Human trafficking isn’t always visible. It hides behind promises of better jobs, safer lives and brighter futures — until those promises break. For Freedom’s Promise, a nonprofit founded in Tennessee and rooted in Cambodia, prevention begins with restoring communities, raising awareness and creating opportunity.

Founded in 2007 after its founders witnessed exploitation firsthand, Freedom’s Promise works to stop trafficking before a child ever has to live that story. The organization takes a community-based approach to prevention — addressing vulnerability at its source through education, healthcare and income opportunities.

On a trip to Cambodia, Jeb Atkinson, husband of the President of Freedom’s Promise, had young children approaching him and offering themselves for sex. 

The reality this organization faced was shattering, revealing just how much work lay ahead.

“When you see children that have been robbed of all innocence and are being so, not just emotionally manipulated but physically manipulated,” GraceAnn Visser, the director of development, said. “That is just beyond shocking and beyond heartbreaking.”

The trip revealed a painful truth: trafficking wasn’t confined to dark, unseen corners, but fueled by manipulation and lack of opportunities.

From this trip grew Freedom’s Promise, a cross-continental effort to prevent trafficking. 

“There has been a lot of progress made, but oftentimes what we find is the issues we’re dealing with don’t end — they’re rebranded and remarketed,” Visser said. “Honestly, human trafficking today is modern slavery.”

For Kanhchany Sipha, the organization’s National Director in Cambodia, the mission is personal. She is living proof of the impact of prevention, now holding a leadership position in the same organization she once benefited from.

Sipha said she sees her job as ensuring the organization is “upholding its mission of preventing human trafficking, restoring community and showing the love of Jesus.”

Sipha has been involved with Freedom’s Promise since 2017, after learning English and overcoming a difficult living situation. 

“I want to raise up the next generation for the country and raise up each person to serve in that capacity,” Sipha said.

The Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia in 1975, killing about 2 million Cambodians in an attempt to erase the nation’s educated class, Sipha said. The genocide left deep social and economic scars, leaving the country in a vulnerable spot, where it became a hotspot for human trafficking.

Visser said she wishes more people understood the scale of trafficking. Even online scamming can be a form of human trafficking — that scammer may be a trafficked person forced to meet a quota.

Decades later, that devastation still shapes Cambodia’s social and economic landscape. Limited education, financial insecurity and border exploitation continue to leave families at risk — a cycle Freedom’s Promise works daily to break.

“How can we provide safe spaces for kids to be?” Visser asked. “How can we provide an education so that they have an opportunity for skill development? How can we provide vocational opportunities so they’re not having to cross the border or take these factory jobs?”

The mission of Freedom’s Promise strives to fulfill stems from prevention. To Sipha, prevention also means modeling leadership.

“We are preventing the next tragedy,” Sipha said. “When the damage has been done, it’s so hard to fix it.”

Sipha’s story of education, empowerment and faith reflects the very change Freedom’s Promise hopes to inspire.

While the team in Cambodia leads the non-profit on the ground, the U.S. staff, based in Nashville, Tennessee, focuses on connection and awareness. Visser manages donor relationships, partnerships and outreach.

“There are only six of us on staff in the U.S.,” Visser said. “Every single dollar can go ten times further in Southeast Asia. Financial partnership is huge.”

Still, the organization’s philosophy goes beyond funding. Visser recalled someone asking questions about finances in a meeting — why not send the money? Airfare wasn’t cheap.

“You have traveled a solid 30 hours to get here, you took time off work, you spent your money to come here and to love on us and show us that we are worth time and attention and care and love,” answered a Cambodian doctor Freedom’s Promise works with, according to Visser.

Visser had her answer prepared, but hearing that honest, emotional response from someone directly impacted by Freedom’s Promise carried more weight than anything she could have said.

There is an emotional toll on those who work in trafficking prevention, but faith, community and tangible stories keep people like Sipha and Visser hopeful.

“I still get chills,” Visser said. “I tell these stories, and I know these people, and I get to work with them. I still am just flabbergasted at the amount of opportunity and choice and privilege that we have here and the amount of hurdles that they have to walk through in Southeast Asia.”

In the next few years, Freedom’s Promises plans to extend its reach, growing its campus in Poipet and aiming to sponsor 100 students with scholarships. Sipha said the organization also plans to expand its English, computer and Artificial Intelligence training programs.

The goal for Freedom’s Promise remains the same year after year: cut trafficking off at the source and bring community and hope to those in Cambodia.

“Sometimes when people hear the word human trafficking, they go numb,” Sipha said. “I hope and I pray that when people hear the word, they don’t go numb. They learn more and invest their time to ask themselves, ‘What can I do?’”

At Freedom’s Promise, success isn’t measured by the number of rescues — it’s measured by the stories that never had to be written.

Visser encourages readers to engage with this mission or spread awareness. To learn more, visit the Freedom’s Promise website, where options to give financially, get involved or get further educated are available.