Yes – One Person CAN Make a Difference
The founder of WPC Nepal – Lila Ghising – is just one person.
But because she noticed how human trafficking had torn apart her community in Hetauda where she grew up, and because she decided to do something about it, thousands of women and kids have been rescued from human trafficking, or prevented from ever being exploited by it.
What kind of an impact can you make?
Here are ten ways you can fight human trafficking. Use this list to develop your own personal plan to fight for the outcast and forgotten people who have no one to fight for them.
10 Ways to Fight Human Trafficking
1. Care
What if this happened to your daughter? Or your son? Or your sister? What if you had a best friend who disappeared one day, which is what happened to Lila multiple times throughout her childhood?
Human trafficking is one of the greatest evils and injustices of our time.
Though we might march in the streets against slavery and oppression, trafficking persists even in the most developed and “woke” countries. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest human trafficking events of the year. And in 2019’s game, we saw the reality of this when New England Patriots’ billionaire team owner Robert Kraft was caught up in a prostitution sting. He was caught on camera at a low-level massage parlor.
What kinds of young women end up in those places? Very often, they’re foreign nationals, brought here illegally by human traffickers, exploited for financial gain until they’re used up, and then tossed aside.
When you hear stories like this, how does it make you feel?
Do you empathize with these women? Do you care? Do you want to help?
Put yourself in their position, and imagine that life. The despair. The hopelessness. Having no way out. Being abused every day. This is life for women and children in sex trafficking and labor trafficking.
Do you care?
2. Learn What Causes Human Trafficking
The causes vary by country and in each exploited person’s life. But there are patterns.
Poverty produces the need. Laws, or the lack of them, allow the abuse and exploitation, as well as the physical systems of transporting victims and moving them from city to city, country to country.
Here’s a more detailed look at how human trafficking happens in Nepal.
You can learn quite a lot about what causes human trafficking, and you should spend some time on this. But beware – don’t get so caught up in learning that you forget to do something about it. We don’t need more PhDs studying the issue. We need people who want to fight it and put an end to it.
3. Decide Where to Target Your Fight
You might choose to fight human trafficking right the U.S. It’s happening where you live. Many great organizations are fighting trafficking right here.
Or, you might want to fight trafficking overseas. Maybe there’s a particular country you already care about. Maybe you find a story of a survivor or a victim from a certain nation, and that inspires you to want to get involved there.
If you want to fight human trafficking in Nepal, you’re in the right place. Look around our site and get involved.
4. Decide Which People to Help
Some human trafficking organizations work to rescue people being exploited and traumatized. They work on the front lines.
Other organizations take those survivors and help them. They restore their mental and physical health, their self-worth, and their humanity. They give them whatever they need to rebuild their lives, since often their families want nothing to do with them – especially in Nepal.
And still other organizations focus on the root causes of trafficking. They’re doing ‘pre-trafficking’ work, recognizing that if you can prevent people at risk for trafficking from becoming victimized, then they won’t need to be rescued.
WPC Nepal’s greatest focus is on this third category.
The same goes for most of the women in our vocational training program.
Through partnerships with some front-line organizations, we do also rescue women and kids who have been trafficked and work to restore them. But the majority of kids living in our safe home were rescued ‘pre-trafficking’ from situations of high risk. We saved them before they could be exploited.
Which area of this fight most inspires you? Which one do you want to be part of? If you’re still not sure, #5 might help.
5. Decide on Your Scale of Impact
Some organizations work on large scale, macro levels. These organizations often work on the legal side of human trafficking. Changing laws. Prosecuting traffickers. That sort of thing. Terrific nonprofits doing work in this realm include Shared Hope International, Equality Now, and International Justice Mission.
Other human trafficking charities work on a smaller scale, helping one person at a time.
Friends of WPC Nepal is in this category.
6. Volunteer with Your Nonprofit of Choice
What skills, talents, and passions do you possess that might be helpful in the fight against human trafficking? Just about everyone can make a difference.
Choose a human trafficking nonprofit that meets your criteria from #3-5 on this list, and reach out to them. It’s pretty easy. Every organization wants more volunteers. If they don’t have a local presence, and you want to be locally involved, then find another charity to work with.
But get involved.
With WPC Nepal, you can volunteer in Nepal or in the U.S.
Learn more about volunteering for Nepal.
7. Donate to Your Nonprofit of Choice
Every little bit helps.
Did you know that a simple sewing machine can fight human trafficking?
Check out this story of a woman who’s helping her family escape poverty – and thereby protecting her three daughters from the #1 cause of human trafficking. She’s doing this by running a tailoring business she was able to start because of the sewing machine we give to everyone who completes our 6-month vocational training program.
All it took was a sewing machine! If you gave just $5 or $10 per month, you would be helping more women in our training program receive sewing machines.
How much more practical can you get?
8. Work for Your Nonprofit of Choice
If they have job openings and you want to commit to this full-time or part-time, why not go for it? You’ve only got one life to live. Whether you’re working in admin support, in fundraising, or on the front lines with the people you’re serving, there is a place for you in this fight.
You could also join a board if you don’t want to leave your current job but still want to have an organizational impact.
All the board members of Friends of WPC Nepal, the staff, and many volunteers and donors have visited the Nepal safe home and met the kids and women who have hope for the future because of the donations and involvement of people like you.
9. Raise Awareness about Human Trafficking
Just by joining our newsletter and following us on Facebook, you’ll be given a constant stream of updates, stories, and needs to share with people in your life.
That’s a simple and totally free way to get involved and make a real impact. The more people who know, the more people who will care. They can go down this same list and get involved too.
10. Attend a Fundraising Event
Friends of WPC Nepal puts on an annual Hope for Freedom Gala, and it is a wonderful day every year.
Here, you get to meet other people who want to fight human trafficking as much as you, and are serious about getting involved in tangible ways. You’ll also have lots of fun.
Click here to see if our next event is ready to register for.
(Note: if this link takes you to the home page, it means the Gala is far off on the calendar and registration isn’t open yet. Join our newsletter so you’ll be the first to know when you can sign up!)
If you want to fight human trafficking, now you know how to do it. Whether it’s with Friends of WPC Nepal or another organization, you have a part to play in ending modern day slavery.
