Love146

Love146
Established2004
HeadquartersNew Haven, Connecticut[1]
Location
Key people
Rob Morris (CEO & Co-Founder)
RevenueDecrease $4.4 million[1] (2020-2021 FY)
Employees54 (2018-2019)[1]
Websitelove146.org

Love146 is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international anti-child trafficking organization.[2]

History

Love146 was founded in 2002,[3] when the group's co-founders, Rob Morris, Lamont Hiebert, Desirea Rodgers, and Caroline Hahm, went on an exploratory trip to Southeast Asia to see how they could help combat child trafficking. According to Love146, as part of an undercover operation, investigators took several co-founders into a brothel where they witnessed young girls being sold for sex. The girls were given identification numbers pinned to their dresses. One girl in particular stood out. Morris explained that she stared in their direction with a piercing gaze. Her number was 146.[4] The co-founders returned to the US and began Love146. The vision of Love146 is "the end of child trafficking and exploitation – nothing less."

Prior to the establishing of Love146, co-founder and president, Rob Morris, worked with Mercy Ships International. Morris has lectured and taught in over 30 countries on issues of justice, compassion, and human rights, and has been featured in the Huffington Post,[5] Fox News,[6] the CNN Freedom Project,[7] and other outlets.

Love146 became an official public charity in March 2004, under the name Justice for Children International.[8] In 2007, the group changed their name to Love146.[9]

Love146 was named an "Agent of Change" by GQ magazine, and earned a Myspace Impact Award for social justice.[citation needed] Baume & Mercier sent Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Carolyn Cole to Southeast Asia to take photos in support of Love146. In 2008, Baume & Mercier hosted an exhibition of her photos in New York City titled "Into the Light".[10]

Heather Fischer, former US government special advisor to the State Department's Trafficking in Persons Office and first special advisor for human trafficking at the White House,[11] started her human rights career at Love146.

28 states have utilized the curriculum of the organization as of 2022.[12] That year, the organization celebrated its 20th anniversary with a "cutting of the ribbon".

References

  1. ^ a b c "LOVE146 INC - Full text of "Full Filing" for fiscal year ending June 2019". Nonprofit Explorer. ProPublica. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Fall DTS 2010 Speakers". Archived from the original on 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
  3. ^ "Guidestar". www.guidestar.org. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  4. ^ "The Love146 Story". Love146. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  5. ^ Baldwin, Alec; Morris, Rob (2012-02-09). "Fighting Child Trafficking". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  6. ^ "Chilling account of child slavery in the US". Fox News. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  7. ^ "3 voices: How to end modern-day slavery". Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  8. ^ "Vision & Values". Love146. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  9. ^ "Brains on Fire | Ambassador-Led Movements | Love 146". Archived from the original on 2014-02-19. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
  10. ^ "USA - "Into the Light" photography & charity event | Baume & Mercier". 2010-02-03. Archived from the original on 2010-02-03. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  11. ^ "At the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report Launch Ceremony by Dyson Dylan– Translations".
  12. ^ "Love (146) Is Back In Town". New Haven Independent. Retrieved 2022-10-02.