Special Initiative: 25 Rescue Operations

Each year, nearly 2 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade. –UNICEF

"The forced labor of millions of its citizens [is] India’s largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children…are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories" - U.S. State Department

KOLKATA, INDIA: A 16-year-old girl tells IJM investigators, “there are only two ways to get out of this brothel: You either get sold to another brothel, or you die.” IJM makes a third way when 19 girls are rescued.

CEBU, THE PHILIPPINES: IJM investigation uncovers popular Cebu bar selling women for sex after tricking them into accepting jobs as waitresses. “I had no choice…we are all victims,” one of the women explains, after IJM operation rescuing 15 trafficking survivors.

CHENNAI, INDIA: A man’s desperate call to save his brother from slavery tips IJM off to a massive brick kiln running on forced labor slavery. More than 500 people freed in IJM’s largest operation ever.

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A message from Blair Burns,
Director of Global Justice Initiatives:

"No one knows you are here." "They will never find you." "There is no way for you to escape."

This is what countless children, women and men are told every day by their abusers. The lies—and the violence that comes along with them—are crushing. As each day passes, it can feel impossible not to be swallowed by the darkness and lose hope.

I’ve seen it in the eyes of a father who is utterly helpless to protect his children from a slave master, and on the demoralized face of a young woman who has been tricked, betrayed and sold into the brutal underworld of sex trafficking.

But the story doesn’t need to end this way. New life can start with a rescue operation. Families can go free. Girls and women who were abused and viewed like products can be given their lives back. Lives can be changed forever. Justice can be done.

An operation can free one girl or hundreds of families—but no matter how many people are waiting for help and no matter where they are trapped, we’re prepared to bring rescue. When a girl is freed from a brothel or a family is freed from slavery, our team of social workers provides counseling and helps each person to live in freedom.

But without rescue, children and families will remain trapped, exploited and violated. And for them, rescue cannot come soon enough.

We urge you to join with us in a special initiative. Help provide the funds equal to the cost of 25 rescue operations by November 25. Your donations will help us finish 2012 strong, and build a firm foundation for 2013 — so we can bring rescue when it is urgently needed.

Our investigative teams have already identified brothels, bars and slave facilities in several countries where we have evidence that people are trapped, enslaved and being abused right now. We’re beginning to work with the authorities to plan next steps to stop the abuse.

We’re ready to go in to bring rescue. Please send us. Each person trapped in slavery deserves to be remembered. Each of them deserves to be found. Let’s not let them give up hope. Let’s go rescue them — as soon as we can.