According to Monica McIntyre, founder of Aftercare International, human trafficking is often framed as a problem of rescue. In her view, raids and liberation stories can dominate public attention, which can reinforce the belief that freedom begins and ends the moment exploitation stops. The reality, however, reveals a different story.
"Rescue is only a brief interruption in a much longer and more dangerous journey," says McIntyre. "Without sustained, professional aftercare, many survivors face a high risk of re-trafficking, poverty, or lifelong instability."
Globally, more than 50 million people are trapped in trafficking and modern slavery, generating an estimated $236 billion in profits annually, most of it coming from sex trafficking. The crisis is accelerating, with women and girls accounting for 54 percent of victims, and more than 12 million, roughly one in five, being children. Sexual exploitation remains the most prevalent form of trafficking, representing 61 percent of the cases, followed by forced labor, which accounts for 37 percent.
Yet trafficking is not one crime, nor one experience. "We've oversimplified what trafficking looks like," says McIntyre. "It includes child marriage, female genital mutilation, caste-based exploitation, and even human sacrifice. Survivors come out of radically different forms of violence, and they require radically different kinds of care."
In parts of South Asia, McIntyre states, trafficking begins at birth. "In Bangladesh and India, entire red-light districts function as closed ecosystems where girls are born into brothels, raised alongside active exploitation, and groomed for sale long before adolescence," she says.
According to McIntyre, this "brothel-bound since birth" reality represents a distinct form of gender-based violence, one that challenges conventional rescue models. "In such situations, escape can often mean severing the only community a child has ever known," he explains.
In the Philippines, she points toward areas such as Angeles City, where, according to her, poverty fuels what she describes as "victims of opportunity, where women and girls are not abducted but coerced by circumstance. She emphasizes the need for "soft rescues," where rescue organizations can help victims by presenting them with solutions they wouldn't have believed existed. "We go to them in discrete locations and provide them with choices, so that they have options, support, and shelters that can take them in," she explains.
Elsewhere, McIntyre highlights that trafficking takes less common forms. "In Uganda, children become victims of far more nefarious acts for ritualized beliefs tied to wealth," she highlights, "The few who survive require lifelong medical and psychological care."
McIntyre also points to Kenya, where girls fleeing mutilation and forced marriage may often arrive at shelters severely injured, ostracized, and without access to healthcare.
Aftercare International exists precisely at the center of such situations, where rescue ends, and survival must become sustainable. Founded in 2019, the organization works as a global alliance supporting trusted local partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Rather than operating shelters directly, it strengthens those already embedded in their communities, ensuring survivors are not merely housed, but supported to heal, learn, and rebuild.
What distinguishes Aftercare International is its systems-level approach. McIntyre, drawing on her background in clinical counseling, addiction treatment, and nonprofit governance, spent four years developing the field's first comprehensive international accreditation framework for aftercare. According to her, the process evaluates shelters across trauma-informed care, governance, financial transparency, data security, reintegration outcomes, and long-term sustainability. "Intentions are not enough," she says. "A shelter must be able to survive operationally and responsibly if it's going to protect survivors long-term. This is where we step in."
The organization also addresses fragmentation of rescue operations through Global Aftercare, Aftercare International's secure collaborative platform, where vetted shelters can share resources, training, and funding requests directly with aligned donors. As she explains, "I believe such an initiative can reduce duplication, accelerate learning, and ensure donor dollars are spent on purposeful care."
Rooted in the very nature of long-term care, sustainability remains central to Aftercare International. Through partnerships that offer sustainability, Aftercare International aims to support models that provide survivors with dignified employment, stable income, and community reintegration. "Healing doesn't end when someone leaves a shelter," McIntyre notes. "There is no checklist for recovery. Freedom requires opportunity."
Today, Aftercare International supports more than 25 partners in over 15 countries, positively impacting survivors through housing, education, vocational training, and reintegration services. McIntyre is actively inviting donors to help expand Aftercare International's impact. Contributions fund the construction and maintenance of shelters, support survivor programs, and enable vocational initiatives.
Monica McIntyre and her team's work lives within the belief that ending trafficking goes beyond awareness or rescue operations. In her opinion, it demands a global commitment to sustainable and survivor-centered care, and that's the sanctuary she is building through Aftercare International.
"True freedom comes only when survivors have access to safe housing, trauma-informed care, education, and economic opportunity," she says. "Our goal is to ensure that when someone survives trafficking, they don't just survive, they reclaim their lives with dignity and independence. That's when we'll know we're making a difference."
