Numerous worldwide human trafficking statistics sometimes conflict with each other. But what most of the sources clearly show is that human trafficking is a global crisis. While numerous agencies are taking multiple steps to combat this crisis, one of the keys is education. 

How does education work as a human trafficking prevention tool, especially for disadvantaged and orphaned children in rural Cambodia and Uganda? How can you make a difference? One of the first steps is understanding its prevalence. 

How Prevalent Is Human Trafficking? 

There is an estimated 24.9 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. Of course, due to the difficulty of collecting these statistics, numbers are usually underreported. Included in the 24.9 million estimates are 20.1 million victims of labor trafficking. Traffickers force these people to work under threats of harm or severe penalties.

The statistic also includes an estimated 4.8 million victims of sex trafficking or those who have been involuntarily sexually exploited. While the majority of these victims are women, more than 20% of them, or approximately one million, are children. See End Trafficking of Girls. 

What Steps Are People Taking to Combat Human Trafficking? 

On December 3, 2021, the White House issued a fact sheet outlining the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (NAP). This plan emphasizes the essential collaboration across government agencies in developing and implementing resources within state and local government, non-governmental partners, and the private sectors. Some of these efforts include: 

• Prevention  
• Protection 
• Prosecution 
• Partnerships 

While these steps are shared worldwide to raise awareness of and combat human trafficking, third-world countries like Cambodia and Uganda do not always duplicate these efforts. Very often, it is hard to see much progress in significant areas that will make a dent in end trafficking of girls. Many victims work in areas such as: 

• Entertainment establishments such as beer bars and massage parlors 
• Brick making 
• Agriculture 
• Domestic work 
• Street work 
• Sexual exploitation 
• Drug trafficking 

Sometimes Cambodian and Ugandan children are forced into labor to assist in paying off a family debt. Other children are trafficked both transnationally and domestically. Many of these children range from 5 to 14 years old. Traffickers also traffic girls as young as 14 as brides to Cambodia and Uganda. See also Ending Trafficking of Girls.  

How Does Education Make a Difference in Human Trafficking? 

With many trafficked children falling in the school age range, schools such as the recently opened Prey Khol Primary School in rural Uganda, built by Teach Them To Fish Foundation, can help combat this global problem. See www.Facebook.com/TeachThemToFish for construction pictures. See also Build Schools in Cambodia and Build Schools in Uganda.  

Prey Khol Primary school and other schools the Teach Them To Fish Foundation built is provide children with vital skills such as reading, writing, and other academics. These skills help equip students for more stable and better employment outside of that performed by their parents such as back breaking subsistence farming. This employment allows them to earn better wages and increases their financial stability helping some of them escape some of the traps used by traffickers.  See also Ending Trafficking of Girls. 

Along with increased education, schools also teach social and life skills. Life skills are often gateways, not just for children to avoid the traps of trafficking. These skills can also be tools for survivors of trafficking to reconnect with their communities, regain stability, increase their confidence, and create a future. 

Schools increase children’s daily visibility, making it harder for them to simply disappear into the underground world of trafficking. Educators can look for signs of trafficking and notify officials of their suspicions. They are also able to educate their students about these issues.  

What Can You Do to Assist in This Fight? 

You can help Teach Them To Fish Foundation make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged and orphaned children in rural Cambodia and rural Uganda. Your tax-deductible donation will help us build more schools and help end trafficking of girls and end child hunger. We need your support to continue to do the work we do. Please donate today.