The Freedom Story

May 25th, 2023 - Traffickers are savvy. They evolve with changes in technology and the opportunities that brings them. Increasingly, we’re witnessing a new threat: trafficking to online scam centers.  Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

May 11th, 2023 - Thirty-seven of our students have graduated from their current course of study! They've completed another level of education, safe from harm, adding yet another layer of protection from exploitation. This is what success in child trafficking prevention looks like. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

April 27th, 2023 - When you support prevention work with The Freedom Story, you're supporting initiatives and programs that work both deeply with at-risk individuals and broadly across communities to spread the power of prevention. We want to give you an idea of what exactly your dollars go toward. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

February 23rd, 2023 - Despite growing awareness that abusers tend to be people the child knows, there is still an assumption that online predators must be strangers. However, there is growing evidence that the perpetrators of online violence against children are not strangers either. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

February 16th, 2023 - It looks like several Western governments are strengthening efforts to tackle forced labor in supply chains - but we're going to need widespread cultural norms to support this as well. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

February 9, 2023 - It’s not just having work that matters. Quality of work matters too. If the jobs available aren’t good enough, it creates incentives to turn to other sources of income to make ends meet – including the sex trade. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

February 2, 2023 - Rising costs of living, 26 Rohingyas rescued, Hmong women spreading awareness on TikTok, and other headlines that you might find interesting. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

January 26th, 2023 - It's the start of 2023 - a great time to reflect on where we are and where we're headed. Our CEO, Lucy McCray, shares her thoughts and goals. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

January 11th, 2023 - January 11, is Human Trafficking Awareness Day - and January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month! Naturally, this is when you’ll see a lot of anti-trafficking organizations sharing important facts and statistics about trafficking and banging the drum about the urgency of the problem. And the problem is urgent. But the urgency of this moment is different than before. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 27th, 2022 - "It leaks everywhere every time it rains." It's a description of Nin's house, but it's also an apt description of the security she's had around her since her parents passed away. Listen to learn more about Nin and what we're doing to help her.

To give to support children at risk like Nin, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page. If you give between now and Dec. 31, your gift will be matched for double the impact!

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 20th, 2022 - At the age of just 13, Pip and his sister Amm (age 10) are left alone to manage the home, care for themselves and complete all the daily tasks and responsibilities. For weeks at a stretch, they’re left to fend for themselves. Listen to learn more.

To give to support children at risk like Pip and Amm, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page. If you give between now and Dec. 31, your gift will be matched for double the impact!

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 20th, 2022 - Amara dreams of becoming a novelist and already has made a running start for herself writing romance stories, which she shares online for pay. We're working to help her support herself while staying safe from potential exploitation. Listen to learn more.

To give to support children at risk like Amara, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page. If you give between now and Dec. 31, your gift will be matched for double the impact!

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 6th, 2022 - At the age of 12, Bay is expected in Hmong culture to be responsible for washing dishes, sweeping the house, washing clothes, cooking, and helping her mother with farm work. These aren't all the challenges she faces though. Listen to learn more about Bay.

To give to support children at risk like Bay, head on over to our End Of Year Campaign page. If you give between now and Dec. 31, your gift will be matched for double the impact!

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

November 17th, 2022 - As we near the year’s end and reflect on our work to prevent child trafficking, connection is what stands out. Starting Tuesday, November 22 (which is next Tuesday!), we’ll be sharing stories from our students that show the power of this connection. This week's episode is short; just a quick peek at what's coming up in the following weeks. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

November 10th, 2022 - Trafficking is such a huge problem, prevention needs to be cultivated in so many more places – in a way that’s ethical, sustainable, locally led, and culturally sensitive. But we don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel. Through collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and mutual capacity-building, we can spread the message of prevention more powerfully. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 27th, 2022 - In-person activities are back in full swing at The Freedom Story’s Resource Centers as COVID restrictions have receded. This week, we’d like to tell you about some of the in-person activities that we’re most excited about: our Family Camp and a visit with trafficking survivors. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 20th, 2022 - We are happy to announce that our Director of Strategy, Lucy McCray, has accepted the position of President of The Freedom Story! Rachel Goble is gratefully accepting a position as the Chair of Board of Directors. They have both written letters to our community sharing their perspectives on this transition. If you’re signed up for our newsletters you will already have seen these. For those who haven’t seen them yet, we’d love to share them with you too. Listen to them right here.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 13th, 2022 -  In our experience working directly with families and children at-risk, recent years have become a particularly challenging time–and it looks like global estimates are telling the same story. Global Estimates released in September have reported that nearly 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021–that’s an increase by 10 million people over the estimates in 2016. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 29th, 2022 -  There's something you should know about sugar–specifically the sugar industry from the Dominican Republic, which is the source of a lot of sugar in America, under brand names such as Domino, Florida Crystals, C&H Sugar, and Tate & Lyle. Child labor is only part of it. This story might seem tangentially related to our focus, but hang tight; we think you'll see why it's of interest. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 15th, 2022 -  There’s still so much we don’t know about traffickers. Too much attention about trafficking is still heavily focused on how much trafficking there is when, really, if we want to bring an end to trafficking, we need to know a lot more about who traffickers are, how they got there, and why. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 8th, 2022 -  Migration gets a bad rap. Even those who support migrants’ rights tend to focus on the problems: irregular migration, undocumented migration, the dangers of trafficking, and migration’s negative impacts on those who migrate and their families, and on origin and destination countries. In this week’s episode, we take a closer look at the beneficial aspects of migration–and its inevitability. Reframing migration can help us better cope with its impact and better support the people who move. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 1st, 2022 -  Relying on a checklist of risk factors to measure vulnerability may inadvertently lead to a misunderstanding of how vulnerability works. On today's episode, we take a look at the importance of narrative, or seeing vulnerability as a process over time. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

July 21st, 2022 -  The latest in the news about human trafficking is a great illustration of the breadth of extremes this crime touches. Recent revelations about an Olympic athlete’s background as a child trafficking victim come concurrently with news reports about a large network of Rohingya girl victims trafficked from Bangladesh to India. As the former gains intense media attention, the hope is that it might shine a light on the plight of so many others who suffer similarly. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

July 14th, 2022 -  As people move from rural areas to cities in the hopes of escaping climate-related disasters and finding more stable jobs and income, it is expected that the influx of people can strain cities’ infrastructures and resources. If cities are unprepared to handle the influx, it can lead to strife, conflict, violence, and crime–a situation likely to be ripe for traffickers to exploit. Urban fragility, therefore, is something to pay close attention to, to think holistically about how to protect people from trafficking and exploitation. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

July 7th, 2022 -  Thailand is starting to open up to tourism and larger, in-person events as the COVID situation improves. While there is still concern about community spread, the government has been able to relax border regulations and ease restrictions on public activities, thus allowing us to resume many of our in-person activities. We've got a lot going on in the evolving situation! Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

June 30th, 2022 - One of the most common questions people have about our programs is how we select our scholarship students. People wonder how we know that the students in our program are at risk of trafficking and exploitation. It’s a great question, and one of the most important and most difficult parts of what we do. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

June 23rd, 2022 - Anti-trafficking intervention and aftercare services tend to be almost exclusively centered on the victims, which seems natural, understandable, and correct. What this overlooks, however, is the impact on their families–the people whose father, mother, sister, brother, or child has gone missing, and who may not know where to turn for help. These people are often overlooked and sidelined, though the trauma they experience, too, is very real. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

June 16th, 2022 - When anti-trafficking organizations first started thinking about what prevention might look like, the biggest component was awareness-raising. The idea was to reach as many people as possible and warn them about trafficking by telling them what it is, how it can happen, and how to report it. It's essential. But time and experience have shown that it isn’t enough. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

June 9th, 2022 - People from across the anti-trafficking field are finding multitudinous ways to study trafficking. While we still might not have a lot of very precise data, we are coming at the data problem from a variety of angles–and that might end up giving us a fuller understanding of the picture than we would if we rested on one or two more precise measures alone. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org. 

June 2nd, 2022 - For the most part, laws against trafficking, labor abuses, and child sexual exploitation exist. While it’s true that some legal frameworks could be strengthened, a large part of the problem has less to do with the existence or lack of laws and more to do with a breakdown in implementing them. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

May 3rd, 2022 - Trafficking is already a horrific, damaging, and traumatizing experience. Unfortunately, there are dynamics in play now that are making it worse – not just in the sense that the amount of trafficking is increasing, but that new challenges contribute to the damage trafficking can cause. In the past two years, COVID measures like lockdowns, quarantines, and travel restrictions did not reduce the incidence of trafficking. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

April 21st, 2022 - We're welcoming a new cohort and have created a composition story for you to listen to! Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

April 12th, 2022 - Friends, we’ve got some exciting things to share with you this month! Between April 18th-29th, we’ll be releasing a new video and more student stories – but expect them to be a little different from what we’ve shared in the past. We hope what we share here will really show you the impact you’re making as part of our community committed to preventing child trafficking! Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

February 17th, 2022 - It might be tempting to hope that lockdowns, social distancing measures, travel restrictions, and fear of illness would have curbed trafficker activity. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Traffickers have adapted to COVID challenges in a variety of ways. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

January 20th, 2022 - At the start of 2022, it’s a great time to take stock of where we are, and where we’re headed. This week, our CEO, Rachel Goble, is sharing some of her thoughts, helping to set our tone and intentions for this coming year. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

January 13th, 2022 - It’s the beginning of the third year of a global pandemic, and many of us are coping with the Omicron wave. It feels like so many are getting hit with this one. Even if you and your family have so far managed to escape COVID, you likely know others who haven’t been so lucky. It’s a long time to go through upheaval and a long time without a sense of normalcy–only a continual attempt to ride whatever wave of “new normal” we face.

But…traffickers don’t stop, even in the face of a pandemic. So… Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

January 6th, 2022 - 2022 is off to a fantastically strong start, thanks to our community of donors who gave so generously to help support children at risk of trafficking. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 26th, 2021 - When Sara’s father died, her life changed irrevocably. She describes her father as the pillar of their household. When he passed, she says, “After that, our home felt pointless, lonely, unbearable, desolate, and millions of other feelings all at the same time. At that time, it could be said that the mental state of the people in the house was very bad and very hopeless.” Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 19th, 2021 - Like many boys his age, Det* loves sports. “I like to play sports because it makes me healthy. It also helped me learn self-discipline, patience, and strength while building relationships with friends,” he says. His favorite subject in school is PE. It helps him relieve stress. Det has faced multiple stressors in his young life, and we believe they put him at risk. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 12th, 2021 - Among the Hmong people, it is common to believe that girls’ education is less important than for boys. When a girl gets married, she becomes part of the husband’s family and no longer contributes to her own. From many parents’ perspectives, especially among older generations, even a college-educated woman will find value only with her husband’s family. For families that are in poverty, it seems to be not worth the investment. One of our students, Arisa, faces this situation. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 5th, 2021 - Boribun* is a 14-year-old who loves to sing and play guitar. He is Hmong, an ethnic minority from a village with deep drug addiction and drug trafficking problems. His family is large, with no reliable income, which is another source of stress. The world around him is rife with instability. Music is his escape. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

November 22nd, 2021 - Surachat knows what it feels like to suffer from depression. He is quiet and avoids people, especially those he doesn’t know. Beneath the reticent exterior, this young man carries a life of pain and hardship and the weight of ensuring his and his younger brother, Surachai’s, survival. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 21st, 2021 - The COVID pandemic has made it even more of a challenge to do outreach to areas, like migrant communities, that are already difficult to reach. However, our team has taken on the challenge and found creative ways to still spread knowledge and awareness to marginalized people.

Because of COVID, many things have been prohibited: large gatherings, the travel of migrants, and outsiders accessing migrant camps. These restrictions mean we can’t do the outreach sessions or workshops as we normally would. We’ve had to get creative! Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 7th, 2021 - While Thailand managed to avoid the brunt of COVID-19 cases last year–including a 200-day stretch with 0 cases–this year, Thailand has been hit much harder. Strict lockdowns and border closures kept case numbers low in 2020. COVID’s second wave hit migrant worker communities outside Bangkok in January 2021, but it was well contained. Listen to learn more.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 21, 2021 - The #MeToo Movement has helped foster a critical shift in the conversation about sexual consent from “No Means No” to beyond even “There Must Be a Yes” to “There Must Be Enthusiastic Yes.” Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 8th, 2021 - A couple of years ago, one of our partner organizations reported on a case where a teenage boy had been arrested for trafficking. He and his girlfriend had broken up, and he subsequently took revenge by sharing explicit footage of her online via multiple apps for money. They were both underage. This is about how kids can get involved in trafficking other kids. Listen to learn more. 

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

March 11th, 2021 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 28, 2020 - “When I was eleven, my mom died in a motorbike accident… that was a huge change in my life,” says Phikun.* Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 22, 2020 - When Arpa*, mother of two girls Preeda* and Ying*, was growing up, she wanted to study. “But we were poor. We didn’t even have rice to eat. So I decided to go to work. I studied until 3rd grade. I can read and write a bit and that was enough. I wanted my kids to have a chance to study more than me. But in the past, when school started, we would really struggle to find money to buy the bags, the school supplies, the things they needed.” These challenges would be enough to make them candidates for our program, but it’s not the only thing putting the family at risk. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 15, 2020 - When we first started working in anti-trafficking, poverty was the trafficker, the biggest factor aiding and abetting vulnerability to exploitation. But in recent years, as kids started getting access to mobile phones and the internet, trafficking increasingly shows up in the form of exploitation online. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 8, 2020 - “My biggest concern and fear has always been, ‘What will I do to get Pon his citizenship?’” Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

December 1, 2020 - Early this year, we had a case that was a narrow escape – one of the narrowest we’ve encountered. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

November 23, 2020 - When Mai* was seven, her parents sent her away from their home in Myanmar to live with her aunt in Thailand so she could get a better life. It was not the promise they imagined it would be. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

November 19, 2020 - A Personal Essay, by our Research Writer & Editor, Dr. Jade Keller. Listen to learn more. Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 8th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 24th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 17th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 9th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

September 2, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

August 19th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

August 13th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

August 6th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

July 30th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

July 23rd, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

July 8th, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org. 

July 2nd, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly blog updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

June 25, 2020 - Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly blog updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.