Speak Up aims to catalyze the work of justice by partnering with, and helping to fund, people and organizations that serve the poor. In 2009, we were significant initial funders of Korvoni Umed, a new NGO based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan that helped poor women with basic job training, counseling and psychological help, and emergency relief in cases of abuse and domestic violence. In 2010, we are building the capacity to fund scholarships for girls with partner organizations that share our vision of advocating for the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
THE SITUATION
Because a lack of education or healthy work opportunities dooms many women to lives of prostitution and exploitation, part of the solution to human trafficking and the global exploitation of young women is to provide scholarships to keep girls in school. Hundreds of thousands of women around the world today are trapped in lives of exploitation and abuse, including many who are trafficked into brothels, massage parlors and other parts of the global sex industry to be forced into prostitution. While the solution to this vast problem is incredibly complicated, one part of the solution is to help young girls stay in school, thereby giving them greater opportunities in life and the potential to avoid being exploited in the first place.
OUR RESPONSE
That is where Speak Up’s vision to provide scholarships to girls-at-risk began. Speak Up is beginning to partner with organizations in Thailand to identify communities where girls-at-risk can be given scholarships to allow them to stay in school. These scholarships will pay for tuition or school fees; provide for books and uniforms and other school supplies; and will be creatively designed to help families pay for the other expenses associated with having their child in school rather than working. By helping families keep their daughters in school, Speak Up hopes that many girls will never have to face the horrors of sexual exploitation.
Take Isan, for example. The Isan region of Northeast Thailand is the country’s poorest and most underdeveloped area. Poverty and social pressures in many cases lead families to keep their daughters out of school when they are young then send them to Bangkok for work when they become young women. With little education of marketable skills, many of these 16 to 18 year old girls inevitably end up working in Bangkok’s bars and brothels. By helping these girls stay in school and encouraging them to pursue healthy lives, Speak Up hopes to prevent many girls from ever having to work in the sex industry. Prevention can be a powerful pre-emptive part of the global solution to human trafficking.