Airdate: News Stream: CNN Freedom Project

CNN tonight airs the first of a series of specials from its Freedom Project, which was launched in March 2011 to shine a spotlight on the horrors of modern-day slavery.

CNN’s Natalie Allen went to Vietnam on a trip to build a playground for poor children in the Mekong Delta. What she found, and shot with her own camera, was a community so poor and so vulnerable that it had become easy prey to child traffickers.

These specials reveal a poor community threatened by child traffickers, and highlights one woman’s mission to save “one girl at a time”.

Airing for the first time on News Stream (Midnight AEDST) on Monday February 13, ‘The Children of the Dump’ is heartbreaking to watch – but it is not without hope. We’ll introduce you to one woman on a mission to save this community, as she puts it, “one girl at a time.”

Part One: Monday Feb 13 Midnight AEDST
CNN’s Natalie Allen takes us to Rach Gia in southwest Vietnam where she meets a poor community of Cambodian refugees. They fled the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and have been living on the city dump for three generations. They eat what they find in the trash and sleep in shelters they make from the trash. The poverty and filth are crushing. But a bigger threat is child trafficking. Strangers show up at the dump, offer money and promise good jobs for the children… and then disappear. In this CNN Freedom Project report, we’ll look at the dangers they face and the one thread of hope that has come their way.

Part Two: Tuesday Feb 14 Midnight AEDST
The children of the dump are threatened every day by child traffickers. CNN’s Natalie Allen introduces us to a determined volunteer who is fighting to save them, and she is using a surprising weapon – school. In this CNN Freedom Project report, we learn how one woman is arming a community with books and pencils to fight a war against child trafficking. She’s using literacy to drive the traffickers away.

Part Three: Wednesday Feb 15 AEDST
CNN’s Natalie Allen went to Vietnam to build a playground. The children of the dump had never seen one before, a point that is clearly evident on their faces as the playground is unveiled. Thanks to volunteers from around the world, these children can now see beyond the dump and are starting to dream of a future in a better place, away from the threat of human trafficking.