Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow

Diep Vuong is a seasoned senior leader with multi-sector experience (high-tech, nonprofit, multilateral) in strategic planning and organizational development, monitoring and evaluation, grant-making, financial analysis, strategic partnership development, program design and implementation. Diep co-founded and serves as president of Pacific Links Foundation, a youth and women empowerment nonprofit with large-scale programs in schools, communities and factories. Since 2005, she has designed innovative, grassroots solutions to prevent human trafficking through empowerment, poverty alleviation and diverse public-private partnerships. Diep is a key spokesperson on the complex issue of trafficking with media outlets such as CNN, PBS, and The Economist. Since the early 90s, her work has focused on economic empowerment and community participation for multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, UNDP, and international NGOs. Diep is a trained economist and evaluator. She graduated from Harvard University and San Jose State University; and pursued PhD coursework at the University of California, Berkeley.

We are committed to breaking the cycle of human trafficking by investing comprehensively in at-risk girls through education and skills development. Education protects and empowers at-risk girls to make safer and better economic choices. Through Pacific Links Foundation, Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow helps the poorest students in Vietnam to stay in school and improve their economic outlook, thus decreasing trafficking risks. Our holistic, innovative project provides long-term scholarships covering school fees, supplies, bicycles and tutoring, as well as home visits, family days, summer camps, online learning platform and financial literacy app. They are given the knowledge, confidence and skills to proactively plan a future that is safe from trafficking. We believe that by enabling girls to have access to education, skills development, the networks, and opportunities they will be able to uplift themselves and their communities out of poverty and out of the reach of traffickers.

Human trafficking is a growing $150 billion a year business (ILO 2012), enslaving over 40 million people in forced sexual and forced labor exploitation (ILO & Walk Free Foundation 2017). Complex root causes include: Income (poverty, lack of economic opportunities), Identity, Gender inequality, Education and Law enforcement practices. 

Vietnam is in the midst of an ambitious development program to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty, however development is uneven and the income gap is widening with access to employment concentrated in urban areas. Consequently, Vietnam is one of the top source countries for trafficking victims who are often lured away with false promises of employment; destinations include the UK, China and Malaysia. Disproportionately, 79% of victims are women and girls. The 2020 United States Trafficking in Persons Report continues to places Vietnam in Tier 2 Watch List, illustrating Vietnam’s sustained need for better counter-trafficking efforts. 

As a result, trafficking is one of the most critical development issues Vietnam faces today. 

The economic impact from Covid-19, places more people at-risk, especially those working in low-income, irregular jobs. A ILO report, “Covid-19 and the labour market in Vietnam” estimates that up to 10.3 million workers could be impacted by Covid-19.

Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow addresses three trafficking risk factors: Income, Gender and Education. The project increases access to education for disadvantaged girls who are most at risk for dropping out of school in trafficking hotspots, which puts them directly in the crosshairs of traffickers. Obtaining an education enables an improved economic outlook which reduces the trafficking risk for the most vulnerable populations in the Mekong Delta, where students often drop out of school due to economic hardship. The economic impact from Covid-19, places increased pressure for students to drop out of school as families lose employment. Education bolstered with life skills development strengthens recipients’ ability to participate in the labor force and contribute to their communities. Our holistic, innovative project provides long-term scholarships covering school fees, supplies, bicycles and tutoring, as well as home visits and family days to raise awareness about trafficking and summer camps, online learning platform and financial literacy app for skills development and career orientation. Our support empowers girls with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to proactively plan and make better and safer life decisions for a future free from trafficking. Since 2005, we have awarded 10,000+ long-term comprehensive scholarships.

Our project benefits girls ages 14 to 18 from economically disadvantaged backgrounds living in areas with high incidences of human trafficking in the Mekong Delta. Specifically, the program targets “at-risk” girls defined as those who are on the verge of dropping out of school and come from families with one or more of the following circumstances:

• Women as the head of household

• Women as the main wage earner

• Family members living with disability and/or long-term illness

• Multiple daughters in high-risk age group (12-25 years old)

• Living near or below the poverty line

The project provides education and skills development as a way out of poverty for students most at risk for dropping out of school, which makes them vulnerable to traffickers who recruit victims by promising employment. 

Input is regularly collected from beneficiaries to improve our project. In fact, we expanded opportunities for skills development and started our online learning platform due to the need and demand from beneficiaries. 

We engage beneficiaries to build self-confidence through developing core life skills. Self-confidence strengthens their belief in themselves, their abilities, and their commitment to stay in school, which contributes to a future free from trafficking. 

Our project provides opportunities for the poorest of the poor who are traditionally left behind. Further, the project focuses on girls, who are often given less opportunities than boys. The project is designed to give girls access to education and opportunities to build skills and the confidence for success in the future (both academically and professionally). We also work closely with our beneficiaries and key stakeholders to build awareness of trafficking, and understand the importance of staying in school to prevent trafficking. Involvement of student’s families and community members are critical to building a future that is free from trafficking. 

In 2003, there were television reports of brothel raids in Cambodia, where rescuers found children of Vietnamese heritage. This became an uproar in the Vietnamese American community. 

I led a group of Vietnamese American organizations back to Vietnam to these remote, border villages to see first hand what was happening, only to realize that something really bad was going on. We witnessed rampant sex trafficking; many young Vietnamese women were trafficked across the border to be sexually exploited.  

Thereafter, I started a project in the Mekong Delta bordering Vietnam and Cambodia with three Vietnamese American organizations to prevent trafficking through providing access to education. The saddest thing is, we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. 

Over the years, trafficking continues to spread through communities in Vietnam due to market forces. For example, China’s one-child policy resulted in a huge gender imbalance that made it difficult for Chinese men to find wives. This then created a market for female trafficking victims. 

What began as a short-term project evolved into Pacific Links Foundation’s much needed counter-trafficking portfolio that invests in at-risk youth to prevent trafficking and in survivors to build new lives. Since 2005, 120,000+ individuals have been served. 

As a teenager, I fled war-torn Vietnam by boat. My experiences as a refugee taught me what it was like to be vulnerable and the invaluable lesson that, given the right opportunities, anyone can become a global citizen. These values have shaped my life ever since. In the US, I worked diligently to learn English, to earn money for rent and food, and to finish high school. For us refugees, it was always clear that education was the key to surviving. I was lucky enough to be accepted to Harvard and became an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. My upward mobility, the American way, was, in a sense, assured. But the memory of my escape, and the circumstances in which I became an American were never far from my mind. So, I decided to come back to Vietnam to do what I could. This is where I have chosen to focus my energies, to answer in part what I believe a kinder, global world must offer our human race. Human trafficking, a growing epidemic, represents one of the most appalling consequences of globalization. Ours today is a world where a girl can be sold for as little as $400 dollars.

I strongly believe in education. It has the power to lift vulnerable people out of poverty and out of traffickers’ reach. I have a deep understanding and track record of successfully implementing grassroots programs in resource-poor settings.     

Since 2005, Pacific Links Foundation has delivered innovative and successful solutions to prevent trafficking. We work in 17 Vietnamese provinces empowering the most vulnerable against trafficking, more than any other anti-trafficking organization in Vietnam. It takes up to 1.5 years for an NGO to become registered in one province. We have provided direct outreach, education, and economic opportunities to 120,000+ vulnerable people. Highlights include: 

• 20,000+ scholarships awarded

• 2,000+ online learning platform users

• 2,000+ financial literacy app users

• 37,000+ factory workers and their managers trained 

• 700+ trafficking survivors assisted in their reintegration process 

We also operate one of two long-term reintegration shelters for female trafficking victims in Vietnam. Our firsthand, longtime experience working with at-risk communities and trafficking survivors at the grassroots level provides critical insight on what support is most needed for preventing trafficking.

Pacific Links Foundation's network in Vietnam, Europe and the US includes multinationals, local companies, influential individuals, and experts in key sectors of social care, health, education, immigration and criminal justice. Our team is fluent in Vietnamese with years of grassroots experience working directly with victims, vulnerable populations, and local partners in a culturally competent context. 

Due to Covid-19, our students had no access to school from January to April 2020. 

As a result, I saw how important it was for our recipients to be connected to survive and thrive. It was critical to prevent our girls from falling behind in school and to preserve their ability for growth. Technology was key in filling the educational gaps as the landscape continues to shift. Technology helps people overcome the barriers in their families, schools and communities by connecting them with resources and role models that they would not otherwise have access to. 

I pivoted Pacific Links Foundation from providing in-person to online learning opportunities. When students were out of school, we asked those with a laptop/tablet and Internet to spend every day learning English through our online learning platform (https://lms.paclinks.org). By March they had improved so vastly that we decided to shift limited resources to build out our platform and bring more students access. The platform increases student’s ability to self-study and connects users to tutors, mentors, and industry experts to build knowledge and skills. What is most amazing is that our students come to realize their potential to advance on their own.

Over the years, I have watched in amazement as many of our recipients transitioned from a life of dire poverty and vulnerability to a life as an entrepreneur, a chef, a teacher etc. In other words, productive and dignified members of society. 

Take the story of Sao, for example. She was kidnapped from the mountainous Northern Vietnam and sold into China as a wife at 15. She was forced to have a child and managed to escape back to Vietnam, but sadly, had to leave her child behind. Staying in our shelter, Sao grew more confident and renewed her dream of becoming a doctor. After three years of incredible hard work, she graduated among the top in her class and is currently enrolled in a medical college. She almost didn’t go to college due to the lack of support from her parents. My team and I supported her each step of the way, making sure that she did not lose sight of her dreams. The counter-trafficking solutions I’ve designed take into account the challenges that girls like Sao face while creatively using the resources at hand including technology, to give them a real chance to live and thrive. 

Our comprehensive project is unique in its large-scale and long-term focus on education and skills development. Students receive academic scholarships in addition to opportunities for self-development through annual program activities, such as Family Days to raise awareness about trafficking and the importance of staying in school, Home Visits to assess/reduce dropout risks and raise awareness about trafficking, and Summer Camp to develop life and career skills. 

We also encourage our students to engage in self-learning through technology. In 2017, we launched an online learning platform to connect students with localized resources and networks. The platform includes online English learning and tutoring, which improves students’ English, a critical workforce readiness skill. In 2017, we also launched a financial literacy app to help users think about savings and how to manage their expenses. From our experience working with trafficking survivors, individuals have been trafficked because of their precarious financial situations such as owing huge amounts of debt and lack of savings for an emergency; thereby increasing access to financial literacy knowledge and having a tool to develop healthy financial habits will help reduce their trafficking risks. 

Together these activities bolsters the education our students receive in schools to improve their economic outlook and strengthen their ability to  participate in the labor force. Our digital tools have proven invaluable in providing students with access beyond what is currently available in their immediate communities, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our theory of change is: The more knowledge and skills an individual amasses, the higher the likelihood she will increase their ability to make informed choices about their future to increase her access to economic opportunities and thereby reduce her vulnerability to trafficking. 

Our project addresses three out of five trafficking risk factors identified by Mike Dottridge, human trafficking research expert, UN Slavery Fund Trustee, and former head of Anti-Slavery International: Income, Gender and Education. 

When people go find jobs without support, they have increased trafficking risks due to a lack of information and ability to assess potential risks. 

ILO reports that women have limited access to information, skills, financial literacy and opportunities they would need to attain jobs with livable wages and engage with regular migration options. Women also tend to be concentrated in low-skilled jobs. 

The Stanford Social Innovation Review pointed out the importance of women empowerment programs, "a growing body of research has reinforced the idea that the economic empowerment of women can significantly boost productivity, reduce employee turnover, and promote the sustainable development of consumer markets."  Further, the World Bank found that “When companies help train, prepare, and support vulnerable women and men to thrive in the world of work, they foster a kind of economic value that can promote both company success and social progress simultaneously.”

Additionally, the Stanford Social Innovation Review found that grassroots women's organizations like Pacific Links Foundation offer many advantages including being trusted community members; strategic, culturally grounded players; experience navigators; ancillary program providers and cost-efficient partners. 

The project is designed to be scalable and can directly and meaningful serve even more people depending on funding availability.

We currently serve 2000+ people. In one year, we will serve 3000+ people.In five years, we hope to serve 6000+ people.

Within the next year, we aim to scale our online learning platform to reach all 2000+ students . 

Within the next five years, in addition to scaling the number of students reached to 6000+, we aim to deepen our impact. This includes building out the online learning platform such as developing additional online courses for self-study to build knowledge and skills (this will add to the 20+ courses that currently includes English, math, language arts, human trafficking awareness & prevention), increasing the number of English speaking tutors to provide online English tutoring to students, increasing the number of mentors from different fields that is available to connect with students to develop skills that would help them achieve their career goals, increasing  discussions/workshops offered for students to build knowledge and skill. 

The success of our online learning platform largely depends on our girls’ ability to access the platform. Cash or in-kind support will be needed to fund tablets and Internet access to enable our students to access the platform. We plan to grow and diversify our existing network, develop revenue streams through selling services and increasing online fundraising. 

Additionally, these activities leverage our strong, dedicated network of volunteers across the world, engaging them as tutors and workshop presenters. 

Barriers to accomplishing our goals include:

1. Covid-19 which may limit in-person learning opportunities and our ability to fundraise to expand our project 

2. Reluctant Partners and Stakeholders

3. Staff Turnover

4. Reluctant Beneficiaries

5. Financial which may limit the growth of our project

To overcome: 

1. Covid-19, activities will continue to be moved online and modified accordingly to deliver the intended impact. We will also increase fundraising online. 

1. Reluctant Partners and Stakeholders, we will engage key partners and stakeholders from the outset, use our existing network to encourage and reassure partners and ensure ongoing participation and input to secure buy-in.

2. Staff Turnover, we will ensure thorough project records, senior staff are informed about project progress and engage project partners to support new replacement staff. 

3. Reluctant Beneficiaries, we will engage peer support group members,and provide incentives to encourage participation. 

4. Financial, we will continue to leverage, grow and diversify our network in Vietnam, Europe and the US. This includes developing new revenue streams from selling services. The project has also been designed to be scalable, and thus will easily adjust to the funding level that is available. Pacific Links Foundation has continuously delivered innovative and effective solutions since 2001 thus we are confident that we will be able to successfully navigate the new normal.

Pacific Links Foundation currently partners with:

• 40+ schools and local Study Promotion Associations to identify students who are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and face imminent risks of dropping out of school. 

• Families, schools and the local community to stop a student from dropping out of school. Pacific Links Foundation mandates high levels of community and parental involvement. Our experience has taught us that parents/guardians’ involvement is crucial to reducing dropout rates and providing a nurturing environment conducive to academic success.

• Local People’s Committee and parent-teachers associations to hold regular town hall meetings to increase awareness about the latest trafficking tactics, and to reiterate the importance of keeping their daughter in school. 

• Governments (US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, among others), nonprofit organizations, and private companies (L Brands, MGF Sourcing, Intel, Walmart, Clarks, Biti’s, LaLiga, Victoria Hotels & Resorts, among others) to provide support (both cash and in-kind). In-kind support includes presenting career orientation and life skills workshops during summer camp, facilitating site visits for career orientation, and providing mentors for students. 

All of these partners play a vital role in reducing the dropout rate among beneficiaries. Input is frequently solicited and documented from our partners to continuously improve support.

Our key beneficiaries are economically disadvantaged girls, who are most at-risk for dropping out of school. The project enables girls to stay in school and empowers them to make safer and better economic choices. Our project provides comprehensive long-term education and skills development support covering school fees, supplies, bicycles and tutoring, as well as home visits, family days, online learning platform, financial literacy app and summer camps. 

The services are delivered directly by Pacific Links Foundation, both in-person and online. We work with the community and parents/guardians to support students and to increase awareness about trafficking. The project leverages Pacific Links Foundation’s existing programs and other projects as well as partnerships including those with governments (US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, among others), nonprofit organizations, and corporations (L Brands, MGF Sourcing [representing Express, Talbots, J. Crew], Intel, Walmart, Clarks, Biti’s, La Liga, Victoria Hotels & Resorts, among others]. Our partners have been critical in providing in-kind support such as presenting workshops to students on career opportunities and life skills, helping students to improve their English, and connecting us with additional resources. 

Input from key beneficiaries and stakeholders are essential to the development of our project. Over the years, key stakeholders have expressed the need for support to educate economically disadvantaged youth in their communities. Further both community members and beneficiaries have expressed the desire for more skills development opportunities. This led to the expansion of our online learning platform.

We are continuously improving our funding and revenue model for financial sustainability. Our path to financial sustainability includes a combination of sustained donations and grants; and selling services. Our online learning platform and financial literacy app can include user paid content and be brand-sponsored such as through brand advertising.

Organizations providing grant support for the project include: L Brands, MGF Sourcing, Vietnam Education Society, Walmart, Rotary, among others.

Pacific Links Foundation’s counter-trafficking initiatives have operated continuously since its launch in 2005. Our diverse network of funders and supporters continues to grow especially in the United States, Europe and Vietnam thus we are confident that we will be able to secure the support to grow and scale our solution.

Pacific Links Foundation is seeking $590,000 of grant funding to support 1,000 at-risk girls with long-term academic scholarships to stay in school, skills development opportunities and access to our online learning platform for two years:

1. 1000 Scholarships ($350/student x 500 x 2 years = $350,000)

2. 1000 Tablets ($160/student x 1000 = $160,000)

3. 1000 Internet access ($40/student x 1000 x 2 years = $80,000)

Pacific Links Foundation’s estimated expenses for 2020 is $3 million.

The Elevate Prize will help Pacific Links Foundation overcome the financial and Covid-19 barrier by garnering more resources, both cash and in-kind support, for the project. It will help keep at-risk girls in school, safe from traffickers and increase access to our online learning platform to ensure that disadvantaged students are able to continue learning through the pandemic and beyond.

Our partnership goals are twofold: 1) to garner more resources for the project such as through improving our funding and revenue model; increasing marketing, media, and exposure; developing a stronger Board and 2) to deepen the impact of the project such as through improving monitoring and evaluation. This additional support will complement our expertise, scalable solutions, committed team, international network, cooperative counterparts, and strong reputation.

We are looking to partner with the following organizations to provide additional resources to advance our project:

• Tablet Manufacturers for in-kind tablet donations or discounts to enable students to access Pacific Links Foundation’s online learning platform

  • Samsung

  • Lenovo

  • Asus

• Mobile Carriers in Vietnam for in-kind data SIM card support or discounts to enable students to have Internet to access our online learning platform

• Viettel

• MobiFone

• Vinaphone

• Online Education Companies for support to develop content in Vietnamese to enable students to have a wider breadth of content to self-study from 

  • Khan Academy 

• English Language Schools for online tutors and curriculum support in Vietnamese to enable students to have access to more tutors and an improved curriculum 

• Cloud Computing Services for in-kind donations or discounts for server space to host our online learning platform

  • Microsoft Azure

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)