train village health volunteers to recognize signs of trafficking and exploitation. We’re teaching them about things like protecting children’s rights, the hazards of online media, and how to seek assistance from the relevant agencies when problems arise in their communities. With this knowledge, they are better equipped to meet with individual families, notice if there are signs of a child at risk of exploitation or dropping out of school, and advise those families on preventative measures or how to access help from the appropriate agencies.

We’ve trained 832 village healthcare volunteers!
By engaging these village health volunteers, we’re building on a whole network of community leaders who can recognize signs of trafficking and risk, advise on rights claims, and monitor to prevent online exploitation.

Trafficking is such a pervasive problem that the only way we can truly combat it is to enlist everyone possible and work together to protect our communities. Our scholarship and mentorship programs are working to reduce or mitigate the factors that push kids toward a path of potential exploitation. Our community work, however, serves to ensure that everyone around vulnerable children is alert to the presence of risk and can help keep a collective eye on their safety and protection.

We would be remiss, though, if we made it sound like we’re doing this on our own. We’re not. We are working in a community that spans continents. Your contributions make these efforts possible. We’re thrilled to share that your support has enabled this expansion of our reach, and we hope it serves to show how everything that you give to protect children is changing not only individual lives but a whole ecosystem. We want to create a world where trafficking cannot happen because, collectively, we won’t allow it.

Thank you for partnering with The Freedom Story in preventing child trafficking and exploitation in Northern Thailand.

In Hope,

The Freedom Story

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