I could sit here and write to you about the statistics of human trafficking, how’s it’s a 150 Billion dollar industry made of buying and selling humans, that it’s really happening in our own communities in spaces we don’t want to acknowledge, but when I truly think about why I choose to fight human trafficking faces flash through my mind. Faces of kids that I’ve sat with in some of the deepest, darkest moments of their lives as they’ve faced the trauma that their abuser inflicted on them. Faces of kids that I have held in their panic attacks, stayed up with them at night when they had night terrors, cried with as the pain of their trauma enveloped them, held their hand as they had STD’s burned off their skin, stood next to them in court when they testified against their abuser, translated and held their stories as they shared them with lawyers, police, and so many people trying to find them justice, and I prayed/begged God for hope when they were feeling like there was no longer a point to living.
BUT…I saw them not only survive when the world was cruel and broken but begin to live again. Those same faces I also spent countless hours playing with, laughing and letting them beat me in every game out there. I saw them boldly testify in court, keep showing up to counseling sessions and school when it was hard, learn new skills, graduate college and become social workers, nurses, and teachers to care for others being trafficked. I saw them get jobs and give back to their communities, get married and find love, become wonderful mothers, and carry out their dreams to fruition.
The question of why I do this work doesn’t seem to hold much relevance when these faces flash through my mind because why wouldn’t I fight for people that I love and are in community with. You never stop fighting for your own family and there are Overcomers that are now forever a part of my family. It is such an honor to be a part of the fight against human trafficking with Project’s Mona’s House in my own hometown now and continue to be in community with girls and women that are boldly choosing to heal, learn, and defy what the world has told them their worth is.
I hope you will join us in finding your “why” or “why wouldn’t I” because our community, our family is being sold into modern day slavery in our own backyard and we need to fight.
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