Our mission is to protect women and children by raising public awareness of human trafficking and to work with other NGOs to provide housing and care for these victims in the United States and around the world.

According to the UN, over three million women and children are trafficked every year. This modern-day slavery generates a $32 billion industry yearly for international criminals.

Vision

Our two-fold goals are: to prevent human trafficking and modern day slavery.  We plan to help those who have already been victimized. By creating a  public awareness campaign, we will generate awareness of the crime and raise funds that build safe havens where victims can live after being rescued.

Who we are

Innocents at Risk is a child-advocacy non-for-profit 501C-3 organization established to fight child trafficking through awareness programs aimed at educating the public of these crimes. We have established a public-private partnership with the United States Department of State to support our battle. We are also working together with the NGO’s.

What we are doing

We have produced a 10-minute public service DVD to support the awareness campaign about human trafficking. The video is available to embassies and corporations in the U.S. and around the world in order to further our goals of education and awareness. This original video is intended as a wake-up call to those who are unaware of this threat and to the millions of innocents who are most vulnerable.  We are producing brochures and posters for educational awareness to be placed in schools and public locations for the purpose of prevention of trafficking along with a 8-10 minute DVD for schools in the U.S.

2007 Goals and Activities

1- We are launching domestic and international public awareness and campaigns to educate the public of modern day slavery. We are distrubting our awareness film to conference corporations.

2- We organized a fundraiser in April 2007 in order to raise funds to further the goals of Innocents at Risk.

3-We are producing an additional DVD/film for schools.

4- We are establishing a victims fund that will be used to support efforts to provide safe housing, medical assistance and other life sustaining necessities for victims after being rescued.

Current Efforts and long term:

• Arrange awareness events through the US and abroad for schools (students and parents), churches, embassies, elected officials, and leaders of the community.

• Help build the DC task force (group of NGOs) to find safe homes for victims
• Help provide skills training and education.

• Help secure one or more facilities in Washington, DC for children and women needing somewhere to live when they have first been rescued. 

Currently Active

Partcipating in the DC task force with Mayor Fenty's office, the DC Attorney General's office, the Ricky Martin Foundation, the Polaris Group, CNI and other NGO's with the goal to end Modern Day Slavery.

"To see but not to see.
To see but to deny.
To see but not to act is a crime against a child.
You can all do something.
You can make a difference.
Save a child."

-Her Magesty, Queen Silvia of Sweden

Taken at the Royal Castle in Stolkholm Sweden, August 29, 2006.
Meeting with Her Majesty, Queen Silvia and Deborah Sigmund

A Message from Ambassador Mark P. Lagon
June 12, 2007

Dear Friend in the Fight to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery:


As many of you know, today Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued the latest report describing the actions of governments around the world to protect and free vulnerable people from human trafficking. We invite you to read it at: http://www.state.gov/g/tip.

This wide-ranging and textured report exposes many despicable aspects of modern-day slavery, and the threats to dignity, law, and security it poses to nations worldwide. It also gives credit where much is due for governments acting upon a will to change. The Report lays out a blueprint for countries to better help victims and hold their exploiters to account, offering U.S. partnership to do so.

As Secretary Rice has said: "All nations that are resolute in the flight to end human trafficking have a partner in the United States. Together we will continue to affirm that no human life can be devalued or discounted. Together we will stop at nothing to end the debasement of our fellow men and women. And together we will bring forth a world of fuller hope, a world where people enjoy the full blessings of their God-give liberty."

We are proud to stand with governmental and non-governmental abolitionist partners around the world to end this form of modern-day slavery.

Sincerely yours,
Ambassador Mark P. Lagon
Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons U.S. Department of State

Excerpt from President Bush's address
to the UN General Assembly
New York, New York
September 23, 2003

There's another humanitarian crisis spreading, yet hidden from view. Each year, an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human being ar bought, sold or forced across the world's borders. Among them are hundred of thousands of teenage girls, and others as young as five, who fall victim of the sex trade. This commerce in human life generates billions of dollars each year -- much of which is used to finance organized crime.

There's a special evil in abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable. The victims of sex trade see little of life before they see the very worst of life -- an underground of brutality and lonely fear. Those who create these victims and profit from their suffering must be severely punished. Those who patronize this industry debase themselves and deepen the misery of others. And governments that tolerate this trade are tolerating a form of slavery.

This problem has appeared in my own country, and we are working to stop it. The PROTECT Act, which I signed into law this year, makes it a crime for any person to enter the United States, or for any citizen to travel abroad, for the purpose of sex tourism involving children. The Department of Justice is actively investigating sex tour operators and patrons, who can face up to 30 years in prison. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the United States is using sanctions against governments to discourage human trafficking.

The victims of this industry also need help from members of the United Nations. And this begins with clear standards and the certainty of punishment under laws of every country. Today, some nations make it a crime to sexually abuse children abroad. Such conduct should be a crime in all nations. Governments should inform travelers of the harm this industry does, and the severe punishments that will fall on its patrons. The American government is committing $50 million to support the good work of organizations that are rescuing women and children from exploitation, and giving them shelter and medical treatment and the hope of a new life. I urge other governments to do their part.

We mush show new energy in fighting back an old evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time.