Uprooting the Mighty Oak Tree

 

"I Feel Like I'm In Chains"

Imagine a life marked by childhood sexual abuse. Imagine you find yourself out of work, living in a country where welfare and food banks don’t exist. Imagine you are a single mother and your baby needs medicine. You tell yourself you will just do it one time. After all, you have experienced that kind of exploitation before-only no one paid you for it. Imagine thirteen years later you are still there-being degraded and humiliated day after day to keep yourself and your children alive-and you can’t see a way out. Imagine that is a true story. Because it is. Now imagine that person is your sister, mother, friend. Imagine there was something you could do to help her, to bridge the gap between slavery and freedom. Would you do it? With her permission I am sharing just a few details about our friend’s life. Everything I have said so far is her daily reality. Or at least it was. At the end of April we took a leap to help her make the jump to freedom. But freedom comes at a cost. In order for our friend to be free of daily sexual exploitation but still feed her family and pay her bills until she has had the time and space to heal, be restored and retrained for a new life she needs our help. Why now? Why her? This isn’t something we have done before. Although NONE of the women we encounter want to be doing what they are doing not all are ready to put the work in to get to the other side. It’s tough, arduous work to face the trauma that landed you on the streets, it takes bravery to re-invent yourself after years of creating a persona you could hide behind and it takes courage to be able to be vulnerable and let your protective shields down. But this woman is ready. Why? Because after years and millions of micro-moments of safety from our team, loving her and seeing her, validating who she truly is, she can no longer withstand the abuse every day. It was truly a life or death moment. We could not and would not stand by and do nothing. What are we doing? We have committed to taking on our dear sisters’ monthly expenses until she is earning a living free from the violation she has suffered. We are seeing that she gets the medical, emotional and spiritual healing she needs to start a new life as well as training to begin a new career. It has already begun. But we have a long way to go. How can you help? This is where you come in. Maybe you have supported us for years, maybe you have only read our updates, maybe you have been praying for us. We are coming to you now with an appeal to put your thoughts into actions. We cannot do this alone. You can be part of saving a life and seeing a beautiful story of transformation unfold. We need more monthly partners to ensure we can continue to support her  as well as continue to do all the other things we do to support exploited women like: weekly meals training food hampers medical needs pay support staff family retreat days prevention/awareness Currently, our monthly partner support only covers 50% of our monthly expenses. We are looking to increase our support by 30 partners at $100/month or 60 partners at $50/month and so on. If you can’t commit monthly-that’s ok! We also accept sporadic giving when you can! We aren’t picky! If you have thought about supporting but for whatever reason haven’t-now is the time. Become a partner today to ensure her freedom and that of many more women! All donations over $25 receive a tax receipt. HELP US HELP WOMEN BREAK THE CHAINS OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION!