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 29th, 2021 - People in the communities with which we work are already beginning to see the impacts of climate change and the instability it brings to their lives. Though they live close to the earth and its natural resources and their communities have contributed relatively little to the causes of climate change, they are among the first to become most vulnerable to extreme weather events. 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 23rd, 2021 - In Southeast Asia, climate change looks like a whiplash between extremes: rising heat, intense rainy seasons, and droughts. We’ve witnessed this in our own community of families and children we support. The intensity of the rainy season damaged their crops. Ginger became moldy and spoiled. Floods ruined the rice. Droughts caused water shortages, making farming–and their livelihood–untenable. (A drought in 2010 was so severe, the Mekong dried up to the point people could even walk across it in places. In Chiang Rai, people were unable to fish, thus cutting off a vital food source.) Landslides disrupted access to work and hospitals. And the extreme weather led to other stressors and added costs, like fixing weather-related damage to housing. Some people’s roofs even came entirely off their homes. Many families had to leave the community to search for other work. This is the story of how climate change can put people at risk of labor exploitation and human 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.

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 16th, 2021 - In 2018, a flood hit a Hmong village in the Nan Province of northern Thailand in the nighttime. Villagers woke up to find their houses floating toward the river. A landslide occurred, an essential bridge broke, two children died, over 400 homes were damaged, and the farmers–the vast majority of the villagers–lost their entire crop and a whole year’s income. 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.