Our Values

• Non religious and non partisan

• Grassroots based - working at the local level and impacting individuals.

• Apply a gendered perspective to the issues of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, working from the belief that it is the power relations between men and women and the devaluation of females that puts women and children most at risk of sexual exploitation and perpetuates sexual slavery human trafficking.

• Community participation - engaging and building relationships in the community by teaching community members new skills and ideas and providing opportunities to effectively facilitate change.

• Empowerment - we aim to provide assisstance and knowledge in order to empower the people we work with to make changes in their own lives.

• Valuing the concerns of community and cultural sensitivity.

• Reflective on how we may impact the community we are trying to help in both negative and positive ways, and doing our best to lessen any negative impact.

• Sexual Exploitation vs. Sex Work: Although some argue that sex work is an acceptable form of labor like any other job and that many women choose sex "work" as a profession

  AEE works with women and children who are forced, coerced, trafficked, intimidated and sold into the sex industry for commercial purposes. AEE recognizes that many individuals enter sex work as a choice but we work with those who do so because they have no other choice to support themselves or their family financially. We see this as a non choice and therefore also as sexual exploitation.