Most people think of human trafficking as people being abducted and forced to work in factories or worse in prostitution. The reality is usually quite different. One of the primary causes of human trafficking is poverty. Most women are not kidnapped and forced into this industry; they are forced in by poverty, the necessity to feed starving children and aging parents.
Many organizations focus on rescuing these women, but few offer a way to replace the income they receive from selling themselves and thus their rescue efforts are often unfruitful. Women who are desperate enough to give themselves for the good of their children will scarcely leave this industry only to abandon their families to destitution. In order to rescue them, or better yet, prevent them from going down this path to begin with, an organization has to deal with the issue of poverty and the lack of job opportunities.
This is one of the ladies working to make jewelry that Freegrance will sell to help her provide for her family.
Our founders have launched a for-profit business called Freegrance Products LLC for this purpose. Freegrance is working alongside us, in the communities where we are church planting, to empower women who are vulnerable to human trafficking through job creation. Freegrance is investing 40% of profits to fund our joint efforts to help these women start businesses and support their families so that we can prevent them from selling themselves or rescue them from it. Freegrance is not only helping them start businesses, but is ultimately buying their products and bringing them to market in the USA. When you buy products from Freegrance you are literally helping women support their families and local communities, including the local churches that we are helping to establish. Learn more at www.freegrance.com.
We currently have several women in Southeast Asia making a natural soap line and one woman that we are helping to launch a jewelry line. This is part of our comprehensive approach to transforming lives and communities among the global poor. To learn more about using job creation to combat human trafficking contact us at [email protected].