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Joy's Story - 2024

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Stand with Joy.
Stand for Justice.

Your holiday gift will be matched to help bring more hope, rescue and restoration to survivors like Joy.

Joy’s* name embodies her vibrant spirit: she is lively, fun-loving, and warmly engaging with everyone she meets. But Joy had to persevere to become the survivor she is today. The promise of her future stems from years of pain.

Joy was just 8 years old when financial strain caused her father to take a job away from her family in the Philippines. Soon after, her mother, too, made the hard decision to go to work abroad.

Joy was left moving from home to home, separated from her siblings and living with any relative who would take her in. Seeing her vulnerability, a distant aunt decided to prey on it. She lured Joy and other children into her home where they were sexually exploited in front of a camera, their abuse streamed online to paying customers around the world.

Your holiday gift
doubles to help end online sexual exploitation of children.

It was a nightmare that Joy would endure for years as she hid the dark secret from anyone who knew her. “I was scared and confused. We were left with no choice but to follow her instructions,” Joy says. “I wondered if a brighter future was even possible for me.”

Because of caring friends like you, Joy is free and safe today. Your support enabled IJM’s team in Cebu to partner with Philippine law enforcement to find and arrest Joy’s aunt — and to rescue Joy along with 12 other children who had been exploited. “God heard and answered my prayers,” Joy says.

But Joy’s rescue was just the start of her story. She entered our aftercare program where she actively participated in trauma therapy and became committed to her restoration. IJM team members soon began to realize that the pain in Joy’s past was no match for her resilience. “She’s like a seed that grows up to be a beautiful flower,” says Jenette, Joy’s IJM social worker.

Joy’s abuse is horrific, and not unique. Online sexual exploitation of children is a global crime — requiring a relentless global response. A response that could help end trafficking in our lifetime

DOUBLE
YOUR IMPACT

Help more survivors like Joy this holiday season.

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Petra Kooman

Director of Marketing and Public Relations
pkooman@ijm.ca
519.679.5030 x.229

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