If you want to describe a survivor of sex trafficking in one word, use Elsa’s: Strong.

Just to imagine the nightmare Elsa lived will require strength. Night after night, men paid Elsa’s boss to take her away to their hotel rooms. They could do anything they wanted to her there. Elsa explains:

“I was treated as a slave who is required to follow orders whether I liked it or not.”

Now in her early twenties, Elsa speaks with a confidence that shows remarkable resilience. Her identity as a big sister shines through when she talks about her dreams for her…

“Abusers once trumpeted Cambodia as the place to purchase young children for sex with impunity, a place where the justice system was so dysfunctional, so absent, that people could exploit the vulnerable without fear or shame.”
— Christa Sharpe, former Field Office Director, IJM Cambodia

Cambodia was once viewed by many as “ground zero” for child sex trafficking. In the early 2000s, very young children were often bought and sold for sex right on the streets, simply because there was no one to protect them. Thankfully, this heartbreaking picture no longer reflects Cambodia today.

Years of collaboration between the government…

Seven years ago, Cindi Wolk sat in her sunny Tennessee kitchen, laid her head on the hardwood table and sobbed.

She tearfully set aside Just Courage, a book by Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission. Cindi was left heartbroken by accounts of young girls sold into brothels around the world — girls not unlike her own sweet granddaughter, Chloe.

“This is not some theoretical problem. These are real children,” she explains gravely. “These are real families who are struggling to the point that they would sell their daughters.”

“And what’s the difference between our grandkids and those children? Poverty.

…

Gary Haugen’s TED Talk tells how everyday violence is undermining development, and what we can do about it.

In March 2015, IJM President and Founder Gary Haugen delivered a talk on the TED2015 stage in Vancouver, Canada. His message? There’s a reason that so many are still living in poverty today and our development efforts are being undermined by a phenomenon too frequently ignored by the greater development community.

The problem?

A plague of everyday violence against the poor.

Haugen, whose new book The Locust Effect, co-authored by Victor Boutros, came out in paperback just yesterday…

Benedeta’s hands lay broad and calloused across her granddaughter’s little belly, telling much more of her story than her shy voice ever would.

Spidery wrinkles show us Benedeta the Matriarch, the resilient widow who raised up nine children and 20 grandchildren largely on her own.

Her strong and able fingers give us Benedeta the Provider — the tireless worker feeding and sheltering her family on this dry patch of Ugandan farmland. Eking out a life in poverty with years spent dragging a heavy wooden hoe.

But the tenderness in her hands reveals Benedeta the Giver, the selfless spirit comforting each…

In the midst of a busy week at the World Economic Forum (WEF) I found myself reflecting on WEF’s slogan of “Improving the State of the World.” While that is a very ambitious statement, in the past few days I have experienced tangible proof that there is indeed progress toward this goal. I’ve witnessed and participated in conversations between the business sector and the non-profit community that I believe will lead to actual good in the world, in the lives of very poor people.

And yet, I also often find myself asking, “Improving the State of the World… for whom?”…