WHERE WE WORK
Prevention. Healing. Empowerment.
Over the past several decades, JOY International has built key strategic partnerships throughout the world, working in over 35 countries around the world, including the United States.
Currently, JOY International focuses its work on four primary countries.
NEPAL
The JOY International Mukti Home is a safe home for survivors of trafficking under the age of 18. The home provides safe housing, remedial education, counseling, job training, family support, medical care, legal representation, 24-hour security, and lots of love as the residents navigate their journey toward healing. The National Human Rights Commission of Nepal toured Mukti Home and has since designated Mukti Home their #1 referral agency for sex trafficking cases involving minors in all of Nepal! This demonstrates the quality of care at the JOY International Mukti Home, and JOY International is so proud of the staff there.
JOY International Mukti Home- 2025 Impact:
48 girls were provided with safe housing, education support, counseling, medical and legal care, and daily trauma-informed support.
31 additional survivors were supported in the community through follow-up care and therapy services.
Through partnership with JVI and police in Nepal, 40 survivors were freed from trafficking situations, and 19 court cases were filed to help pursue justice on their behalf.
The National Human Rights Commission in Nepal estimated that 1.5 million Nepalis are vulnerable to human trafficking, with girls ages 11–25 years old at the highest risk.
It is estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 girls, between the ages of 9–16, are trafficked each year from Nepal to India.
In 2021, before Mukti Home opened, 90% of survivors reportedly returned to trafficking because most children’s homes were not equipped to meet their specialized needs. Since opening, Mukti Home has maintained a recidivism rate of just 5%.
UGANDA
JOY’s Empowerment Project in Kasese, Uganda, is a sponsorship program for girls who are most at risk of trafficking and exploitation, or are survivors of these things. The program provides safety, food, clothing, hygiene supplies, medical care, and education to girls who are most at risk of being forced into early child marriage or trafficked to larger cities.
2025 Girls’ Sponsorship Impact:
In 2025, JOY supported 38 girls through the Girls’ Empowerment Program by helping provide school fees, educational support, and basic needs that reduced vulnerability to exploitation.
In total, six girls have graduated from the program and gone on to successful work placements, bringing the education and skills they gained into sustainable employment and greater long-term independence.
According to UNICEF, approximately 40% of girls in Uganda are married before the age of 18, with many forced into unions as early as their pre-teen years. These marriages are often the result of a lack of financial means for basic needs or for education.
According to the World Bank, approximately 21.4% of Uganda’s population lives below the national poverty line, struggling to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare. Due to the high poverty rates, many Ugandan girls are forced into early child marriage as a means of survival or are lured into trafficking with the hope of finding a good job in a large city.
Traffickers increasingly use local radio and social media to advertise fraudulent job opportunities in Kampala to lure adults and children from rural areas into exploitative situations.
BELIZE
JOY International works to strengthen trafficking prevention and aftercare programs in Belize through missions teams, training trips, and ongoing mentorship support. Our missions teams go to support current work being done by partners to prevent trafficking, and our training teams actively work to support the staff of aftercare homes, children’s homes, and prevention programs through trainings and retreats.
2025 Freedom Initiative Impact:
JOY served 38 caregivers and leaders from 12 NGOs and foster families through staff care retreats, offering encouragement, rest, and trauma-informed support.
Built relationships with leaders from 7 organizations and indirectly impacted more than 200 children by strengthening the caregivers and ministries serving them.
In October 2025, JOY expanded this work by placing an in-country staff member to provide ongoing ministry to staff and survivors living in Belize.
In Belize, nearly 1 in 3 children lack multiple basic needs, while almost 2 in 3 experience abuse or violent discipline. For many, poverty and violence increase their vulnerability to exploitation.
Family members facilitate the sex trafficking of Belizean women and girls, including through an arrangement where a wealthy male will offer payment or gifts to a family in exchange for sex from a young, usually female, family member.
Traffickers exploit Belizean and foreign adults, and girls primarily from Central America, in bars, nightclubs, hotels, and brothels.
THE UNITED STATES
The JOY International staff speaks across the United States to educate youth and adults about Human Trafficking. Speaking topics often include understanding the dynamics of Human Trafficking, how young people can protect themselves from it, and how others can get involved in fighting it.
2025 Education Impact
JOY educated 300 students on human trafficking prevention, including online grooming, sextortion, warning signs, online safety, and how to seek help.
Traffickers continue to use social media and other online platforms to recruit and advertise trafficked persons.
Traffickers often target people facing discrimination or involved in systems such as criminal justice, foster care, homeless youth services, or immigration enforcement.
Victims originate from almost every region of the world; the top three countries of origin of victims identified in 2022 were the United States, Mexico, and Honduras.