Can this one thing really prevent trafficking?

Can this one thing really prevent trafficking?‍

I’m often asked how community development can help prevent trafficking. Poverty is a major driver of trafficking, pushing people to make impossible choices to survive—choices between food and education, safety and dignity. Many generations of families are trapped in this cycle with limited access to education, jobs, healthcare, and government resources.

When an entire community finds itself in survival mode, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine anything different. Desperate for change, they become vulnerable to all types of exploitation.

It's through relationships that our lives can be transformed for better or worse. People are the problem but also the solution. Brian Fikkart, author of When Helping Hurts and Becoming Whole, defines poverty as a broken relationship with God, self, others, and creation. The materially poor and the materially rich have something in common: we all experience poverty when our relationships are broken, resulting in poor self-image, shame, guilt, inadequacy, fear, addiction, and isolation. 

Community development is relationship building, listening, and empowering the God-given agency that everyone has. It’s speaking a life-giving script over someone about their worth, potential, and value. Then, watching them dare to believe it, dream, and do something new. It is the most important work of believing we are all created in God’s image and helping one another see that in themselves.

And we’ve seen it time and time again. 

Aruna was the first child to connect with us from the cemetery communities. She knew what her mom did at night to try and help them survive. She wanted a different future and shared that she wanted to go to school. Ten years later, she has finished high school, is married, has her own business, and works with us to help train the next generation of kids in journal-making. She is creating a new future for herself and her family while actively giving to her community and others to help them envision new futures. 

‍The Palm Village community kids are eager to learn, just like Aruna was. They want to go to school, and are excited about the possibilities for their futures. 

The obstacle in their way of pursuing this dream is tuition.

$100 covers the cost of a child’s education for one month. 

‍Will you please consider giving a one time gift this Christmas to help us enroll a child in school and safeguard against trafficking?

‍Here is the link to give: https://www.compassionfirst.org/christmas-2024

Merry Christmas!

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