Children are having their freedom stolen from them. Trafficked, abused and even sold on for profit. New figures suggest that traffickers and exploiters are making $42 BILLION each year from the children they control. They make the most money off the 1.7 million children who are trapped in commercial sexual exploitation, while almost the same number again are being forced to work dangerous adult jobs with little to no pay, and no way to leave.  

Some of these children are drugged, held in captivity, deceived and even abducted. It is often the children who already have the least who are targeted – those who are socially excluded, without a safe home or with disabilities.  

Whether through child sexual abuse or online grooming, whether they are made to work on farms, in factories, in private homes or brick kilns, these children are in severe danger and need help.  

Children like Anna. “When she arrived at our Lighthouse, Anna couldn’t sleep on a bed because sleeping on the floor was more comfortable for her – it was what she was used to.” Anna was one of ten girls found at a brothel in a joint operation by Ugandan and Kenyan police. At our Lighthouse shelter, she received the very best care: trauma-informed counselling and medical treatment, a safe place to live, good food and time to process. It wasn’t safe for her to return to her own community, so we gave her life skills classes, training and education to prepare her to live independently and safely. 

Hope for Justice’s anti-trafficking work in the U.S., UK, Ethiopia and Uganda, empowered by ordinary people around the world, reaches thousands of children each year. Children are finding freedom. Through safe shelter spaces and family reunification. Through education and community prevention. Through identification and removal from exploitation. You can make the difference – you can bring freedom to trafficked children.  

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