Tiny Stars is the nonprofit organization that Collins started in 2005, after seeing countless victims in over 80 different countries, including our own. The organization’s aim is to raise awareness of, and money for, the fight against child trafficking—both globally and in the U.S.

“It’s more of an organized crime than just smuggling people across the boarders,” says Collins. “Because we’re dealing with children, people can easily use fake passports or fake adoption papers, and no one asks any questions because they assume that a child is always with her parent or guardian.”

Right now, Tiny Stars is working with countless national and international organizations and civic groups to raise awareness towards what Collins calls the “global industry of pedophilia.”

Through nationwide fundraising campaigns, the creation of several documentary films and the support of high-powered celebrities—including Oprah and Regis and Kelly—Tiny Stars hopes to train American citizens in how to identify victims and blow the whistle on their abusers.

One of Tiny Stars’ primary efforts is to train local law enforcement officials who, Collins says, don’t always know what to look for. “They’ll bust a huge ring of prostitutes and find a bunch of kids in the back room and think, ‘Oh these must be the kids of the prostitutes,’ and send them off to foster homes,” says Collins. “But really they are victims, too, who haven’t been identified.”