About Us
Our Comprehensive Strategy for
Pregnant Teens and Women and Their Children
Our strategy is to provide comprehensive services to every trafficked teen and woman in sex work who is pregnant and their children by customizing the services needed by each family with the following programs:
Maternal health: first, pregnant teens and women must survive pregnancy and childbirth. When mothers die in childbirth, up to 50% of their newborns die and their surviving children are often stuck in brothels where they are sexually exploited. Maternal survival is key to the immediate and long-term health and well-being of the entire family.
Nutritious food: pregnant teens and women need nutritious food to have healthy babies and to breastfeed after giving birth. Their other children also need nutritious food to be healthy. Currently, many pregnant teens and women and their other children only have one small, inadequate meal per day.
Housing: Too often these families live in unsafe locations. We understand that new mothers, especially teen mothers, cannot go home to an unsafe and unhealthy living situation, including brothels. These mothers and their children need safe housing.
Education: to break the cycle of “intergenerational sex work”, we provide funding for children to attend public and private elementary school and send at-risk adolescent daughters of sex workers to boarding school so they receive an education and are protected from sexual abuse and exploitation in the community.
Mental health care: based on our research, 98% of mothers impacted by sex work are at high risk of depression and suicide. To address this issue, we have developed support groups with our local partners so the mothers can meet with other mothers who are experiencing similar challenges so they do not feel all alone and can support each other. These support groups are facilitated by a trained counselor. We provide childcare for the children who come with their mothers so the mothers can focus on their needs. In addition, after the meeting, each family get a small food basket to help them for several days.
Alternative sources of income: the leading request from mothers who have been trafficked or in sex work is for alternative sources of income. This is the “ultimate prevention” intervention: it protects the mothers from violence, HIV, and unplanned pregnancies; it protects their children from malnutrition abuse; it ends the intergenerational cycle of exploitation and sex work and it allows mothers to send their children to school.
The Challenge
Global Health Promise (GHP) collaborates with sex worker organizations and other NGOs on research to understand the most urgent needs of mothers who are trafficked or in sex work and their children. This research forms the basis of our programs to support these families. We have recognized the lack of awareness at the national and global level on the maternal health of these mothers and the health and social well-being of their children. Specifically, we are engaged in efforts to target the factors that produce the dire situations that these mothers and their children experience, through documenting their maternal health and the health of their children, including high incidence of death and mental health challenges. GHP turns our research into programs and policies to improve the lives of these mothers and their children.
The global issue and impact of maternal health of mothers who are trafficked or in sex work include:
- The majority become pregnant
- An estimated 80% are mothers
- During pregnancy, the majority of these teens and women will experience significant barriers to accessing prenatal care
- In many communities around the world, these teens and women cannot afford maternal healthcare for safe deliveries, and often deliver outside of hospitals
- Complications during and after delivery result in preventable deaths among many of these mothers and their children
- The deaths are a tragedy for both the mothers and their surviving children who are subsequently orphaned
The global impact on children whose mothers are trafficked or in sex work include:
- Many of these children are denied access to the nutrition they need during infancy because their mothers must return to work and cannot breastfeed
- The majority of these children are physically and sexually abused and sexually exploited
- The children have higher rates of malnutrition and other preventable health problems
- The majority of these children cannot afford to go to school and are often forced into child labor
Nonprofit compliance documentation:
Conflict of Interest Policy | Document Retention Policy | Whistleblower Protection Policy
