Love146 is a U.S.-based

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit international anti-

child trafficking Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt" kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour and exploitation. ...

organization.

History

Love146 was founded in 2002 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

. According to Love146, as part of an undercover operation, investigators took several co-founders into a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

where they witnessed young girls being sold for sex. The girls were given numbers of identification 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. 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 Mercy Ships is an international charity that operates the largest non-governmental hospital ships in the world, providing humanitarian aid like free health care, community development projects, community health education, mental health programs, ...

International. Morris has lectured and taught in over 30 countries on issues of justice,

compassion Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as being sensitive to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on n ...

, and human rights, and has been featured in the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

, Fox News, the CNN Freedom Project, and other outlets. Love146 became an official public charity in March 2004, under the name Justice for Children International. In 2007, the group changed their name to Love146. Love146 was named an "Agent of Change" by '' GQ'' magazine, and earned a Myspace Impact Award for social justice. Baume & Mercier sent Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist

Carolyn Cole Carolyn Cole (born April 24, 1961) is a staff photographer for the'' Los Angeles Times''. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2004 for her coverage of the siege of Monrovia in 2003, the capital of Liberia. Education Cole gradu ...

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". 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, started her human rights career at Love146. 28 states have utilized the curriculum of the organization as of 2022.{{Cite web , title=Love (146) Is Back In Town , url=https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/love146 , access-date=2022-10-02 , website=New Haven Independent , language=en That year, the organization celebrated its 20th anniversary with a "cutting of the ribbon".

References

501(c)(3) organizations Non-profit organizations based in Connecticut