Gender Equality Lao People's Democratic Republic Project #14392

Protect Girls from Trafficking with Job Skills

by World Concern

Project Report | Nov 24, 2015
Thank You For Protecting Girls And Changing Lives!

By Jonathan Steck | Senior Editor

Noy has new skills and new hope thanks to you!

Thanks to you, this project is now fully funded!

This is such an encouraging milestone because it means that your compassion and thoughtful giving has transformed the lives of vulnerable girls, giving them access to job skills and awareness training that will help protect them against trafficking. With your support, girls in Laos are now receiving what they need to find safe work, and be protected from the violence and the emotional pain that sadly comes with trafficking—thank you!

Noy is one of the girls that you’ve helped, and is proof of the lasting impact that your generosity will bring. Hers is a familiar and tragically common story for girls in the villages of Laos, but we want you to be encouraged, because it's your gifts that are keeping girls like Noy safe, and giving them a bright and hopeful future.

Families in the villages of Myanmar are living in a legacy of poverty, with the parents’ struggles being sadly passed down to innocent children. Girls and boys are expected to work and help contribute income for the family, and it's this expectation that can cause trouble, especially for the girls. With little work available in the small rural villages, and school unaffordable and out of reach, girls are often lured by fraudulent employers who have nothing but bad intentions.

Preparing to enter high school, Noy’s parents realized they simply didn’t have the money to keep her educated. Growing and harvesting rice, the family lived from season to season, and sometimes barely had enough food to feed their children. Noy’s brothers worked alongside her parents, and so the family had no access to extra income for the basics, let alone keeping Noy in school. Noy was unaware of traffickers, and the lies that they tell vulnerable girls like her, so when she was offered a job, she only saw it as a way to help her family.

Sadly, Noy was trafficked into Thailand by an employer who cared nothing for her, and instead put her at great risk.

Unlike many girls, Noy was able to escape and return home, where she was introduced to the World Concern project that you’ve helped support! Thanks to you, Noy joined a youth camp and learned life-saving information about HIV/AIDS protection, trafficking, and drugs prevention. She made some new friends, and joined a youth sporting team, but what’s more encouraging is that she was trained as a seamstress.

Noy’s since graduated, and with these new skills will be able to find safe, meaningful work to help support her family and finish school. You have given Noy the dignity and self-confidence that she so richly deserves.

Friend, you made this possible! So on behalf of Noy, and the many other girls that you've protected and helped learn new job skills, thank you!

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Aug 28, 2015
Look What You've Built for Trafficked Children!

By Jacinta Tegman | President

You helped build this shelter for trafficked girls

In the past several months, your gift helped construct and open a shelter for trafficked girls in Laos.

A long-lasting safe-house is now actively providing recovery and counseling services to girls who are rescued from neighboring Thailand. (*Because of the need for confidentiality and safety, I can only share photos of the building.)

Staffed by well-trained and compassionate caregivers, the shelter is a haven for girls needing support and will equip girls coming out of a horrific experience with the skills needed to find better employment or even start their own small business.

Your gifts will allow these vulnerable girls to stay safely, and with dignity for up to a month. Your donation is helping provide everything they need—a welcome kit, all utilities and food, and specialized care.

During their stay, they will be trained on basic life skills and vital job skills such as sewing, haircutting and even computer technology!

This education is critical in building a girl’s confidence, empowering her to overcome challenges, and in time, step out of the shadows and into a new life. With her new skills, a young girl can find and work for ethical employers, or even begin an income generating activity on her own to stay safe and have a better life.

What I hope is most encouraging to you is that you’re also providing counseling and social support to girls that are particularly traumatized. In addition to receiving job training, giving a girl the opportunity to share her story with a professional and work through her fears is life-changing.

I am so grateful for you! With the construction of this shelter, trafficked girls will know that you’re walking with them through the journey, that they’re cared for and not alone. Thank you!

The living room area is homey and safe.

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Jun 4, 2015
12-year-old Ke Sawn is safe because of you!

By Cathy Herholdt | Communications Manager

You're helping protect girls like Ke Sawn.

Ke Sawn is a bright, soft-spoken 12-year-old who has dreams of becoming a doctor someday. But the danger that surrounds her poor village in rural Laos threatens to steal that dream. Ke Sawn is extremely vulnerable, living just a few miles from the border of Thailand where evil traffickers lure children like her into captivity as domestic servants, slave laborers, or victims of Thailand’s seedy sex-tourism industry.

It’s heartbreaking to think of this innocent little girl trapped in those conditions, but it happens all the time in this part of the world.

You gift is protecting a young girl like Ke Sawn from this unspeakable fate and offering her the tools and knowledge to live a safe, productive, abundant life. You are making a lasting difference in the life of a child.

Like many from her village, Ke Sawn’s two oldest brothers went to Thailand to work. She and her younger brother work the family farm with her parents, struggling to grow enough food to survive.

Ke Sawn recently joined World Concern’s youth program where she is learning how to avoid traffickers’ deceptive offers and keep herself safe. She’s also learning valuable job skills, like sewing, that will help her earn income safely and close to home, so she can remain under the watchful eye of her parents.

As the group’s youngest member, she’s using her singing talent to help spread the message to other children in primary and secondary schools about human trafficking. Members of the group often use musical or drama performances to teach other children about the danger of being trafficked.

Because of you, the future looks bright—and safe—for Ke Sawn and many other vulnerable children. Thank you!

Ke Sawn outside her house with her younger brother

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