Child Protection Sri Lanka Project #24279

Seek Out and Stop Child Trafficking (S.O.S.)

by World Concern

Project Report | Mar 2, 2017
You Helped To Find, and Rescue This Girl

By Jonathan Steck | Senior Editor

Rescued thanks to YOU!

Fourteen-year-old Priya and her grandmother aren’t used to people visiting during the day. The visitors they are used to are strange men that come late at night in search of the illicit liquor that Priya’s grandmother brews and sells illegally.

Unfortunately for Priya – whose sister recently turned 16 and now spends her days working at a garment factory– life at home alone with grandma is not always enjoyable. Because of her grandmother's situation, this young girl is at tremendous risk.

Four years ago when Priya’s father died during a brutal civil war, Priya’s mother had no other option but to leave her two young daughters in the care of their grandmother while she went to find work abroad. Sadly, no one has heard from her ever since.

Situations like this are common in rural Sri Lankan countryside villages like Priya’s where war widows have been left with children to care for, with little or no financial support. Desperate, they often seek jobs as maidservants abroad, where more often than not, they end up becoming prostitutes or forced into slave labor once hired out to wealthy families.

Your gifts have been enabling World Concern staff to maintain a presence in Priya's village, promoting the Seek Out and Stop Initiative and educating the community about the dangers of trafficking, abuse, and exploitation.

As a result, concerned neighbors noticed that Priya and her sister weren’t going to school most days and were instead helping their grandmother brew illegal alcohol and then going out and selling it to men late at night.

Priya’s older sister, who is now old enough to work in a garment factory and earn around $2/day (which is given to her grandmother), takes the bus each morning to a garment factory in the nearest city an hour away where she sometimes works more than 14 hours a day. Some nights she doesn’t come home.

“We’ve heard similar cases about girls who supposedly work in garment factories,” a World Concern staff member explains, “but we found out they’re actually working as prostitutes…and this could be what is happening with Priya’s sister.”

Thanks to your compassionate gifts, Priya and her sister have renewed hope. Priya is being counselled, and we are now working closely with her grandmother in an effort to educate and put an end to Priya’s involvement in the illegal business. Thanks to your gifts, it is likely that Priya will return to school full-time.

Thank you for your continued support in these remote and marginalized communities, and for reaching out and rescuing girls like Priya.

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Dec 5, 2016
So Many Children are Safer Thanks to YOU!

By Jonathan Steck | Senior Editor

Your gifts are giving girls like Kyung hope!

Your gifts are making a signficant impact in the fight against child trafficking, and helping to save young girls, and give them hope, and opportunity to avoid the dangers in Sri Lanka.

We want you to know that over the past few months, your generosity has reached a staggering 4,198 children at risk. Without your help, these girls would be vulnerable, and exposed to the hands of predators. But thanks to your compassion, each child now has an understanding of their rights, and is more aware of the evil that is around them.

In dozens of small villages near the Thai border, you're helping rescue innocent girls, and young women, and preventing further abuse, and exploitation by raising awareness of their rights in the community. Your support is helping start Children’s Clubs in the villages, establishing counseling, and job training opprotunities, and supporting telephone hotlines that allow the community to report suspicious activities involving children.

But surrounded by poverty, girls can still be easily exploited. The need for money and a lack of opportunity is putting girls llike Kyung at great risk.

When Kyung was only thirteen, she was approached by an older man who told her about the amazing opportunities for work in Thailand. Having lived her entire life in poverty, Kyung was excited to earn some extra money and help her family, but had no idea what the man had planned for her.

Sadly, Kyung didn’t find the hope she was looking for. Instead, she left for Thailand and was exposed to poor working conditions, fifteen-hour work days, manipulative and demanding bosses, and worse. But understandably, Kyung doesn’t want to talk about those horrifying experiences.

Today, your gifts are giving Kyung and others like her new hope.

When girls like Kyung return to their villages, and to their families, your support is there to show them that there are better options. You're helping to provide job training for girls like Kyung to learn skills that allow her to find safe, and meaningful work closer to home, and away from the danger in Thailand.

Thank you so much for what you’re doing, and for helping seek out and stop trafficking in places like Sri Lanka. You're making an enormous difference, but please don't stop as there are countless girls like Kyung that need continued, and generous support to keep them safe.

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Sep 7, 2016
You're already Saving Girls from Trafficking!

By Jonathan Steck | Senior Editor

Children's Clubs Keep Girls Safe Thanks to YOU!

It was a little after 9 p.m. when World Concern's S.O.S. Hotline rang. The voice on the end of line was panicked, and desperate.

A 7-year-old girl had been taken by strangers.

The little girl was walking home from school in a Sri Lankan village when a man stepped out in front her.

He crouched down, and she could immediately feel his hot breath on her face. He was sweaty and foul-smelling and offered her something to take home to her poor family.

Naïve and afraid the girl nodded her head, and then followed the man into an abandoned warehouse …

We're thankful to say that your gifts helped to save this girl from whatever horrors lay in beyond those doors. Because of you, an anonymous telephone call was made to the S.O.S. Hotline, which alerted authorities to the situation. Our team on the ground also responded and the girl was quickly rescued and returned home to safety.

In places like war-torn Sri Lanka, your gifts are helping to Seek Out and Stop the trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of girls and young women. And as you can see your generosity is already making a life-saving difference.

Your support helps to keep the S.O.S. Hotline staffed and active, ready to receive reports of danger both day and night. But it also provides girls that have been rescued from danger with access to a safe-house where they can heal in safety and surrounded by professional caregivers.

Thanks to you, this girl is now safe. But you'll be pleased to know that she's now attending a Children's Club after school. Your gifts are helping open these special Children's Clubs in the most at-risk neighborhoods, giving children like her the opportunity to be together and learn about the dangers of trafficking in a loving, and fun environment.

We are so grateful for your compassion, and on behalf of this little girls family we want to simply say thank you. Please continue your support to save more lives, and Seek Out and Stop trafficking in the poorest places.

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