“How many people have you personally intercepted?” my teammate and I asked the young woman before us, a monitor with Love Justice in South Asia.
We were sitting off to the side of a train platform at a crowded and noisy station where the monitors work every day looking for potential victims of human trafficking. Certainly not the ideal place for an interview, but we were eager for any opportunity to get to know these frontline heroes.
“Over a hundred,” came the response, shyly.
As we congratulated her on such an impressive feat, another staff member gestured in the background for help. Without any hesitation, the young woman before us stood up mid-interview, went to check with the other staff member, and then literally ran to intercept a teenage girl who was crying on the stairs nearby.
Why the urgency?
Less than a five-minute walk from this very spot was one of the largest and most notorious red light districts in the area. How easy it would be for a trafficker to approach this same girl and say, “Hey, why are you crying? Are you lost? I know the way to that place, come with me…” and simply walk her five minutes down the street and sell her to a brothel.
It’s not only possible, but probable.
Or it would be, if not for our monitors. The monitors spread out and keep vigilant watch over this crowded station, like sharks in a children’s game of sharks and minnows, trying to make sure that not even one minnow slips through to be trafficked. (Pictured: the monitor running in the background. Her empty interview chair is visible in the foreground.)
The monitors know the intense importance of reaching potential victims first, before the trafficker can spin their deceptions, before a five-minute walk leaves that individual trapped forever in slavery.
When the stakes are this high, every second counts.
Every second counts
Every 90 seconds, another person is trafficked, becoming one of the millions trapped in slavery around the world. In the fight against human trafficking, every second counts and can be the difference between freedom and slavery.
Love Justice works in those crucial seconds. Our teams stationed at border crossings and transit hubs watch for red flags that signal danger and take action to protect people before they are exploited.
Since 2006, we’ve kept over 70,000 people free—and with your help, we can keep the next person free, too.
Match season starts TODAY
This holiday season, generous partners have pledged to match up to $450,000 in donations, meaning every dollar you give from now through the end of the year will be doubled.
Each week of December will also feature a unique focus that you can participate in to help us fund freedom and make a bigger impact.
- Giving Week, December 1–7: Invite your friends and family to give together toward the goal of funding 1,000 interceptions!
- Influencer Week, December 8–14: Team up with the influencers who support LJI by sharing their posts with a goal to raise $200,000!
- Location Week, December 15–21: Rally your local community to fight injustice with you! Join cities across the country to fund 2,500 interceptions.
- Final Push, December 22–31: Help us meet the full match before year-end by amplifying the story of Love Justice, encouraging others to give.
How can your dollars make a difference?
- $100 helps sponsor a child in our homes for 1 month.
- $150 helps protect one person from slavery.
- $1,000 helps fund a family home for 1 month.
- $1,500 helps arrest a trafficker.
- $2,000 helps arrest and prosecute a trafficker.
I’ve visited the brothels with the women who minister there, I’ve heard the firsthand accounts of women who were deceived and trafficked there against their will. It’s a serious injustice, but we have the power to stop it from happening.
Love Justice relies on this end-of-year giving season to fund much of our work in 2025. The amount we raise this December will largely determine how much we are able to expand in the coming year. We’ve got ambitious goals to reach a tipping point that collapses the structures that support human trafficking altogether—but we can’t do it without your help.
Will you join us in protecting vulnerable lives before it is too late?
*All data and statistics current at the date and time of publishing. Names changed and some specific locations excluded for privacy and security purposes.
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