The COVID-19 outbreak is causing disruption in the lives of the children we serve. In the United States, many of the youth we work with report that their families are struggling meeting basic needs, creating the kind of instability that increases their vulnerability. Thanks to you, our donors, we have the flexibility to provide emergency assistance and participate in healthy activities with youth. During this period of physical distancing, our connection with these youth has continued through phone calls, texting, and apps such as FaceTime. The funds saved on transportation, outings, and meals together are being redirected to food, gift cards, and Amazon packages that respond to the challenges they’re facing. This goes beyond being thoughtful — meeting basic needs reduces the risk of being exploited. Alleviating family stress is critical to ongoing safety during this time. We’re grateful for donors who stand with children during this time of hardship:

You can support children affected by trafficking, even while self-isolating! Amazon will donate .5% of all eligible purchases to the nonprofit of your choice when you logon through smile.amazon.com. Everything looks and functions exactly the same as  Amazon.com. If you haven’t already used this feature, you’ll be asked to select the charity of your choice when you log on.  It’s as easy as that. We’ve seen a total of $28,509 in revenue come in from Amazon Smile  — a significant contribution. This change in your regular online shopping habits would be no small thing for the children we serve.

Over the past three years, our “My Body is Mine” flipchart has been used in several countries in Africa to reach nearly 20,000 children with messages that will help them stay safe from predators. This resource is implemented by local leaders and organizations working with children. We recently received this note about the impact of the work from a facilitator in Sierra Leone:

"We have found ‘My Body is Mine’ to be a fantastic resource in seeking to educate and empower children around the issues of sexual abuse and exploitation. We have used the flipchart with children aged 3-16 years and the children have engaged exceptionally well. ... Given the endemic problem of sexual abuse and exploitation in Sierra Leone, it’s a relief to finally have a resource that so effectively makes children aware of the issues and provides them with information about what to do."

Our latest Impact Report is now available. Love146 believes in monitoring our programs and measuring the results.  Here are a few key indicators from the most recent report:

• 54,040 children have been reached by our prevention and community education efforts, decreasing children’s risk for exploitation.
• 3,389 children have been protected through the provision of intervention and support to survivors.
• 14,070 professionals, caregivers, and community members have been reached through strategic partnership activities to support the vision of Love146.

In early March, Love146 hosted a Prevention Education training at Refugee Services of Texas, in Austin. All children are vulnerable to trafficking, but imagine being a child in a new country, where you don’t speak the language, and you have no idea what life will look like or how you’ll get by. These are some of the realities faced by refugees and other displaced young people. We explored these eye-opening vulnerabilities at the training with facilitators in Not a Number, our Prevention Education curriculum. This training was attended by a wider community, and many professionals didn’t have direct experience working with refugees, so bringing Not a Number was impactful, not just for our Refugee Services partners and their clients, but also for the other facilitators who got to learn about the risks faced by the refugee community.

The city of Houston has re-launched our collaborative social media campaign #WatchForTraffick in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. During a crisis, the risk of sex and labor trafficking increases. The anti-trafficking awareness campaign was created in 2017, running on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and linked to prevention resources for parents, caregivers, and youth on the Love146 website. The original campaign reached 1.6 million youth, parents & caregivers, predominantly in Texas and Connecticut. Our Caregiver’s Guide contains some of the most accessed resources from this campaign: