A Dutch brothel where women work for themselves

Wat Arun Rajvaram Community Learning Centre, founded on Buddhist precepts by a former monk, has trained more than 250 Thai young women for work as nurse assistants, jobs aimed at keeping them out of the illicit sex trade, forced labor, and arranged marriages. High school graduates, ages 16 to 19, are selected in groups of 15-20 per year, mostly on scholarships paid by donors. They typically come from rural towns where poor families often sell their daughters to traffickers. Nearly all graduate and are guaranteed jobs at hospitals and health centers in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand.

Nigeria’s Committee for the Support of Dignity of Women has helped hundreds of human trafficking victims with temporary shelter, economic aid, and reconciliation with their families. The faith-based program visits schools to warn youth of the dangers of trafficking if they migrate to other countries to flee Nigeria’s poverty. For those who have fallen prey to traffickers and returned home, the program gives them the support they need, including the means to start their own businesses, so that they can again live sustainably and safely in their homeland.

The L’Chaim initiative consists of a group of volunteers who visit women working in prostitution to build relationships to help these women prevent sex trafficking and to help victims find a way out. During visits, volunteers educate women on their rights, raise awareness of sex trafficking, and help them understand they may be victims and then connect them with appropriate resources, serving as a liaison between “victims” and “rescuers.”

One woman's use of an Instagram account in her personal journey from sex-trafficking victim to sociology researcher enabled new sources of research, teaching, and victim aid. Megan Lundstrom's community of fellow sex workers formed through Instagram became the source for qualitative research into the experiences of sex workers, without being filtered by authorities. That led to the first peer-reviewed journal article of its kind, a new university program in sex trafficking, and the creation of a nonprofit, The Avery Center, aiding victims and collecting data on the industry.

Law enforcement and a private organization, Rahab's Daughters, attacked human sex trafficking at the 2021 Super Bowl in Tampa by tracing leads from tens of thousands of advertisements for sexual services. While the private group says it provided housing, food, and clothing to 40 women, and the police said they identified six trafficking victims and connected them with needed protection and services, far more women were arrested on prostitution charges, along with a handful of men on trafficking charges. Critics say the harm from those arrests can overshadow the benefits from looking for actual victims.

New York Police Department sex-crimes enforcement officially shifted away from arresting people selling sex to those buying it and those in the large-scale trafficking business. At the same time, the Human Trafficking Intervention Court was created to divert sex workers' criminal cases away from conviction and toward social services. The reality, however, is that police officers' overtime income gives them incentives to make high volumes of arrests of sex workers and buyers in flimsy, low-level cases that get plea-bargained down, but which skew heavily against people of color.

Girls in India are sometimes forced into the prospects of child marriage, prostitution, or slave labor; alternatively, families often teach girls to be wives and mothers. To empower girls to make their own choices, Yuwa, an NGO based in India, introduces girls to sports for social development. Yuwa also promotes educational workshops for girls, where girls can discuss women’s rights and their thoughts about their own bodies.

Drop-in Centers (DiCEs) in Kenya provide specialized, stigma-free healthcare to marginalized populations at high risk for HIV. These centers offer one-stop HIV testing, treatment, counseling and other health services. DiCEs operate with flexible hours, specially-trained staff, and a peer-to-peer outreach model designed to reach people who face barriers accessing mainstream healthcare due to criminalization, discrimination and violence.

The WOMAN ORGANISATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY (WONETHA) provides free condoms to sex workers in Uganda to end the spread of HIV. The group distributes about four to five million condoms to regional centers. Everyone can access the free condoms simply by request, without facing stigma or discrimination. The group also carries out “sensitization” campaigns that teach sex workers how to practice safe sex and feel empowered to require condom use among clients. They also work with health care systems to address discrimination and social stigmas that sex workers often face when seeking health care.

Mexico’s first official shelter for former trans sex workers, Casa Hogar Paola Buenrostro, provides residents with tools trans women cannot typically access such as health care, education, and job training.