Huge News from the Sanctuary

We’ve long dreamed of a safe place for survivors. We’ve taken many steps to see this dream become a reality. In 2019 God led us to an incredible 230-acreproperty in Romania. We put a down payment on the land covered in orchards, streams, and ponds in 2020. It was more than we could have ever imagined! Your support has enabled us to watch it transform over the past three years.

Our team planted our first vegetable garden and started on the meditation and sensory garden. We’ve taken steps to make the Sanctuary a place to soothe, inspire, and nurture precious souls who have escaped trafficking. This winter we were able to make upgrades with new HVAC equipment to ensure the comfort of survivors.

Today we have huge news to share with you - the Sanctuary is fully paid for!

We know this place of peace and safety will be part of the transformation for thousands! As the Sanctuary also doubles as an anti-trafficking center, we will see therapists learn the best trauma-informed practices, and advocates raised up to prevent trafficking before it begins. This is all part of how we throw open the doors to end trafficking.

We’re so grateful for the way you’ve been with us as we see this dream grow. Now is the time to forge ahead! We want to see more lives changed. We will not stop until slavery is no more.

Will you join us in taking even more steps toward transformation?

Join us - be the key!

In the Midst of Chaos, Hope and Healing Continues

A few weeks ago the violence was beginning in Ukraine. As soon as we heard traffickers were showing up at the border, a member of our team drove straight there to help. But this was only after he drove 1400 miles each way to conduct an operation that freed 2 women!

Sophie and Amina, both age 24, were trapped in a cycle of exploitation in another country before we helped them escape. A member of our Freedom Highway was there to support them as they received medical care. This anti-trafficking advocate brought them flowers in the hospital and encouraged them.

Sophie and Amina are now back home and being placed into an apartment. The apartment is owned by a member of the Freedom Highway who lives right next door. Our team purchased food for them and is helping them settle in. Despite their battered bodies, their spirits were not broken. They are taking their first steps toward restoration.

We are seeing the same spirit in the Ukrainians crossing borders to escape the war in their country. Our team continues to support them. Just this week, a member of our team helped a group of Ukrainians safely enter another country, where a church was offering shelter to the refugees. In one amazing connection, he learned that one of the Refugees was an attorney we’ll call Daryna. She had been fighting against human trafficking in Ukraine!

This week, Daryna will meet with Sophie and Amina to help them with paperwork. In spite of the war in the region, two survivors and a lawyer come together in a third country to support each other. What a powerful example of unity and the network of advocates it takes to end human trafficking!

When you support Uncaged you are bringing hope to many amid chaos. You are helping build a network fighting trafficking that nothing will stop. Will you join us and put even more people on the path to healing?

You hold the keys!

Anti-trafficking Organizations Unite to Condemn Ukraine Invasion and Trafficking

Uncaged joined more than 50 of the world’s most influential anti-trafficking organizations and leaders to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact it is having on the risk of human trafficking in the region.

They have signed an open letter that reads in part: “As long as the military invasion of Ukraine continues, the vulnerability of displaced people in the country to human trafficking will increase due to deteriorating rule of law and impunity; further forced displacement; humanitarian need and socio-economic stress and social fragmentation.

“Human trafficking will also escalate in the countries to where people from Ukraine are fleeing. There have also been deeply concerning reports of attempts to traffic women and girls fleeing Ukraine in neighboring countries, including Poland and Romania.”

Other signatories include the leaders of major anti-trafficking groups like Hope for Justice, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), Unseen, Shared Hope, The Freedom Fund, Justice & Care, ECPAT (USA, UK and Norway), and many others from across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

The signatories call for the Russian authorities to withdraw their troops immediately from Ukraine, and they call for investigations into potential war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations associated with human trafficking. They call on the countries that are welcoming refugees to ensure they implement effective prevention measures against human trafficking. They list measures including training for frontline agencies; safe and legal routes for those who are fleeing; measures to more easily enable potential victims to be identified; trauma-informed and holistic care to be made available for survivors of trafficking; and steps taken to ensure perpetrator accountability. With these countries already doing so much to assist refugees, the signatories ask the wider international community to shoulder some of the financial burden of these vital measures.

The letter-writers say: “Human trafficking and conflict feed each other. By promising stability, security and employment, traffickers often appear to offer a greater prospect of hope for individuals who might have left everything behind.”

A study by U.N. agency the International Labour Organization estimated that human trafficking generates at least $150bn in illicit profits every year for organized criminals, which further fuels global instability and insecurity.