Two Sides of the Story on How We End Human Trafficking

You’ve walked alongside us for years as we dreamed about a Sanctuary in Romania and saw it become a reality. We’ve shared with you the hard truths of trafficking and the need for a safe place for survivors to seek transformation. Recently we’ve been sharing with you about Ukrainian refugees at risk, Romanian women trafficked to German brothels, and the work we’re doing educating people about human trafficking around Eastern Europe. How do all of these things fit together?

Our work at The Sanctuary in Romania has just begun! We want to see The Sanctuary being used to its fullest capacity. The reality of 600-800,000 people being trafficked every year is staggering. And we must have a safe place for survivors to go once they are free. But this is only part of the story.

The statistics tell the story of how rescue and prevention must work together!

Eastern Europeans are being trafficked all over Europe. We must cut trafficking off at its source! That’s why education right here in the epicenter of human trafficking in Europe is so important.

As our connections in Europe grow, we are seeing doors open. Learn how doors are for all of these strategies to align as parts of our mission to unlock transformation in the lives of human trafficking survivors and blanket nations in anti-trafficking strategies.

When we were looking at where to begin our anti-trafficking efforts and build the first Sanctuary, we knew Romania was a key location. But the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have left the people in the region even more vulnerable.

As we’ve seen the Freedom Highway grow and more advocates join the fight, we’ve learned the only thing better than helping a trafficking survivor become and stay free is to prevent it from happening in the first place!

That’s why we’re answering the call from ally organizations, government and police officials, schools, communities, and business partners. That’s why we’re creating information and curriculum in multiple languages to help people in Eastern Europe learn how to protect themselves. We must shut the door and cut off access to victims!

Here are a few ways we are prioritizing prevention:

• We are connecting with schools who have invited our team to speak about anti-trafficking. They have seen a rise in the number of trafficking cases reported in their area and want to equip their staff and students with knowledge of how to protect themselves. Training includes online safety as intel shows traffickers are recruiting girls for prostitution online.

• We’re meeting with officials, advocates, and business people from various sectors in Moldova. This neighboring country has expressed interest in working with us on training and anti-trafficking strategy for their police and border patrol. We are building a network of lawyers, educational experts, and specialists and are ready to begin the work in Moldova. We just need the resources to facilitate it!

• We continue to work at the Romania-Ukraine border to educate border patrol, officials, and refugees about trafficking. We are building educational materials in the local languages for those coming across the border into Romania, including educating the staff at schools where Ukrainian refugees are being educated.

Join us in our efforts to stem the flow of precious souls out of Eastern Europe. When you give, you allow us to continue walking through these doors and seizing these vital opportunities to blanket nations in anti-trafficking strategies.

Will You Choose Hope?

Less than 1% of survivors will ever be rescued, and those who do escape human trafficking need a safe place to go.

All around the world, people are telling the same story. We relive it every spring. The world goes dark. It seems like all hope is lost. But then the stone is rolled away and Sunday morning arrives. Hope is alive.

As we approach Easter, our team is thinking about the paradox we relive each Holy Week. When it is darkest, we know hope is around the corner.

We’ve been sharing statistics that are hard to hear. The realities of human trafficking, of women and girls snatched from their lives into the chains of slavery, are hard to face.

Hundreds of children have arrived from a bombed-out country without their parents. We told you about the children who were beginning to arrive from Ukraine recently, and you responded. Your gifts have enabled us to help assure over 580 Ukrainian children are in safe places, housed by our ministry partners. We sent food and clothing. Our team was able to greet them and give them toiletries, medicine, and toys.

Many in the Northern part of Romania are getting ready to go to school and we are working with an ally organization to create a curriculum specifically for children coming across the border. We will train these teachers and those in the community on how to keep these children safe from human trafficking. Your partnership allows us to train them.

We stare into the face of the war. And we must choose to hope anyway.

Young women long to return to their homes in Romania but don’t even know there is a way out of the brothels of Germany.

Members of our team were in Romania visiting The Sanctuary recently and we saw these realities with our own eyes. The property is stunning. The staff is beyond description. Warmth and safety radiate from every corner of The Sanctuary.

While we were there, we got word that dozens—likely hundreds–of women from Romania were trafficked and sent into the brothels of Germany. An ally organization asked us to come. Back into the darkness.

I boarded a plane to Germany with a broken heart, wondering what I could possibly say to these women. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain and suffering these precious souls have experienced. But I knew I had to go and face this dark reality. I will share more with you about this in the coming days.

We stare into the face of the trafficking. And we must choose to hope anyway.

Will you join us in choosing hope today? Will you believe with us that we can unlock transformation for survivors?

When you give to Uncaged, you stand up and choose to say, “I will be the key.”

Give today.

Provide stability in the life of a child at risk

Can you imagine the trauma a child experiences living through a war? Add to that leaving your parents behind to go to a new land where you do not know the language. You are dependent on strangers for your basic needs.

This is what over 500 children who have arrived in Romania from Ukraine are experiencing.

We know from our trauma-informed work with survivors that those who are most vulnerable—the young, poor, diseased, and addicted—are at a greater risk for victimization.

Our Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Vanessa Snyder, shared this in training with our staff:

“Trauma in the early years shapes the brain and psychological development, sets up vulnerability to stress and to the range of mental health problems.” according to Professor Louise Newman of the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Snyder points out how experiencing a trauma in childhood can have adverse effects on functioning as well as personality and psychobiological development, resulting in traumatic stress symptoms in adolescence. “Unlike adults whose trauma experience might alter behavior, trauma in childhood literally becomes a part of the organizational framework of neurodevelopment,” she says.

That’s why prevention in the lives of vulnerable children is key! Our team is blanketing Romania with anti-trafficking education to make sure the community stays alert and aware against the schemes of traffickers. We are making sure those from Ukraine taking shelter in Romania are getting this education as well!

Those fleeing the war in Ukraine are the most at-risk group in Europe right now. Just take a look at this staggering statistic:

Your gifts not only allow us to provide these basic needs. They provide stability in the life of a traumatized child at risk. They can change statistics like those above, helping us turn the tides of trafficking in Europe.

We urgently need: clothes and coats, food, medications, pajamas, socks and shoes, mattresses, bedding, towels, and detergent.

Give $25 (1 child), $50 (2 children), $75 (3 children), $100 (4 children), ormore today.