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P H O T O B Y D R . G U N D E L I N A V E L A Z C O erly reach and restore the children in their care. It teaches children and adults alike the tricks of pimps and trafckers and the signs of exploitation. And it has empowered a so- cial movement, a collective shout, commit- ted to ending the atrocity of child trafcking and exploitation. It has succeeded in mov- ing the needle on a dire human rights issue. But still, as you read this, somewhere, right now, a child is being raped. We don't want to believe it, but the odds are too great against it not being true. According to the Interna- tional Labour Organization (ILO), almost 21 million people are currently enslaved. Out of that number 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation, and many of those are children. "It's easy for us as an organization to get overwhelmed by the statistics and the numbers and think this is despairing," Mor- ris says. "But when you fnd yourself fghting for individuals, you can stay in it. We have to remember that we are fghting for individual people, human beings, children." It's a complex issue, and it involves much more than breaking glass and scooping up children in your arms. Physically removing a child from a slavery situation is just the frst step; after that there has to be a long-term strategy in place to effectively rehabilitate these children. "One of the reasons we start- ed doing survivor care right away was that we were seeing these gaps," Morris says. "We were talking to these organizations and law enforcement people who would say, 'Hey, we know where there are kids right now that can be rescued, but there are not enough places to put them, legitimate places where they can begin the journey toward recov- ery.' I thought that was crazy. I mean, a kid is going to spend another night in a brothel because there is not a safe place to put them? And when I say a safe place I'm not just talk- ing about a roof over their head and food, the basic needs of life. I mean, that's a start. I'm talking about a level of trauma counsel- ing that is intense. Getting professionals in to do that work is such a crucial piece. Tat's where the real hard work begins." And this is where Morris stresses the im- portance of proper survivor care, of help- ing these kids become kids again and fu- ture, functioning members of a community. "Tese kids want a sense of home, they want a sense of family," he says. "It's hard because a lot of these care facilities often resemble something that looks more like an institu- tion than it does a home. And a smart mama- san or brothel owner will create a feeling of home where there is a sense of a kid being in it with her sisters, so there is a bond between the girls, or the boys, and there is this sense The universal logo of Love 146 empower communities around the world to stand against it. Love146 educates and equips individuals and groups to take meaningful, enduring action against child trafcking and exploitation through local and national eforts. The Love146 Round Home is one of two safe homes Love146 has in the Philippines. This home, for girls who are recovering from child trafcking and exploitation, was built with a rounded structure, representing the cycle of healing. The structure also prevents any child from being feeling left in a corner.