Praying for Two Kinds of Freedom

Sour cherries 🍒 and breathtaking sunsets at the first Sanctuary. Every inch of this place will breath life into restoration.

Our hearts are like these cherries - ready, ripe, and waiting. Our team feels so ready to welcome dozens more survivors.

We’ve had the privilege of walking with 23 survivors during Covid-19. 8 of those have just launched their new lives.

We know that in the face of the enormity of human trafficking, these numbers can feel small.

But then, a survivor like Helena* says that her time with us “helped me become the woman I always wanted to be.” What a powerful word.

Are we committed to tackling the atrocities of human trafficking at scale? Yes. We are working day and night to #endit and create restorative, global solutions.

But we are praying that we never lose sight of how precious each. one. survivor. is. This is not some abstract fight - these are real people with spirits, hearts, minds, and dreams. And we get to unlock transformation after so much has been stolen from them.

How incredible is that?

We hope you will join us in praying for freedom. First - the freedom for survivors to come home once travel restrictions lift in Europe. Then, for the freedom that comes with healing.

Launching 8 Unstoppable Survivors

Would you believe it if we say that survivors are some of the most hopeful people we’ve met? They’ve experienced unimaginable cruelty, but they still find good all around them.

We are celebrating that we recently “repositioned” 8 women in Romania. After 18-24 months of healing with a host family, they have moved on to begin their independent new lives. Even through tears of sadness over leaving their host families, they beamed. Each of them has a job, a dream, and newfound confidence.

“I learned to care for people and help as much as I can. I have tears of joy because I will see my family and live a new life,” Mihaela shared. As you know, she started her own booming sewing business during the pandemic.

Mihaela’s joy, and the other survivors' joy, fills our hearts with gratitude and resolve. Near the first Sanctuary, floods have damaged infrastructure and local gardens. The pandemic rages in Romania. But rain can’t wash away transformation, and even a pandemic cannot slow restoration. These renewed survivors aren't going to let anything stop them. Neither will we!

I cannot emphasize enough how crucial this moment is. COVID-19 has given us an unprecedented opportunity to scoop survivors out of traffickers’ clutches. Survivors are being abandoned by traffickers. They're raising their voices. Finally, governments across the world are reckoning with the realities of this other pandemic.

We are uniquely poised to fill the gap and unlock transformation for these precious souls. Uncaged already has local support from the government, community, and universities in Romania. We’re building a coalition of NGOs across Europe. Together, we're identifying freed survivors and planning for them to come to the first Sanctuary as soon as travel bans are lifted.

Your support and encouragement fuels this global movement. To capitalize on our momentum, can I ask you to consider investing in the first Sanctuary again? We can secure our impact across Europe and own the first Sanctuary if we raise $410,000 in additional funds.

We hold the keys to freedom. And the time for freedom has come.

One Challenge and One Opportunity

We are writing today with a mixture of hope and sadness. We recently learned that 3 of the survivors we have been working with have COVID-19. They each have pre-existing medical conditions directly caused by their time in slavery. They are doing alright, but they have a tough recovery ahead of them.

When we first got the news, our first thought was, "Haven't these precious women been through enough?" Even though they're free, the effects of trafficking are still leaving them vulnerable.

This has to end! We are ready to provide survivors with holistic care at the first Sanctuary. Our trauma-informed program includes spiritual, physical, psychological, and vocational care. We want them to get free, stay free, and undo the effects of slavery as much as we can. It's why we've spent time during COVID-19 designing a 6-week stabilization program at our first Sanctuary. These key 6 weeks will lay the foundation for a survivors' long-term healing over the next two years.

Right now, we are facing one challenge and one opportunity to make this stabilization program possible. The challenge is the travel bans that persist in Europe. We have identified multiple survivors who would be ideal for our program. Unfortunately, we can't get to them yet.

Can we ask you to pray for these travel bans to lift so we can get these survivors to safety?

Our team is planning to receive over 30 survivors this year. The Sanctuary is the optimal place for them to come and heal. We know getting these precious souls to the first Sanctuary takes a huge investment of energy and resources. Unlocking their transformation is worth it! Right now, generous people like you have given 78% of the funds we need to own fully the property of the first Sanctuary. We are in need of $410,000 to pay the property off.

Will you join us? In spite of these trying times, we would like to invite you to consider freeing a survivor once and for all by investing in this transformational space. These women have been through unimaginable hardship. They deserve so much more.

Together we can open the door to a life of beauty and gladness instead of ashes and mourning.