The Freedom Story

November 3rd, 2022 - While news articles about child trafficking, human trafficking, and sex trafficking are likely to be fairly accurate in the details of what they report, they have a tendency to emphasize particular angles or perspectives. Over time, this might lead to a certain understanding that, while not wrong, might be incomplete. Let’s take a look at what regular readers of the news might glean about trafficking – and what might be missed. Listen to learn more.

News article: Little Rock man sentenced to life in prison for sex trafficking 6-year-old child

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 27th, 2022 - In-person activities are back in full swing at The Freedom Story’s Resource Centers as COVID restrictions have receded. This week, we’d like to tell you about some of the in-person activities that we’re most excited about: our Family Camp and a visit with trafficking survivors. 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.

October 20th, 2022 - We are happy to announce that our Director of Strategy, Lucy McCray, has accepted the position of President of The Freedom Story! Rachel Goble is gratefully accepting a position as the Chair of Board of Directors. They have both written letters to our community sharing their perspectives on this transition. If you’re signed up for our newsletters you will already have seen these. For those who haven’t seen them yet, we’d love to share them with you too. Listen to them right here.

Welcome to The Freedom Story podcast where we bring you our weekly updates, in audio version. For more information, please visit www.thefreedomstory.org.

October 13th, 2022 -  In our experience working directly with families and children at-risk, recent years have become a particularly challenging time–and it looks like global estimates are telling the same story. Global Estimates released in September have reported that nearly 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021–that’s an increase by 10 million people over the estimates in 2016. 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.

October 6th, 2022 -  Do you know about The Pong? The Ping Pong A Thon, that is! Ping Pong A Thon has been among our most steadfast and generous sources of support over the past decade. They gather people together in a community for a 3 to 24-hour ping pong tournament, in which they help raise awareness about sex trafficking and raise funds to support organizations like us. 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, 2022 -  There's something you should know about sugar–specifically the sugar industry from the Dominican Republic, which is the source of a lot of sugar in America, under brand names such as Domino, Florida Crystals, C&H Sugar, and Tate & Lyle. Child labor is only part of it. This story might seem tangentially related to our focus, but hang tight; we think you'll see why it's of interest. 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 15th, 2022 -  There’s still so much we don’t know about traffickers. Too much attention about trafficking is still heavily focused on how much trafficking there is when, really, if we want to bring an end to trafficking, we need to know a lot more about who traffickers are, how they got there, and why. 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 15th, 2022 -  There has been a rise in trafficking, whereby people are lured by job offers for positions in call centers or similar ventures, but then find themselves trafficked to Cambodia, subjected to beatings, torture, enslavement, and sometimes even killed. They are forced to work incredibly long hours for crime syndicates and they are forced to perpetuate online scams. Listen to learn more.

Here is the Al Jazeera Video "Forced to Scam: Cambodia's Cyber Slaves".

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, 2022 -  Migration gets a bad rap. Even those who support migrants’ rights tend to focus on the problems: irregular migration, undocumented migration, the dangers of trafficking, and migration’s negative impacts on those who migrate and their families, and on origin and destination countries. In this week’s episode, we take a closer look at the beneficial aspects of migration–and its inevitability. Reframing migration can help us better cope with its impact and better support the people who move. 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 1st, 2022 -  Relying on a checklist of risk factors to measure vulnerability may inadvertently lead to a misunderstanding of how vulnerability works. On today's episode, we take a look at the importance of narrative, or seeing vulnerability as a process over time. 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.