The Freedom Story

If selected as a winner, The Freedom Story would use the money to recruit and build relationships with project partners. With these partnerships, we will provide capacity building, training, education, resources and curriculum, where in turn they will prevent human trafficking in partnership with us. Our partners expertise of their own communities is paramount, as it assures greater understanding and ability to adapt to the specific needs of the community. These partnerships would give The Freedom Story the ability to exponentially increase our impact and ensure more children are prevented from being trafficked, without increasing our costs at the same rate. Potential partners will/can include teachers, organizations, parents, village elders, church leaders, youth themselves, etc. Because of these partnerships, we will be able to move from direct project implementation towards scaling through those partners organizations. With our programs that have been proven to reduce risk, our impact would exponentially grow through this partnership model, where trafficking will be prevented more effectively and more widely.

Veerawit Tianchainan is a human rights advocate with twenty years of experience working in various human rights roles. After earning a degree in International Business, he earned a Masters in Human Rights from Mahidol University in Bangkok. His passion to change policy and advocate for the rights of refugees in Thailand brought him to work at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees for ten years, followed by founding the Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation (TCR). As Executive Director of The Freedom Story, he brings a unique perspective and expertise that is rare but much needed in the world of Not-for-Profit Organizations. 

Founded in 2008, The Freedom Story began with a short documentary highlighting the story of a young at-risk student, Cat, in Northern Thailand. Through the documentary process, common themes of what makes a child at risk became apparent: poverty, a lack of education and a lack of options. Today, The Freedom Story prevents child trafficking and exploitation through culturally relevant programs for vulnerable children and shares their stories to empower creative, compassionate people to act. Looking to the future, we are planning to scale our partnership model and prevent even more children from being trafficked in Northern Thailand.

Thailand is a source, transit and destination country for trafficking. There are an estimated 60,000 children sexually exploited for commercial use every year in Thailand. Those living in Northern Thailand are particularly  vulnerable to this phenomenon due to the high poverty rate, the low level of education, a high concentration of minority groups and stateless individuals, and other factors which drastically increase a child's risk of trafficking and exploitation. 

The Freedom Story exists to combat child trafficking through prevention, providing resources and support to at-risk students and communities in Northern Thailand. We do that through our three primary programs: Education, Human Rights and Sustainable Livelihoods. Since 2008, we have offered over 240 scholarships, maintaining a 91% graduation rate across all levels with some of the most at-risk students in Northern Thailand. Our Sustainable Livelihoods trainings have been accessed more than 1,300 times, and our Human Rights trainings have been accessed more than 10,000 times by at-risk people across Northern Thailand. We have seen lives changed, as children graduate from university and become teachers or lawyers and help their families overcome poverty.

Prevention is sometimes viewed as a one-off awareness event in an at risk village or a seminar at a school centered around human trafficking and/or risky behavior. The Freedom Story is unique in that we work to prevent trafficking holistically, through our 3 programs, Education, Human Rights and Sustainable Livelihoods. We are led by national staff, rooted in the belief that those from within the community are best placed to fight these issues. We give our partner communities the tools, knowledge and skills to combat issues in their own communities.This completely disrupts the cycle of trafficking, as it goes after the root causes and gives people the ability to take responsibility in their own communities. The Freedom Story views the communities that we work with as partners in combatting human trafficking, empowering the communities, especially the youth in our program to be a part of the solution rather than passive recipients has been uplifting for us and partners. Additionally, through our capacity building in the community and our collaboration with partners, our grassroots approach allows us to expand our programs to impact a larger audience through evidence-based scaling.

The Freedom Story works to prevent child trafficking and exploitation through a holistic approach, we prevent trafficking through our 3 main programs, Education, Human Rights and Sustainable Development. Children from Northern Thailand are at-risk of trafficking because poverty forces many to drop out of school at young ages, but they are still expected to provide for their families. With limited education they have few options and are easily tricked into the sex trade. Scholarships reverse these trends by providing opportunity. We have offered over 240 scholarships since we have opened. Additionally, through our Education program, we provide countless hours of mentorship and resources to decrease isolation and ensure academic success. Our Human Rights programs teach at-risk children and families their rights and raise awareness of the causes of trafficking. Equipped with knowledge, they are able to advocate for themselves. And finally, The Freedom Story’s Sustainable Development Programs provide micro business skills, knowledge of sustainable agricultural and methods of increasing income. These programs raise the local standard of living, and reduce the lure of traffickers.