THE FOUR PILLARS

Prevention is a key component of anti-trafficking work. Prevention means reducing the amount of people who are ever harmed by trafficking. JOY International supports prevention work from three different approaches. First, we raise awareness about human trafficking and trafficker’s schemes so fewer individuals are victimized. Awareness strategies include speaking at schools, community groups, and churches and sharing about what trafficking is and how it most commonly looks in the United States and abroad.

Second, we support demand reduction strategies that focus on stopping the supply and demand cycle which fuels trafficking. This looks like educating people about the connections between the commercial sex industry, pornography, and trafficking, and encouraging people towards ethical purchasing options that do not use slave labor.

Third, prevention efforts include addressing systems of exploitation that disproportionately target vulnerable populations such as women, children, the uneducated, immigrants, refugees, disaster survivors, people of color, extremely impoverished individuals, and the LGBTQ+ community. This can look like supplying emergency aid after disasters, providing schooling for underserved communities, and helping with basic needs for impoverished persons so that they are less likely to be exploited by traffickers.

Our Prevention pillar is accomplished through our Uganda Empowerment Program and Education and Awareness programs.

The Freedom pillar supports work that is focused on helping people who are currently being trafficked to leave their trafficking situation and find safe housing where they can make choices for themselves on what they want to do and who they want to be. Individuals trafficked into a brothel, especially minors, often are not able to physically leave their trafficking situation without the intervention of police or specially trained anti-trafficking teams. For these individuals, special investigations and operations have to take place in coordination with police, governments, investigators, and legal representatives so that the trafficked individuals can be safely removed, and the traffickers arrested. These operations have traditionally been known as “rescues”.

For JOY International, our Freedom programming focuses on providing training to these police and anti-trafficking investigation teams internationally so that they can learn techniques for properly planned and coordinated operations that result in victims being freed and traffickers arrested and prosecuted. Training topics depend on the needs of each team we are working with, but have included topics such as self-defense, how to subdue and arrest traffickers, performing undercover investigations, collecting evidence, surveillance, counter-surveillance, standard operations procedures, and internet investigations. JOY sends training teams with experts in their relevant fields from the United States to partner organizations internationally to perform these trainings and support the work being done internationally.

Each of these operations can also be extremely costly as they require many man-hours to perform properly, which local police and governments do not often supply. When needed, JOY International also supplies the funds to support these operations and investigations so more individuals can find freedom.

Our Freedom pillar is accomplished through our Freedom Initiative.

The Healing pillar supports programs for individuals who have previously been trafficked or exploited. Healing work must focus on assisting the survivor to heal in every aspect of their lives; physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Trafficking is an extremely traumatic experience wherein the right, freedoms, physical autonomy, and emotional well-being of an individual is disregarded and exploited. Traffickers manipulate and exploit their victims for monetary gain, which causes harm to the individuals in every aspect. The emotional and mental damage that trafficking causes often takes much longer to heal from than from the physical harm it causes. On top of that, many survivors have to grapple with the role that family members or loved ones may have played in their exploitation, with many facing the heartbreaking reality that someone sold them for profit. This reality often leaves an individual feeling worthless, unloved, dirty, and abandoned internally, though these feelings may be masked by an external shell of toughness designed to protect them from further harm.

Healing programming for survivors must first include a physically safe location where the survivor can have all their basic needs met without fear of further exploitation. This living environment must be staffed by individuals experienced and trained in Trauma Informed Care so they can understand the deep impacts that trauma can have on an individual and how these effects can manifest. Next, the trauma that the person experienced must be addressed through counseling and therapy resources resourced by trained professionals. Social worker support needs to be given to help connect the survivor to safe families in they exist, and to access community and government resources available to victims of crimes.

The spiritual and emotional needs of the individual are met in a safe facility which allows the community to grow and foster conversations about faith, God, and shared experiences. It is never appropriate for faith or religious beliefs to be forced onto any survivor of trafficking and exploitation as it once again violates the person's ability to choose, something that was stripped from them many times before. Rather, conversations of faith and God develop over time with caregivers and other staff who show genuine love, care, and support for the survivor in a nonjudgmental way.

Education is also a large part of the healing process, as it allows the survivor to regain something that is often taken from them; their right to learn and have job opportunities in the future. Without an education or vocation, survivors know they have few to no legitimate opportunities to provide for themselves in a safe and empowering way. Education and vocation opportunities must be provided to help a survivor heal!

Our Healing pillar is accomplished through the JOY International Mukti Home in Nepal and the Freedom Initiative.

The Empowerment pillar supports work that helps sustain the long-term autonomy, independence, and ability to thrive for survivors and individuals who are at high risk of being trafficked. Empowerment means equipping survivors and high-risk individuals with the tools necessary for lasting employment that is safe and ethical, supporting their mental, emotional, and spiritual needs, and fostering communities that allow these individuals to pursue their dreams. Empowerment is all about making sure everyone has the tools they need to succeed in every area. Sometimes necessary tools include education, vocational training, or financial support to start a business. It also ensures that the rights of everyone, such as the right to choose who to marry, to complete school, or what they want to do for work, are honored and valued.

Empowerment programs also seek to encourage the emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being of those we serve by providing encouraging teachings on topics like confidence, identity, self-worth, how God loves them, and how to protect themselves from danger. A truly empowered individual is not only physically empowered to accomplish their dreams, but is equipped with encouraging messaging and supported by a community that speaks to their value and worth as an individual. Empowerment means helping those we serve to be all that they want to be and supporting them with tools to accomplish their dreams.

The Empowerment pillar is accomplished through The Freedom Initiative, the Uganda Empowerment Program, and the JOY International Mukti Home.