Every January, Human Trafficking Awareness Month invites us to pause and look more closely at a reality many people would rather not think about: modern slavery.
We’d like to think that slavery is a thing of the past. It isn’t. In fact, human trafficking is the fastest-growing illegal enterprise in the world, with sex traffickers raking in billions of dollars each year. Right now, over 27 million men, women, and children are in forced labor, and of those, over 6 million are trapped in sexual exploitation.
Over a third are children.
These statistics are bleak. But Human Trafficking Awareness Month exists so that this awareness can drive us to action. Because the good news is this: we can take action, and we can end modern slavery. And you can help.
At Atlas Free, we believe the best way to fight sex trafficking is to support the people who are already hard at work on the frontlines of this fight. That’s why the Atlas Free Network is made up of over 100 different organizations, each working to fight sexual exploitation in their unique local context.
We support these Network Members who show up to the fight every day—whether they’re aiding survivors with their recovery, prosecuting traffickers, or helping protect vulnerable groups from becoming trafficked. But the truth is, they need your support, too, because to defeat a problem as big as the global sex trade, we need as many people as possible to join the fight. Here are five ways you can help.
The simplest, most straightforward way to fight trafficking is to make a donation today.
Every donation helps bring survivors:
Every contribution matters because every person matters.
Atlas Free partners with dozens of churches and businesses that want to make a difference. As a church or business owner, you can partner too.
Even if you’re not a decision-maker in your church or workplace, don’t let that stop you. You can still raise the issue of human trafficking to those who are—since trafficking always operates in the shadows, it’s likely they aren’t aware of how big the problem is. And the sex industry thrives off of that ignorance.
You can change that.
Start by having a conversation with your pastor or employer about trafficking. (Make it simple by sharing a resource like this one.) It could be that they are already considering what charities to partner with, and you could be the one to put Atlas Free on their radar.
Some supporters, like Tim and Kathy Bush, use movement to help drive the mission. In their case: hiking.
"Now, after doing a Freedom Hike fundraiser for Atlas Free, we get to see how personal it is,” they shared. “You realize your money is going to a personal victim. It inspires us to tell more people about this issue so they can personally feel what it's like to rescue a young girl out of sex trafficking."
By running a race, hiking a mountain, or taking on some other personal challenge, you can use your favorite hobby to raise funds and awareness to fight human trafficking.
(If you’ve never organized an event like this, here’s how to get started.)
Don’t worry: scaling a mountainside isn’t the only way to help victims of human trafficking. Hosting a fundraising dinner is another great way to bring friends, family, or colleagues together to learn about sex trafficking and join the fight against it.
Powerful change can start with simple conversations around a dinner table. For example, one of our supporters, Kelly, has raised more than $70,000 over the last 8 years by inviting people to dinner—fighting traffickers one buttery dinner roll at a time. Why not make hosting a fundraising dinner one of your New Year's resolutions?
Finally, the best way to fight human trafficking is to join Team Freedom, our group of supporters who give monthly to stop trafficking daily.
Why? Because monthly giving provides steady, reliable support for survivors and the organizations serving them. When you give monthly, you help ensure that:
It’s one of the most impactful ways to fight human trafficking over time.
Every person that steps up helps create a world where exploitation has less room to exist. So as Human Trafficking Awareness month draws to a close, let your awareness drive you to action in the coming year—because together, we can fight human trafficking.
Learn more here.
