( CNN ) -- My commitment to the cause of stopping the exploitation of children was born from a humbling experience . In 2002 , I witnessed the horrors of human trafficking as we rescued three trembling girls living on the impoverished streets of India . Preventing these girls from falling prey to this horrendous crime was a personal awakening . I thank CNN 's Heroes initiative for allowing the Ricky Martin Foundation to share and engage others in our commitment to end the exploitation of children by human trafficking and modern-day slavery . That was more than a decade ago . Since then , I knew my foundation must shed a light on this taboo subject . Education has been our pillar from the outset . In 2004 , we launched People for Children , our principal project , to provide education and solutions for international efforts to eliminate child trafficking . This unscrupulous market -- which consists of 27 million victims worldwide , according to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report -- generates up to $ 32 billion annually , an amount rivaling that of the trafficking of arms and drugs . Of the 27 million , UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million are children who are trafficked every year to work as forced labor , in the commercial sex industry , in prostitution and in other forms of slavery . The statistics are staggering . Many contest them because the crimes are hidden . But numbers do n't matter : Preventing one or 200 children from traffickers validates our mission . No one should be exploited and deprived of his or her freedom . We believe every child has the right to be a child . As a young public charity , we have discovered we are not alone in this fight . We have been privileged to partner with groups such as UNICEF , Habitat for Humanity , The Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University , the University of Puerto Rico , Save the Children , RTL Foundation , The InterAmerican Development Bank , The Trafficking In Persons Office , SAP , Doral Bank and Microsoft . We joined forces with the InterAmerican Development Bank and the International Organization for Migration to launch Call and Live , the first regional campaign to combat human trafficking in the Americas . Lives were saved . We received thousands of phone calls through our hot line and were able to help launch hundreds of investigations in five countries . Unfortunately , atrocities committed against children have reached epidemic proportions on the Internet . To prevent these crimes , we launched Navega Protegido.org , an online bilingual child safety website , that provides tools to protect children from pornography and sexual exploitation . More recently , we published `` Human Trafficking in Puerto Rico : An Invisible Challenge '' in alliance with the University of Puerto Rico and The Protection Project . The pioneering investigation documents that too many minors in Puerto Rico are at risk of becoming exploited as sex slaves , as slave labor or used in pornography . Such findings led us to focus on the development of creative solutions . We are developing our first Child Development and Prevention Center in Puerto Rico to serve as a safe haven for children and young people . We aim to transform their lives through a holistic approach . Children and young people do not have a sufficiently loud voice in our society . To help change this , we continue to strengthen People for Children by redoubling our investigation and awareness campaigns . Our objective is to galvanize a movement to prevent this scourge . Addressing such an abominable crime on a global scale is a daunting challenge . We need to tackle it one life at a time . I am convinced that small triumphs over a long period of time will eventually result in the type of social justice we must all strive for . Human trafficking has no place in our world today . The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Ricky Martin .
1.2 million children are targeted each year for forced labor , sex trafficking . Ricky Martin : Atrocities committed against children epidemic on the Internet . Ricky Martin is committed to ending atrocities against children . He supports education , safe havens , working with international humanitarian help .