Josiah Road

Freedom’s Promise

posted by Kaylan Christopher 29Apr

In 1999, 33-year-old Marina answered an ad to leave the Ukraine and study abroad in Israel. When she arrived, she was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon where she was introduced to other women who explained that she was now a prostitute.

Imagine her surprise! Marina became hysterical. As a result, she was beaten, raped, sold off, and finally locked in a windowless basement for a month, drinking water from the toilet and going without food.

She finally managed to escape. But now, she rarely leaves her two-bedroom home in northern Israel because she fears the government will deport her or the criminal gangs will force her back into prostitution.

This story came from the blog of Amber Barron, a 28-year-old freedom fighter for humans being trafficked all over the world.

Exactly one year ago, Amber (who was working in commercial real estate) read a CNN article about Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman sold into sexual slavery as a child. Now, a free woman, she works to free other girls in the same situation. Almost instantly, Amber said she heard God saying,”This is the work I want you to do.”

In June 2007, Amber resigned her job and joined Dan Trippie, to form and become president of Freedom’s Promise—an organization created to rescue women and children affected by the human trafficking trade, raise awareness in our communities and abroad, aid in the rehabilitation process of victims, and address the root causes of trafficking.

Human trafficking, a modern-day form of slavery, is the second largest organized crime industry in the world. Each year, 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders. And 14,500 to 17,500 national foreigners are trafficked annually in the United States.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: “Many victims of human trafficking are forced to work in prostitution or the sex entertainment industry. … Traffickers use various techniques to instill fear in victims and to keep them enslaved.”

Amber said, “Women and girls are given promises of good jobs in other countries such as cleaning houses, being a nanny, or modeling. Once they arrive in the country, their passports and visas are confiscated and they are taken to a brothel where they are beaten and raped, and begin work as sex slaves.”

Today in Cambodia, Amber said, “There are whole village areas that are filled with brothels. It’s common for mothers to sell their daughters to feed the rest of the family. [The village girls] start off at five or six years old participating in oral sex. By the time they are nine and ten, they are participating in intercourse.”

Mainly working in the Nashville area, Brazil, and Cambodia, Freedom’s Promise hopes to facilitate relationships with other organizations and build a large community of awareness locally, nationally, and worldwide about human trafficking.

Sadly, this issue is closer to home in our own American cities than most of us realize.

Amber challenges you to do something right where you are by raising awareness among your friends, family, and co-workers. She said, “This is an opportunity to wake America up to modern-day slavery and fight to free these people.”

For ways to help stop human trafficking or support Freedom’s Promise, go online to http://www.freedomspromise.orgfreedomspromise.org.