The October Club is delighted to announce that its chosen charity partner for 2026 is STOP THE TRAFFIK, a charity that seeks to prevent human trafficking before it happens.
Human trafficking is a crime in which people are recruited, controlled and exploited for profit. There are an estimated 140,000 victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK alone, with British nationals the most referred nationality for support through the UK National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Shockingly, approximately 75% of British nationals referred to the NRM are children, with primary school-age children being groomed, coerced and exploited in both criminal exploitation, including drug trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
STOP THE TRAFFIK leverages data and technology to disrupt exploitation. It has developed the world’s richest database on trafficking, the Traffik Analysis Hub, and, informed by this intelligence, delivers digital programmes that are proven to prevent people from being exploited. Through successful partnerships with over 250 banks, businesses, law enforcement agencies and nonprofits, it makes the traffickers’ business models higher risk and lower profit.
STOP THE TRAFFIK has piloted its Safer Futures Programme, which seeks to prevent child criminal exploitation, across eight English cities. Through localised data collection, the programme has helped to identify the methods used to recruit children and enable the dissemination of critical safety information. Results have demonstrated both the effectiveness of the approach and the need for nationwide intervention. With the support of The October Club, STOP THE TRAFFIK will be able to scale up its prevention model across the entirety of England.
Rebekah Lisgarten, the CEO of STOP THE TRAFFIK said: “Being selected means the world to me personally, to the whole team at STOP THE TRAFFIK, but most importantly to every child who will be protected as a result of The October Club’s support. This support is transformational and will mean that thousands of children across England are not trafficked or exploited. In parallel, the Safer Futures Programme will build up the richest dataset and actionable insights on child exploitation in England, which will be provided to an established network of actors able to stop perpetrators of exploitation.”
Samantha Huggins, Chair of The October Club, said: “We are thrilled to announce STOP THE TRAFFIK as The October Club’s 2026 charity partner. Their Safer Futures Programme is exactly the kind of bold, innovative work we look for – using technology and data to get ahead of exploitation and shield young people from harm before it reaches them. This is genuinely transformational, and we are proud to be backing it.”
For more information about STOP THE TRAFFIK, please see stopthetraffik.org