Protect Girls from Trafficking with Job Skills

Your gift is helping transform the lives of young girls at risk of trafficking in rural Laos, like 17-year-old Leh. She recently bounded into the village leader’s office, with a handful of money and beaming with pride.

“I sold all of my sticky stick snacks in just an hour!” exclaimed the ecstatic teen. She held up her earnings, which she planned to share with her friends who helped her sell the snacks.

Leh’s village is just a few miles from the border of Thailand. Young girls often disappear after crossing the border into Thailand to look for work. Many are trafficked into Thailand’s insidious sex tourism industry. Others are forced to work for no pay, or other forms of exploitation. Three of Leh’s older siblings have gone to Thailand in search of work. When her father passed away three years ago, she considered doing the same thing so she could help support her disabled mother.

Your gift is helping provide job skills and awareness training for girls like Leh in this region to earn income close to home and stay safe. Leh recently participated in cooking classes at World Concern’s youth center. That’s where she learned how easy it was to prepare sticky sticks. She knew immediately she could start a small business selling the tasty treats.

Leh was determined and started her business with $2 she saved to purchase a sack of flour, sugar, and oil. She brought her first batch of sticky sticks to the school during the students’ break time. She sold the snacks for 10 cents each. In just one hour, she had earned $5—a profit of $3 for an hour of selling.

“Doing this makes me happy,” she said. “I wake up at 5:00 a.m., do my chores, and start cooking at 8:00 a.m.” She’s home by 11 a.m. with the day’s profits in hand.

“Thank you not only for changing my life but also my family’s life,” said Leh. “I am very grateful to the project for guiding me in choosing the right path and for securing my future and making me safe.”

Leh is sharing what she learned with her friends, and is now an active member of the youth campaign in her village that helps raise awareness about human trafficking.

Your gift helped make this possible. Thank you!

Your gifts protect girls near the Thai border in Laos, keeping them safe at home, and safe from traffickers. Because of you, they’re learning about the danger on the other side of the border, and are learning vital skills to stay safe.

The village where Nang lives is just a few miles from the border, making residents highly vulnerable to traffickers. It's not uncommon for men to visit poor villages along the Laos-Thailand border with deceptive offers of high paying jobs in restaurants or coffee shops. But their promises are lies designed to lure the desperately poor into the sex trade.

Nang has a sweet smile and so much potential. But she is at great risk, being at the vulnerable age when most girls quit school to work and help support their families.

“Poor families see only the opportunity, not the danger,” says Olive Orate, World Concern’s country director in Laos. Roughly a third of children from this region end up as sex workers. Many from Nang’s village have gone to Thailand and never returned.

That’s where you come in. With your help, Nang and other young girls in her village are involved in our youth center where they participate in drama workshops that teach them to identify traffickers’ lies. Now, when Nang hears about a job in a coffee shop or restaurant in Thailand, she will know it’s a lie—a trap to lure her across the border and into slavery.

She’s also taking classes to learn skills, like sewing, hairstyling, and jewelry making that enable her to help support her family safely at home. With you as her protector, Nang’s future looks brighter. She and her friends see opportunities right here at home, where they are safe. And with your help, that’s where they’ll stay.