Together, we can end human trafficking.
Every year thousands of men, women, and children end up in the hands of human traffickers, not just through force but through fraud, misleading information and coercion.
No country, rich or poor, is immune to human trafficking. It is an undeniable global problem. But why? How do people even end up in situations where they are trafficked?
And perhaps more importantly, what can we do about it as an individual?
Human rights are part of our DNA.
Let’s start by explaining why Sapahn is so concerned with human trafficking. In 2010 our founder, Brooke, moved to Thailand and was working for the United Nations on a regional human trafficking project based in Bangkok. It was there that she saw, through her work, the different a stable income can make to how vulnerable someone is to being trafficked.
A set of research that Brooke was involved in found that if a person had $30 in their pocket they were 50% less likely to be trafficked. Thirty dollars. That’s all that is needed to potentially stop a person from having to migrate and facing the threat exploitation. It was this discovery that inspired Sapahn.
Brooke was looking for a way to do exactly what all the experts recommend: build up the social and economic development. Sapahn was the perfect way to economically strengthen a community, to provide them job stability that they normally wouldn’t have access to. And this means reducing the likelihood of someone being trafficked.
What is human trafficking?
When we understand WHAT trafficking is, we can see how a company and a consumer can be part of the solution. The United Nations defines trafficking as having three main components: the act (what is done), the means (how it is done), and the purpose (why it is done):
Human trafficking can be generally understood as: recruiting, moving or harboring a person by gaining control over them for the purpose of exploiting them in some way.
Trafficking happens for a variety of social, political, economic and cultural reasons.
Local conditions such as poverty, oppression, disregard for human rights, lack of social or economic opportunity, danger due to conflict or general instability increases a person’s vulnerability to being trafficked. All of these situations tend to ‘push’ people towards migrating to seek better conditions and opportunities.
A trafficker will use this desire to migrate to recruit people with, for example, the promise of better job opportunities only to lure a person into more coercive and sinister circumstances.
Understanding what trafficking is, how it happens and why it happens. It is for all these reasons that two of the main ways to combat trafficking are to decrease the demand for trafficked persons and reduce the factors which make people vulnerable to being trafficked by providing them with the financial security and upward mobility that they aspire to in their own communities.
Use your purchasing power to do better.
When you make the choice to support Sapahn or other companies that are purposeful and champion human rights you become part of the fight against human trafficking.
You are making a vote for fair, ethical wages and working conditions. You are making a vote for human rights and positive change-makers in communities throughout the world.
You are making a vote for knowing better and doing better. As a customer, you have the power to pick where you make your purchases and that power shouldn’t be underestimated.
As heavy as this topic may be to consider, we always believe that when you know better you do better. But let’s end on a good note!
Globally from 2015 to 2016 the number of people convicted of trafficking in persons more than doubled from 30% to over 60%.
TWICE as many people as previously are being convicted of their crimes in trafficking. This is an amazing improvement because it shows that countries are taking trafficking seriously and that they are putting the laws and actions in place to tackle it.
Become a Bridge Builder.
Sapahn, meaning bridge in Thai, is that bridge between just knowing better and actually doing better. Join our email list for exclusive updates from Brooke, collection pre-sales and discounts only available to you.
