One Person Trained, One Survivor Free!

“You aren’t going to believe this. One of our team members was sitting at home this afternoon eating lunch with his entire family. All of a sudden, their front door burst open and there was a girl there,” the man told our European director. This man was the owner of an ophthalmologist’s office who treated Annabelle last year when our team at The Sanctuary realized she was legally blind.

Our team stayed in touch with this gentleman and got a call from him a couple weeks ago. “I feel really strongly that you need to come and train my team in anti-human trafficking strategies so they can identify traffick victims when they come across them,” he told our European Director, Beni.

Beni told him he was very busy and about to go to the states. The man insisted. “I really feel like this needs to happen as soon as possible,” he said. Beni was able to make time in his schedule to train the staff and went onto his trip shortly after.

Shortly after this Beni received the call that connected us with a young woman in desperate need, we will call Tamara.

The owner of the business mean told Beni the girl who arrived at his team member’s door was beaten and battered. She was soaking wet and terrified. The family got her inside and calmed down. They were able to talk to her and realized she was a trafficking victim who had escaped from her trafficker just a couple buildings away. Because of the training he had received, the staff member knew what to do when Tamara arrived at his doorstep!

Beni called our team in Romania who launched into action! The family hid her in their apartment for a few hours until our team got there. She was badly beaten—black eyes, fractured jaw and cheek bone, broken ribs, and internal bleeding. Our team took her to five different hospitals for treatment. They got her some medication and clean clothes and took her to a safe place where she collapsed and slept the entire next day.

Her physical pain is healing slowly and she has a long way to total healing. But she is safe and secure now. She is free!

While the primary mission of the Sanctuary is bringing healing to survivors, we know the training we do aids this mission in ways we may not see for days, months, or years. One person trained can translate into identifying and caring for dozens of survivors!

"Yesterday was the best day of my life!"

“Yesterday was the best day of my life,” I heard her say. I was sitting in the dining room of the Sanctuary as survivors were telling their Resident Specialists about how they celebrated Easter the day before.

Easter in the Orthodox Church is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon after Passover, a different day than protestant Christians celebrate the resurrection. I was excited to be visiting Romania during the time of Easter and to get to experience my first Orthodox celebration. The survivors who were at The Sanctuary that day asked if they could go to the nearby Orthodox church for midnight mass on Easter Eve.

We went into the village and through the doors of the church. The whole town was packed into the little building. Everything was new to me, but to these girls, they were returning to their roots. They held my hand and guided me through the service.

The people were chanting prayers in Romanian and it was so beautiful. The Priest lit our candles and we, in turn, lit the candle of the person next to us until the room was full of light. The congregation walked three laps around the church, the girls arm in arm with me.

It was a truly precious moment for me when they excitedly asked what I thought of the service. They shared this little part of their culture and history with me. Back at The Sanctuary the next day they were just as excited about sharing the day with me. “Going to church with Kim was the best day,” one of them said.

They then asked if they could also visit another church in town. It is amazing to see survivors who have seen the darkest of humanity now desire to connect to their spiritual roots and to God. They are open and they want to explore.

This choice to explore—to connect to who they are and figure out their own way forward—is so important for healing. Choice-based therapy means giving survivors the ability to make their own decisions. They haven’t known what it is like to have a choice or control over their own lives for a very long time. They need to go where they feel comfortable and safe. They need to be empowered to make their own decisions.

This is all part of the healing trafficking survivors experience at The Sanctuary, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. Will you be a part of it, too?

Be the key to choice, to empowerment, and to transformation!

How the Brothels of Germany Confirmed the Need for The Sanctuary

There is a reason it is called a “Red Light” district. I saw it firsthand when I was recently invited to visit women in the brothels of Munich, Germany.

We received word through our networks that there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of trafficked women in Germany, many who want to return to their homeland and be reunited with their families. Our team was asked to come and I was overwhelmed. What would I say to women who have been manipulated and brutalized? I couldn’t even imagine what they’d been through.

In Germany, I met a brave team of advocates doing the hard work of showing up and making regular visits to the brothels. They are building relationships with the women there. Germany is known as the “Bordello of Europe.” With more than 3,000 legal brothels across the country, its sex trade is worth around $14 billion per year.

The brothels there are legal but the majority of the women there did not choose to be there. Fear, violence, and debt are used as weapons to keep them there. They are working off debts that are impossible to repay.

At the first “house” we visited, I saw the green and red lights above the doors in the long hallways. The green light was on if the girl was available. Red was lit if they were hosting a “client.” We knocked at every green-lit doorway and had dozens of conversations.

The majority of the ladies were Romanian. Many shared their stories with us and allowed us to pray for them. They told us stories of husbands and family members that had sent them here to earn money for operations, homes, cars, and their children. They were sent by their own family members into situations they cannot get out of now!

We told these women about The Sanctuary—a place of transformation in their homeland ready and waiting for them. I left there with a heavy heart, wishing I could take them all with me. Frustrated, and desperate for them, we know we’ve done all we could at the moment. Now we wait and pray that they dare to step towards freedom.

One thing was overwhelmingly clear—the healing we offer at The Sanctuary is desperately needed. In just one city in Germany, there are hundreds who need to open the door to freedom. There are many more all over Europe.

We are ready. We see the need. We have built the solutions for the aftercare of survivors and are blanketing nations in anti-trafficking strategies. We stand at the frontline. But the frontline can only go as far as the supply line. That’s you!

It’s a big job and we will do all we can with the resources we are given. We have access to the strategies, the networks, and the women and children in need. Now we need you to join us by contributing today. Think of your daughters, nieces, and sisters. What would you invest to buy their freedom?