Human trafficking is modern-day slavery — a system in which both children and adults are bought and sold through force, coercion, threats, deception, or abduction. Human trafficking is criminal enterprise that results in forced labor and sexual exploitation. It is a global problem that affects people from many backgrounds or situations. However, people from poor families are especially at risk because traffickers prey on those who are vulnerable.

About a kilometer down the road from the Nazarene church in Pusad, India, you will find a red light area where women are prostituted and exploited day in and day out. The HIV/AIDS rate there is high, yet most victims aren’t being treated for their disease and many are dying as a result. A combination of stigma, discrimination, poverty, and lack of education keeps sex workers from accessing health care. While others in the community are turning a blind eye, the Church of the Nazarene is working to care for women in the red light area.

The Women for Africa project looks to empower African women, either widows or caretakers of AIDS orphans to generate an income by creating their own small businesses. These women receive training and the necessary tools to begin projects that will allow them the opportunity to provide a better life for the family they provide for. Micro-Enterprise has become one of the greatest ways in which families trapped in poverty can begin a new life of prosperity and happiness. Now operating in several countries, these programs allow women to take out small loans after undergoing training for accounting and basic business practices. Whether they decide to buy a sewing machine, an ox or seeds for farming, these women are able to turn a small loan into long-term benefit for their family.