WSET | Local nonprofit dedicates home to rehabilitate human trafficking victims in Thailand

FOREST, Va. (WSET) – A humanitarian organization in Forest has dedicated a home to help victims of human trafficking in Thailand.

World Help dedicated the home as part of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

Officials say the home will be in Pattaya, a place known for the sex industry in Thailand. They say the facility will offer a safe place to live, meals, education, vocational training, trauma counseling, and medical care.

“World Help is proud to dedicate this home to help women escape the sex industry and start a new life,” said World Help Vice President Noel Yeatts. “Many of these women find themselves trapped because they have no alternative. Poverty drives them to this kind of work to support themselves and their families. By providing them a place to live and an education, we are giving them an opportunity they are rarely afforded: the ability to choose the kind of life they want to live.”

Officials estimate there are 50,000 sex workers who roam the streets of Pattaya. According to the FBI, human trafficking is believed to be the third largest criminal activity in the world.

“Freedom begins with the power of choice,” Yeatts said. “And there is no greater catalyst to freedom than education. If these women are given the opportunity to learn — something they have been deprived of most of their lives — they’ll find that the door to a hope-filled future. We rescue them by providing opportunity for them.”

World Help also has human trafficking prevention and rehabilitation programs in India. For more information about the organization, click here.

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