What does human trafficking mean? There are so many facets within this very broad subject that I am not qualified enough, nor have enough experience in, to begin to cover all of these areas. What I do know is that there are links in gangs, kingpins, money trails etc. and between human trafficking, drugs, armed deals, and wildlife trafficking – all illegal.

 

I had the pleasure of working with Courageous Love, a small grass roots NGO that is based in the North of Thailand. They have two small families in a rescue home that is far from an orphanage and much more like an extended family. For more about the work they do, please see their website COURAGEOUS LOVE.

 

The girls photographed in this shoot, have been taken away from what would have been the beginning of their lives in the sex trade industry. One young girl, just over 1 year old, had been sold by her mother to local “dealers”. These dealers frequent some of the small villages in pursuit of families wishing to sell their children - for labour of  or into the sex trade. What was eye opening for me, was that I had come to understand a lot of these “sales” were due to a lack of understanding and knowledge; that the parents had been lead to believe their children would be sent to a better life, with a future and education. However, it was made clear that in many of these cases, the parents of the children knew exactly where their children were going and what they were being sold into.