Charisma Magazine

The horror of child sex trafficking has grown to be almost as big as the global drug trade. But the abusers can be stopped if enough of us act now.

I stood in a vacant lot in south Asia surrounded by rocks, fallen trees and the foundations of a new home. Earlier that evening, I’d had dinner with dozens of girls and young women who had been rescued from child sex trafficking—forced prostitution where they served 30 to 40 customers a night. Now they live in a beautiful safe house on the property. More girls were on the way, and the safe-house director was showing me the lot where she was building a home to house them.

I looked at the lot, at the new house barely started, and at this one foreign woman who had to raise her own support as well as operating costs to house, feed and heal all these girls. “How do you keep from getting overwhelmed?” I asked her.

She looked at me as if I were crazy. “If I do what I’m supposed to do, and you do what you’re supposed to, the job gets done,” she said, as if running this type of ministry was the most natural thing in the world.

And she was right. Often when we hear about horrific situations such as child sex trafficking, we don’t know what to do. The stories are so awful, and we feel so powerless. We want to help—but what can we possibly do?

God is using ordinary people like you and me all over the world to make a dent in this global nightmare. There are large ministries doing great things, but there are also dozens of people who have other full-time jobs or no jobs. They’re not ministers or evangelists, but God moved on their hearts and gave them creative ideas—and they’re making a difference.

You can, too.

Protection

In the fight against child trafficking, there are four P’s: protection, prosecution, prevention and partnership. Protection involves rescuing trafficked children and helping them heal from the trauma. Some children who have been abused through sex trafficking are as young as 5 years old.

Child sex slavery happens not only in Third-World countries but also throughout the United States. Children are trafficked within the U.S., smuggled across the border from another country or brought here openly from foreign lands. Traffickers hold them captive in cities such as yours and mine. Recruiters work in U.S. high schools and even middle schools to lure young children.

Organizations such as International Justice Mission (IJM, ijm.org), International Crisis Aid (ICA, crisisaid.org), the Dalit Freedom Network (dalitnetwork.org) and many others conduct rescues throughout the world, risking the lives of their workers to free children from filthy brothels where they are caged like animals.

In the United States, ICA, state task forces such as the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FCAHT, stophumantrafficking.org), and the Polly Klaas Foundation (pollyklaas.org) conduct search and rescues. Project Exodus (project-exodus.org) works in Los Angeles and sends teams of trained volunteers into the community to observe businesses believed to be involved in trafficking. Results are compiled into a report given to other anti-trafficking and law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles.

After children are set free physically, it can be years before their hearts and spirits are also free. It takes skilled, patient care to help them heal. Love146 (love146.org), which is opening safe houses to care for rescued children internationally, found that many caregivers have a heart for helping traumatized kids but little training to do so. Love146 organizes in-depth seminars to provide trauma training for caregivers, particularly in Asia.

Most Americans are surprised to find there’s a need for safe houses for minors in the U.S., but each year more than 100,000 kids and young women are trafficked for sex within our borders. The U.S. office of Cambodia-based Chab Dai (chabdai.org) compiled an online resource showing services available to rescued victims in the U.S.

In the U.S., many faith-based organizations provide safe houses and aftercare, including ICA (Missouri), Ahava Kids (Connecticut and Georgia, ahavakids.org), Gracehaven (Ohio, gracehavenhouse.org), Dream Center (Los Angeles, dreamcenter.org), GEMS (New York, gems-girls.org), Restore (New York, restorenyc.org), Redeemed Love (Georgia, redeemedlove.org), Generate Hope (San Diego, generatehope.org), Hope House Project (North Carolina, hopehousenc.com) and Freedom Children’s Home (Florida, beautyfromashes.org). The shelters are designed specifically for survivors of human trafficking (not victims of domestic violence or other abusive situations, who have different needs). Some take children; others are for only women or men.

You can help organizations that provide protection in many ways. You will generally not be able to meet with the children, but you can provide supplies, food, clothing, gift cards to local stores and more. You can also learn the signs of trafficking (humantrafficking.org), and when you see something suspicious, call the national hotline: 888-373-7888.

Prosecution and Prevention

The second P is for prosecution, which involves arresting traffickers and putting them behind bars. Organizations such as IJM and Abolish Slavery (abolishslavery.org) spend months putting together cases against traffickers, who know the laws and how to get around them. Project Liberty (4projectliberty.webs.com) helps families whose children have been trafficked. If you are an attorney or work in law enforcement, you can volunteer your time to help these organizations.

The third P is for prevention—cutting off the pipeline and making sure kids don’t get trafficked in the first place. Most kids get lured into sex slavery because they don’t know any better. Organizations such as the Born to Fly Project (born2fly.org) work to make kids, parents and teachers aware. Not For Sale has numerous awareness outreaches, including mobilizing young abolitionists on college campuses. This group also has curriculum and other resources (notforsalecampaign.org), hosts Abolitionist Investigation Academy, and publishes the world Slavery Map, found at slaverymap.org.

Love146 organizes local task forces around the country, making it possible for interested people to meet together to learn what they can do to stop the traffic in their own cities as well as overseas. IJM has groups for students, youth, churches and artists. Oasis USA (oasisusa.org) and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (thefellowship.info) recently partnered to produce a webinar that linked hundreds of abolitionists around the U.S.

Other excellent organizations that are not necessarily faith based, such as Polaris Project (polarisproject.org), ECPAT International (ecpat.net), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (catwinternational.org), and many more, work in all three of these areas.

Partnership

The fourth P is for partnership. “Folks in the nongovernment sector are just as important to the fight as any dedicated cop or prosecutor,” according to Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, director of the U.S. State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. “One of the main things we’re trying to do is have a sustained anti-trafficking movement that harnesses all the voices of folks moved to do something about modern-day slavery—and then take that to the next level.

“A lot of people sell themselves short,” CdeBaca continued. “They say, ‘I’m not the attorney general, so I can’t put together a task force in my state.’ You can do a lot more than you think.”

Passion and Prayer

We could add two more P’s to the fight. It takes passion—even anger—to stop child trafficking. This article is not just about what others are doing to stop the traffic, but also about what you can do. You don’t have to have a degree in social work or law enforcement—only a heart to make a difference. Ask God for creative ideas of what you can do.

The final P is for prayer. As in any area where the devil has a stronghold, it will take passionate and persistent prayer to see breakthroughs. Exodus Cry, a ministry of International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri, has a comprehensive Web site devoted to prayer to end human trafficking, with chapters all over the world (exoduscry.com).

Someday we hope we won’t have to publish articles like this. In the meantime, you can hasten that day by getting involved in the fight to abolish modern-day slavery once and for all. Contact any of the organizations in this article, or Google “child trafficking” or “human trafficking” and the name of your city to find out what’s happening in your neighborhood.

“Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?” (Prov. 24:11-12, NIV).

Diana Scimone is director of the Born to Fly Project to stop child trafficking (born2fly.org). She sincerely hopes she’ll be out of a job very soon. Meanwhile you can follow her on Twitter @DianaScimone and on her blog at dianascimone.com, where she writes about the effort to stop child trafficking.

ONLINE INTERVIEW

Go to trafficking.charismamag.com to read Charisma’s exclusive interview with Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, director of the U.S. State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Everyday Abolitionists

All these people have full-time jobs in other professions, but they’re using their God-given gifts to make a difference and help stop the traffic:

• Lucy Ann Moll hosts “Save the Girls” yard sales to raise money for anti-trafficking organizations. To help others do the same, she posted how-to information on her blog, including signs, promotional material, news releases, and so on (lucyannmoll.com).

• Marlene Hoenig started a ministry to pray for and counsel adult victims of human trafficking (cinderella released.blogspot.com).

• Eric Proffitt (left), a singer and homeschooling father, ran 500 miles—in chains—to draw attention to child trafficking and raise funds to fight it (run4therescue.com).

• Emily Bain Murphy launched a blog to promote awareness about human trafficking and share information and resources (seasonoflight.blogspot.com).

• Stephanie Hamilton also started a blog, where she raises awareness about human trafficking and networks with other abolitionists (nowhere2hide.org). She also volunteers as a justice advocate with International Justice Mission, connecting with churches and other organizations to move people toward action.

• Art students from Florida State University taught art therapy to rescued victims, who used visual art to express their experiences.

Handbags for Justice

I first encountered human trafficking on a mission trip to Thailand,” says Emily Hill, founder of Stop Traffick Fashion. “I visited a home for young girls rescued from child prostitution. It struck me as horrifying that those sweet, exuberant girls, aged 7 to 14, had once been forced into prostitution.”

Hill knew her life would never be the same. She refused to become paralyzed by the overwhelming need and instead channeled her outrage into a response—launching a company called Stop Traffick Fashion (stoptraffickfashion.com).

The online company sells handbags and jewelry made by trafficking survivors in Nepal, India, Thailand and elsewhere.

Hill has a full-time job and decided to start the boutique on the side to help the victims of human trafficking.

“Anyone can take their individual skills and gifts to make a difference,” she says.

A One-Woman Crusade

Diana Scimone, who wrote this article, has been writing for Charisma for nearly 20 years. Her stories have taken readers to Sudan, China, the Philippines, Thailand and other places where she’s seen the devastation that many of the world’s children face.

Scimone’s heart was particularly broken by kids trapped in the child sex trade. “I kept hearing that children get lured into sex slavery because they don’t know the deceptive tactics of traffickers,” Scimone says.

To respond to this need, she launched a nonprofit organization and started writing awareness materials to educate kids, parents and teachers about the dangers of child trafficking. The Born to Fly Project (born2fly.org) hopes to distribute the materials this winter to at-risk kids all over the world.

“Just by educating kids and their parents,” Scimone says, “we can dramatically cut the rate of trafficking and save literally millions of kids from ever enduring this nightmare.”

Three years ago, Scimone wrote an article for Charisma about launching this project, and readers responded generously. If you’d like to help distribute these materials to at-risk kids and parents around the world, you may donate to The B2F Project by sending your contribution to Christian Life Missions, P.O. Box 952248, Lake Mary, FL 32795; indicate “child trafficking” on the memo line.

America's Ugliest Crime

by Charles J. Powell

Somewhere in the southeastern United States a frightened young Asian woman we’ll call Linn trembles with fear. Tonight for the first time she finds herself in a dimly lit room smelling of pine-scented disinfectant, stale rice and desperation. Faking a smile, Linn stands in a lineup among other women who are much like her, as a man she has never met selects which of them he will pay for sex. She is praying he will choose one of the other girls.

Linn did not choose to be a prostitute; she was brought to the U.S. by a criminal organization that promised her a job working as a maid for a wealthy American family. Yet upon her arrival in the United States, she was raped, beaten and told she would have to work in a brothel to pay the bill for her travel expenses to America—a bill she will never cease paying. Linn is now a sex slave and the latest victim of worldwide human trafficking.

According to the British National Archives, during the nearly 400 years of the transatlantic colonial slave trade (1519 to 1867), a total of 11 million Africans were captured and trafficked to the Americas. When that figure is compared to statistics from the United Nations and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which report that 600,000 persons are now trafficked internationally each year, one can readily calculate that during the last two decades worldwide human trafficking totals surpass that of 400 years of colonial slavery by a million.

Twelve million people have been sold into slavery in just 20 years. According to other DOJ statistics, thousands of men, women and children are trafficked into the United States illegally each year and sold as sex slaves to criminal organizations.

Human trafficking was defined in 2000 by the United Nations as “the recruitment, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion,” most often involving sexual exploitation or forced labor. Today the problem is bigger than most Americans could ever imagine, and for the most part, the church peacefully coexists with human trafficking right in its own backyard.

Recently I determined to investigate human trafficking in three major U.S. cities—Orlando, Florida; Atlanta and Las Vegas. I began my strange American “odyssey” in Orlando, and for five days I used the investigative and undercover techniques I learned while working in the War on Drugs and as a police officer.

The results were astounding. By the end of the week, using the Internet, the Yellow Pages, and free local rags and by driving around the city, I discovered 30 illegal brothels thought to be employing women trafficked illegally into the U.S. for the purposes of forced prostitution. All the brothels were within 15 miles of the church I used as a base of operations during my time in Orlando. Most of these establishments were disguised as somewhat legitimate massage parlors and spas, but to the trained eye they were easily outed as brothels.

To make matters worse, in almost every case in Orlando the business was obviously run by Asian organized crime. How could I be sure? When you walk into a massage parlor or spa where not a single person in the building speaks English, and you repeat the process day after day, hour after hour, there is only one possible explanation: organized crime.

A woman doesn’t say, “I want to immigrate to America and become a prostitute” of her own free will. The criminal methods being employed are well established and easily spotted.

My method was to enter the lobby of a suspected brothel posing as a tourist who had never previously visited such an establishment. I then asked questions about the services offered there, took a tour of the facilities, asked to meet all the girls working that day and made general conversation for as long as possible to allow myself time to look for the signs of human trafficking-related prostitution.

I continued making small talk until I thoroughly frustrated the massage parlor madam, who would eventually demand that I go with a girl to her room or leave the building. I always left, but not before I was able to determine with reasonable certainty whether or not to label the business a brothel staffed by illegally trafficked women.

A Nationwide Plague

The next city on my list was Atlanta, hailed for years as the capital of human trafficking in the United States. Experts offer many reasons for Atlanta’s earning this dubious distinction. Some cite Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation’s busiest, as a factor, while others point to Atlanta’s geography: The city is a nexus for multiple interstate highways from every direction.

Using the same methods I employed in Orlando, including the Internet, the telephone, free publications and personal visits to suspected brothels, my results were the same in Georgia as in Florida: I discovered numerous illegal brothels operating rather openly throughout the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. However, the criminal organizations I encountered were much more diverse.

According to U.S. government statistics, the local law enforcement officials of Atlanta and other, similar cities are forced to deal with criminal organizations that have roots in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as with domestic U.S. gangs, all actively trafficking in persons of varying ages for the purposes of prostitution, pornography and worse.

A popular television ad says, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” so I made this city the final stop on my fact-finding investigation. The first evening I was there I walked three blocks to the Bellagio hotel and casino, searching for evidence of illegal brothels, prostitution and any possible connection to human trafficking. I had one simple rule for my walk: I would not ask for materials promoting prostitution, but if offered them for free on the sidewalk or at a newsstand, I would accept them.

As I walked, I encountered dozens of individuals handing out full-color, business-card-sized advertisements that featured women of different ages and nationalities offering sex for money. Most of these hawkers appeared to be illegal immigrants working day labor, handing out the cards for some entity not readily identified. In just three blocks, I was handed more than 100 of these cards!

I also found a news rack featuring free publications that offered women for sex who could be sent to a person’s hotel room within 20 minutes. But in spite of the fact that prostitutes were readily available, I saw no overt connections to human trafficking.

So I hailed a taxi at the Bellagio, and within 10 minutes the driver had taken me off the Strip to an area of town where he showed me numerous massage parlors and spas that operated as fronts for full-service paid sex. There I discovered many businesses offering women from various countries who spoke little or no English. In Las Vegas, just as in Orlando and Atlanta, I found telltale signs of probable human trafficking in several of the establishments I visited that night.

Big cities are not the only places plagued by human trafficking. In rural Northeast Georgia at least four interstate highway “spas” that offered sex with Asian women opened in recent years, proving that human trafficking is not a problem known only to big cities. (These “spas” were eventually shut down by law enforcement.)

In the final analysis, human trafficking is now everywhere in the United States, whether its victims toil as sexual slaves, industrial sweatshop workers, domestic servants or agrislaves on farms. There are victims of modern-day human slavery near the places you live and go to church right here in the United States.

Right now, somewhere not too many miles from where you are reading this article, men, women and children are being forced to do the unthinkable ... against their will, against the law and against what God wants for their lives. It remains to be seen what the church will do to combat the enemy in the battle against modern-day slavery. So far, just down the street from your church, he seems to be winning the war—with little opposition from the body of Christ.

Linn is waiting ... and time is running out fast.

Charles J. Powell is the founder of Joshua’s Mission, a Georgia-based social justice group dedicated to fighting human trafficking through undercover investigations, the written and spoken word, community education and, when possible, rescuing victims of slavery. You can contact him at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit his Web site: charlespowellonline.com.