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 better serve in the fight against child sex trafficking. 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 numbers of identification pinned to their dresses. One girl in particular stood out. Morris explained that she stared at them with a piercing gaze, saying, "There was still fight left in her eyes." Her number was 146. 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, Fox News, the CNN Freedom Project, and more. Love146 became an official public charity in March 2004, under the name Justice for Children International. In 2007, with the help of word of mouth marketing firm Brains on Fire, 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. They have also been spotlighted in Relevant Magazine. They are supported by bands such as The Wrecking and Paramore. Former Board member and President of Baume & MercierNorth America, Rudy Chavez, 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".
Programs
Love146 is an international human rights organization working to prevent child trafficking and exploitation and care for survivors. It serves children in the United States, The Philippines, and the United Kingdom, and several countries in Africa. Love146 subscribes to the holistic biopsychosocial model of treatment and care, assessing the biological, psychological, and social aspects of survivors. Their prevention education curriculum, Not a Number, has facilitators active in 14 states as of 2017. Not a Number is designed to teach youth how to protect themselves from human trafficking and exploitation through information, critical thinking, and skill development. It uses a holistic approach focusing on respect, empathy, individual strengths, and the relationship between personal and societal pressures that create or increase vulnerabilities. The group's professional training efforts are spread throughout the U.S. and Asia, providing professionals, such as teachers and social workers, with the tools they need to prevent the trafficking of children, as well as identify and support victims. Love146 also trains aftercare workers from safe homes, equipping them with knowledge and best practices to reach and restore the children in their care. Love146's grassroots empowerment efforts focus on identifying and building the capacity of leaders in the field currently working to protect children. The organization provided support to an Indian NGO Samabhavana Society for a vocational training program to help men involved in prostitution due to abject poverty.
Financial information
Financial documents on the Love146 web site contain financial information from the U.S. Office including independent U.S. audits and U.S. government reports. In the 2017/2018 fiscal year, 73% of Love146's budget went to programs, 14.2% to fundraising, and 12.7% to administrative expenses. Charity Navigator has awarded Love146 its Platinum Seal of Transparency in its latest report.
Other media
American rock band Paramore released their second studio albumRiot! in 2007, featuring the song "We Are Broken" as a tribute to Love146. During The Final Riot! the band sold a sweater in which the proceeds went to the charity. Also, on the tour DVD, bassist Jeremy Davis can be seen with a Love146 patch on his guitar strap. YouTuber & Beauty Guru Michelle Phan made a small campaign to raise awareness for Love146 in March 2014. She told her 7 million subscribers to write down "146" and outline it with a heart and share it to friends or to post on social media with the hashtag, #RememberTheGirl. In 2019 Phan's makeup brand EM Cosmetics offered a lip shade called "Love," with profits dedicated to help children Love146 cares for. In April 2014, a young student from New Jersey uploaded a small documentary to YouTube of him and his class raising $1,400 for Love146 as part of a multi-cultural heritage project. Rob Morris visited the local middle school and expressed his gratitude towards the class in a follow-up video a few months later.
