About FAAST
Mission and Values
Mission and Values
FAAST is a strategic alliance of Christian organizations working together to combat slavery and human trafficking.
Mission: FAAST exists to mobilize and equip communities to combat slavery and human trafficking and to restore survivors.
Vision: We see a world of transformed communities free of slavery and exploitation.
Why We Exist
We believe every human being is created in the image of God with inherent dignity, value, and purpose. We believe that followers of Jesus have a Biblical mandate to care for the poor and the oppressed - those who are vulnerable and exploited. Slavery and human trafficking are forms of evil that seek to destroy God's image in people and corrupt His purposes for humanity. FAAST exists because eradicating human trafficking reflects the heart of God.
We believe there is hope. We believe the best agency of change and restoration is God's people, the Church. We need the entire body of Christ working together to effectively address human trafficking. Thus, FAAST was created to foster a community of Christ-followers equipped to restore freedom to those captive in exploitation and slavery.
How We Do It
Faast member organizations leverage our combined strengths and resources to advance the kingdom of God by generating united and active responses to the injustices of slavery and human trafficking. At the national level, the FAAST team collaborates to conduct ongoing projects, research, training events, and resource development. Locally and internationally, there is also extensive grassroots collaboration and networking between member organizations. We accomplish so much more by working together.
MEET OUR MEMBERS
FAAST exists because organizations in the Christian community came together to share and produce resources together. Our members are why we exist. Does your organization want to become a member of FAAST? You can find out more here.
at Vanguard University
GCWJ at Vanguard University is a faith-based organization the creates an environment for education, advocacy, and collaboration. It has a variety of programs to fight human trafficking.
Innocence Freed is an organization in Nebraska that looks to use the love of God to bridge the gap for shelter, healing, and hope for child trafficking and sexual exploitation survivors. By providing a safe-home with animal-assisted therapy on- site, they can live with dignity, respect, and freedom. They also collaborate and work with community partners, law enforcement, governments, and non-governmental partners to protect communities, hold traffickers accountable, and provide justice for survivors.
at Point Loma Nazarene University
Point Loma Nazarene University exists to provide higher education in a vital Christian community where minds are engaged and challenged, character is modeled and formed, and service becomes an expression of faith. Being of Wesleyan heritage, we aspire to be a learning community where grace is foundational, truh is pursued, and holiness is a way of life.
Project Rescue exists to rescue and restore victims of sexual slavery through the love and power of Jesus Christ. Now ministering to exploited women and children in Europe and Central and Southern Asia, Project Rescue brings hope through a holistic, multi-faceted, three-prong approach of prevention, intervention, and restoration.
The Salvation Army's anti-trafficking efforts began more than one hundred years ago, when in the 1880s it led extensive campaigns to eradicate sexual trafficking of women and girls in England. Today, The Salvation Army continues to serve as a leader in the efforts to abolish human trafficking domestically and internationally.
World Hope International believes in God's desire for freedom and justice for the oppressed, the downtrodden, the abused, and the exploited. They believe in mercy and compassion for the last, the least, and the lost. They believe in healing for the broken, in recovery and restoration for the victims of human trafficking and sexual predation.
These beliefs are their passion; they are the reasons World Hope International works so hard every day to serve victims of human trafficking and gender-based violence, and why they are committed to doing all they can to prevent such crimes from happening in the first place.
World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to boldly engage the world's greatest crises in partnership with the church. The organization was founded in the aftermath of World War II to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of war-torn Europe.
Since then, for over 80 years, across 100 countries, World Relief has partnered with local churches and communities to build a world where families thrive and communities flourish. Today, organizational programming focuses on humanitarian and disaster response, as well as community strengthening and resilience.
Where We Work
FAAST members work in a vast number of countries, on almost every continent.
Africa: Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa
Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Nepal, Philippines, Tajikistan
Europe: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Finland, France, Greece, Moldova, Spain, Ukraine
North America: Canada, Mexico, United States
Frequently Asked Questions
An ACT or attempted act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving a person...
By the MEANS of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person...
For the PURPOSE of exploitation. Exploitation at a minimum includes the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs. The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation is irrelevant where any of the means have been used, or when the person trafficked is less than eighteen years old.
Human trafficking is a process that culminates in the enslavement of human beings. At the end of this horrifying chain of events, men, women, and children around the world find themselves ruthlessly exploited in and captive to industries ranging from agricultural and factory work, domestic service, and the commercial sex industry. Tragically, there is no community or country that is immune to the possibility of human trafficking occurring within its borders. Whether as a source area from where victims are "supplied," a transit area through which victims are transported, or as the ultimate destination where victims serve as slaves, countless communities around the world are at risk to human traffickers who stealthily steal the lives of individual citizens and rob the community of its wholeness and well-being.
Human trafficking is a gross injustice to the individual victim. It is also a plundering and looting of local communities. No one should be robbed of their human dignity; no community should be ransacked of its members. In short, human trafficking is an affront to individual human dignity and community health. Therefore, we are resolved to work towards its abolition.
When we speak in clear terms about human trafficking, it seems black and white, or easy. It's not. There are many issues that make this topic highly debatable and hard to combat. Here are a few examples:
Sometimes, when a woman is bought and sold enough, she believes her worth is in her body, and prostitution and pornography become her life. The man in a similar predicament stops looking for an escape and may not even take it when it comes. This leaves people thinking "she wants this" or "he chose this life." Or sometimes with children, they become so bonded to their trafficker and "love" them, they don't want to leave.
92% of women in the US who were involved in prostitution said they wanted to leave prostitution, but couldn't because they lack basic human services such as a home, job training, health care, counseling, and treatment for drug or alcohol addiction.* A prostituted woman might also be afraid of what her pimp will do to her and afraid for her life if she tries to leave. For many women and men, prostitution and sexual exploitation might be the only life they know. The average age for girls entering the commercial sex industry is between 12 and 13.** Studies show that 75-95% of all commercially sexually exploited persons were sexually abused as children.***
*"People in Postitution Suffer from Wartime Trauma Symptoms Caused by Acts of Violence Against Them," Business Wire, 18 August 1998.
**Lois Lee, Children of the Night, Brad Knickerbocker, "Prostitution's Pernicious Reach Grows in the US," Christian Science Monitor, 23 October 1996
***Debra Boyer, U.Washington, Susan Breault of the Paul & Lisa Program, "Danger for Prostitutes Increasing, Most Starting Younger," Beacon Journal, 21 September 1997
There is an assumption that sex trafficking is the most common form of trafficking that occurs. However, that is a false assumption. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 24.9 million people in modern slavery, 20.1 million are trapped in forced labor, 22 million were trapped in forced marriage, compared to the 4.8 million in sex trafficking.**** It is important that we do not forget those who are in forced labor situations.
****Emma Ecker, "Breaking Down Global Estimates of Human Trafficking: Human Trafficking Awareness Month 2022," 12 January 2022
Trafficking is a global problem. Whether they are a source, transit, or destination country for victims, all countries suffer from the plight of trafficking. Sadly, many people feel that the problem is an "over-there" problem. Unfortunately, it occurs in all communities.
Yes. We are not immune to trafficking. Although there is no official estimate of the total number of human trafficking victims in the U.S., the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline has received calls from all 50 states and D.C. Each year the number grows. It is also important to point out that there is both sex and labor trafficking occurring in the United States.
At times, human smuggling is confused with human trafficking. However, they are not the same. There are four factors that are different.
CONSENT: Migrants who are being smuggled have consented to the act, whereas trafficking victims have either never consented, or if there was consent, it was made meaningless by the coercive, deceptive, or abusive actions of the traffickers.
EXPLOITATION: Smuggling ends with the migrants' arrival at their destination. Trafficking in Persons involves ongoing exploitation of the victims in some manner to generate illicit profits for the traffickers.
TRANSNATIONALITY: Smuggling is always transnational; however, trafficking may not always be transnational. Trafficking can occur regardless of whether victims are taken to another country or not.
PROFIT: In human smuggling, the criminal profits are generated through the movement alone; in cases of trafficking the profits are primarily generated by the subsequent sexual or labor exploitation of the victims.
The best thing you can do is to educate yourself about trafficking and know the signs of human trafficking. Know the number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Hotline (1-888-373-7888 or text 233733) to report your suspicions. Visit our "Take Action" page for more ways you can be involved in the fight against human trafficking.
There are many laws that address human trafficking. In the United States, most states have laws that address trafficking. At the federal level, the main law is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which was first passed in 2000. This hallmark legislation established several methods of prosecuting traffickers, preventing human trafficking, and protecting victims and survivors of trafficking. The Act establishes human trafficking and related offenses as federal crimes and attaches severe penalties to them. It also mandates that restitution be paid to victims of human trafficking. It further works to prevent trafficking by establishing the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which is required to publish a Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report each year. The TIP report describes and ranks the efforts of countries to combat human trafficking. The act also established the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, which assists in the implementation of the TVPA. The TVPA protects victims and survivors of human trafficking by establishing the T visa, which allows victims of human trafficking, and their families, to become temporary U.S. residents and are eligible to become permanent residents after three years.
Internationally, the United Nations adopted with is known as the Palermo Protocol in 2000. The protocol states that: Trafficking in persons is the recruitement, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others, or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, salvery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs. The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation...shall be irrelevant where any of the means...have been used. The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered "trafficking in persons" even if this does not involve any of the means set forth..."Child" shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.