Love146: Saving Children From Trafficking and Exploitation

Founded in 2002 as Justice for Children International, Love146 is a non-profit organization committed to ending child trafficking and exploitation. The charity takes it name from a young girl who was being sold for sex at a brothel in Southeast Asia. In 2002, the co-founders of Love146 traveled to the region and a couple of them accompanied investigators to a brothel in an undercover probe. All of the girls wore red dresses with a pinned number for identification, and they all sat watching cartoons blankly as predators looked at them from the other side of the glass.

Rob Morris, president and co-founder of Love146, recalls that these children no longer had light in their eyes, except one. The girl whose number was 146 wouldn't watch the cartoons and was looking beyond the glass with a piercing gaze. She still had fight left in her. Some time later, the brothel was raided and the children were rescued. The girl only known as 146 wasn't among them, but the co-founders named Love146 after her to serve as a reminder of why they started the organization.

Now operating across three continents, Love146 aims to help the millions of other children who are also represented by the number 146. The charity provides holistic care for survivors and journeys with them as they are reintegrated back into society. In response to the lack of safe places for rescued children, Love146 expanded existing safe homes throughout Asia and subsequently built the Round Home in the Philippines. Love 146 also provides prevention education in high schools, group homes, and residential care facilities in the US, speaking directly with teens and increasing their awareness of the signs of exploitation, the tactics of traffickers, and the services available to them. Furthermore, the non-profit trains professionals such as social workers and teachers, giving them tools to prevent child trafficking and help victims, as well as financially supports other organizations fighting child trafficking and exploitation.