What a joy it is to share about some of the women and girls in this year’s Life Change Annual Report. They have been transformed with your generous support. Together we can sing the praises of Psalm 5:11   “… let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.”

The post Achieving Her Dream: 2024 Life Change Report appeared first on She Is Safe.

This year is extra special as we celebrate She Is Safe’s 20 Years in Ministry! With your help, we are building a bridge from decades of God’s favor to the years ahead. Please click here to read our 2022 Life Change Annual Report and enjoy testimonials of women and girls who are growing more confident, knowing God is on their side as they cross scary bridges into a stronger future. You make these stories possible!

The post Bridge to a New Future: 2022 Life Change Annual Report appeared first on She Is Safe.

According to Global Vision International (GVI), girls’ education ensures future access to jobs and affordable healthcare, and “for each additional year of education a girl completes, the chance of adolescent pregnancy is lowered by 10%”. Furthering girls’ education also “helps to alleviate economic strain on lower-income households, as households have higher incomes when women earn more” (GVI, 2022). Therefore, education improves girls’ health and well-being.

After talking with the group leader, every parent agreed to send their girls back to school! All of the girls in this group are now continuing their education. Because of this one group, 10 more girls are in school which will benefit hundreds of people in the long run.

The post Celebrating More Educated Girls appeared first on She Is Safe.

“This group has taught us we have value in God’s eyes. We have learned that He gave us gifts! Some are good at organization. Some are good at creating. And others are good at selling. Not only did we learn that God made us with gifts to offer, but we have also become sisters. We care for each other and pray for each other, and we work together.” -South Sudan She Is Safe Group Member

“When I started the saving program, I didn’t know how to save money. When I got money, I just finished it off. Then later I realized that if I saved I got the benefit of it. I am happy now because I can dress well and celebrate Christmas with my family. Now I can even send my children to school. I started a small business, and I was able to save a little more. I am happy to be in the group.” -South Sudan She Is Safe Group Member

“We have been a She Is Safe Group for six years now, and I learned how to save. I opened a small shop, and I can now send my children to school. We sell things we make. We sew bedsheets, we bake biscuits. During coronavirus time we stayed open as much as we could. We are strong! We have our differences, but we are smart, and we know how to save. We are businesswomen and we are strong mothers who take care of our children!” -South Sudan She Is Safe Group Member

The post Lives Transformed in South Sudan appeared first on She Is Safe.

During the training, Druhi discovered her passion for making clothes for children. Often, the boys and girls in her village did not have warm clothing for cold weather. She dreamed of earning a living for her family by sewing children’s clothes for her community.

Your support allows She Is Safe to bring income-generating alternatives to selling girls to places plagued by trafficking like Druhi’s village in Nepal. These girls are the most at risk in the world of becoming sex slaves, with little hope of a different future. You are changing their lives and keeping them safe in their homes. Over the past several years, trafficking has been reduced in this village where She Is Safe works by 85 percent according to local reports. After graduating from She Is Safe’s vocational training program, Druhi returned home and put her new skills to work. She now sells clothes to families with small children in her community. Seeing the little boys and girls in her village running around in outfits she has made gives her joy and a deep sense of accomplishment. She has even sewed several outfits for herself. She is grateful for a life she did not think was possible, safe and free from the horrors of sexual slavery.

The post Equipping Girls for a New Future appeared first on She Is Safe.

As Adila’s new life unfolds, she looks to her future through new eyes. “I hope to become a fashion designer one day, if it is God’s will,” she says. “In the meantime, I plan to register for more sewing courses and improve my skills.”

This is what you make possible! Girls like Adila are equipped with life-changing skills, but that’s not all! When you support She Is Safe, you also help transform the mindset of parents like Adila’s and others in her community, breaking cycles of poverty, abuse and slavery. Girls are able to become who they were created to be!

The post Adila’s Story appeared first on She Is Safe.

Daw San’s group cleaned, cooked, comforted, encouraged and prayed. As they were caring for her, they shared an idea for Daw San to set up a small shop just outside of her home selling essential household items. This meant that she could care for her children while earning an income. Now Daw San and her children are safe and receive the care they need thanks to the support and ingenuity of her TG.

The post Daw San’s Story appeared first on She Is Safe.

You may have heard this statistic years ago, or maybe last month when you read our previous blog post about how you can help human trafficking victims.  Regardless of where we hear about human trafficking, we cannot unhear it, and it becomes a truth that changes our hearts, making them either harder or softer.

Because of the magnitude of the issue, there is a chance you might say to yourself, “I am one person. What on earth can I do about it?” The beautiful reality is that in a world where we are more connected than ever, the answer is, “One person can rescue many!”

Thanks to the media we are more aware of and connected to the issues going on in the world. But being aware is only half the battle. There is a great need for concerted response, because human trafficking is one of the largest, fastest-growing criminal enterprises the world has ever known. In some places in the world, while trafficking might be illegal, there are generations of precedent that are difficult to overturn. Additionally, political power and influence may override the law when it benefits certain parties. For these reasons, we urge a strategic focus on those most often trafficked – vulnerable girls and women – in the places where the practice is prevalent.

One of the greatest assets anyone has in the battle against human trafficking is connection. One’s sphere of influence – the circles they run in and the people they interact with on a regular basis – can be a catalyst for great change. There is no greater potential for tremendous impact in the world than people who are activated in the local church, and many churches who have partnered with She Is Safe have stepped into this life-saving opportunity. Some partner with us to support a specific country, contributing to significant widespread change. One such church has changed the lives of countless girls through their support of our income-generating alternative programs in Nepal, keeping girls safe in their community instead of trafficked into the brothels of India. Some support She Is Safe as a whole, impacting the big picture of trafficking in the hardest places where we work. And all of them unite with us in prayer for the world’s most vulnerable girls and women living under the darkness of abuse and exploitation.

While your church may not be doing anything related to anti-trafficking yet, there is a lot that you can do to help connect them to this work and get others involved in it as well. In fact, most churches are longing to support and empower their people who are drawn to combat the world’s injustice. If stepping into this type of work is on your heart, there are a few things you can do:

1. Advocate. 

There is a good chance you are the common denominator in all of your circles. There may be a few who overlap with you, but when it comes to your neighborhood, school system, workplace, social clubs, or church, there might not be another person who is in all of those places. That is why you have the unique opportunity to bring this type of need to the attention of people you know. You can encourage your church to give its platform to these issues; you can host informational nights; you can share information with people you know and point them to organizations like She Is Safe; you can post articles on social media or simply reference stories in the news to bring them to people’s attention. The platforms are there! You are in a unique position to speak up and advocate for those in the world who are most vulnerable: women and girls in least-reached places. Raising awareness might not be the only thing to do, but it is a major one. We cannot address the needs of the world without people recognizing what is at stake. But once we do recognize it, there is something else we can do.

2.  Give.

For the past nineteen years, She Is Safe has been working in countries where trafficking is commonplace. Women and girls are abused and sold with impunity, and yet every year we see more girls safe, free and equipped to become the women that God created them to be! To help accomplish this, it is shockingly affordable to be a part of transforming a life. On average, it costs less than $1 a day each month with She Is Safe to protect or restore one girl. Every dollar is leveraged – preventing girls and women from ever being trafficked and rescuing and restoring those who have been used. 80 percent of She Is Safe’s budget goes directly to helping the girls and women who need it most, and last year She Is Safe impacted more than 73,000 lives through our programs. Because the need is so great, inviting others into this mission creates the opportunity to multiply this impact like a chain of freedom, not only freeing and equipping women and girls, but nurturing in them the new life that lasts forever. When women and girls see their value to God, that identity helps them believe that everything can be made different for them by God who loves them. That is why people of faith are crucial in the freedom and healing of the whole person.

3. Pray.

Since the stakes are of eternal proportions, the church is uniquely positioned to exercise faith and pray on behalf of those who are lost, marginalized and mistreated.  At our core, we believe that we are to cry out to God to intervene, and that He answers our prayers. This is a way that churches can absolutely engage, inviting people to learn the realities of what these girls and women endure and to intercede on their behalf – that they would be protected and know the God who loves them.

There is so much need in this broken world, and God is moving people to respond. The cry is, “Please move me to take action. Break my heart for the things that break Yours.” If you find yourself longing to participate in making more women and girls safe, free and equipped to become the women that God created them to be, there are great opportunities for you and your church to help rescue and restore those who are most abused in the world today!

To learn more about connecting your church with She Is Safe, visit https://bigpicturewebsite.com/church-engagement/.

The post How Your Church Can Combat Human Trafficking: Three Ways to Love the Vulnerable appeared first on She Is Safe.

According to the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery Report published in 2017 by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, an estimated 40 million people were in “modern slavery” at any given time. This data includes both forced labor and sex slavery. Likewise, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 80 percent of human trafficking victims are girls and women, and 99 percent of sex slaves are female.

It is an issue as sinister as it is unbelievable – in a world where the fight for people’s fundamental rights of life and liberty is one of modern society’s hallmarks, an astounding number of human beings are held captive across the world.

Undoubtedly, human trafficking is a rising crime in the United States, where a growing number of victims are compelled to engage in sex and labor in both legal and illicit industries. These industries include hospitality, factories, care for people with disabilities, construction, massage parlors, carnivals and domestic work, to name a few. Even though the initial process may seem legal, these victims are eventually recruited or forced to work through physical force or psychological coercion.

However, the issue in the U.S. pales in contrast to communities across the seas. In major cities in Asia there are brothels of 30,000+ girls and women – where the average age when a girl begins work there is 11 years old, and where the problem is woven into the fabric of cultures as natural and unavoidable.

Indeed, the commercial sexual exploitation of girls and women tops the list of the horrendous issues that plague vulnerable communities —child marriage, physical abuse, female genital mutilation, rape, honor killings and oppression. The list is too extensive and too distressing.

In certain parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, women are frequently viewed as second-class citizens, often valued less than animals.

Forced marriage, a form of human trafficking, is also a reality in many cultures, and a growing number of families sell their teenage daughters to provide for the rest of the family. Likewise, many young girls are tricked into working in red-light districts by the promise of starting a career in the hospitality industry.

What can we do to help?

As important as it is to raise awareness of the issue, we cannot make a difference until we roll up our sleeves and do something about it. That’s where organizations such as She Is Safe enter.

For the past 20 years, She Is Safe has addressed human trafficking of those most vulnerable in the busiest human trafficking areas of the world.

These patriarchal communities see a girl’s birth as a liability – a deeply ingrained generational pattern. Naturally, these girls grow up with low self-esteem and a sense of helplessness, a paradigm that only exacerbates their vulnerability to exploitation.

Rather than focusing solely on rescuing the victims, the She Is Safe process focuses on life beyond slavery. The programs are implemented in a collaboration between the U.S. staff and local partners — women, churches and non-government organizations and offer a three-pronged approach:

1. Prevention

She Is Safe equips women and girls who are at extreme risk of slavery to be free, informed and self-sustaining. The equipping process includes literacy, micro-business skills, loans, anti-trafficking awareness and teaching the God-given worth of every human being.

2. Rescue

She Is Safe works with teams in places where girls are likely to be trafficked: slums, red-light districts, source villages, conflict zones and refugee camps to befriend girls and women to help them navigate to freedom.

3. Restoration

Girls and women are brought to She Is Safe-sponsored restoration homes where they experience spiritual nurture, trauma counselling, education and job training to build whole new lives.

She Is Safe’s work has expanded exponentially through the years to more high-risk communities, demanding increased financial investment for the thousands of beneficiaries helped to freedom each month.

As 2022 dawns, She Is Safe is looking to increase its portfolio of partners to expand the work to more of the hardest places for women and girls.

You may not be physically present to rescue these victims, but you can invest your prayers and resources to free and keep girls from being trafficked.

The post How to Help Human Trafficking Victims appeared first on She Is Safe.

The police brought Diya to the She Is Safe-sponsored Restoration Home; a safe haven for young girls to heal from trauma and learn about God’s love for them. In this loving home, girls like Diya who are most at risk of being abused or trafficked into sexual slavery are able to envision new futures for themselves as they are supported in their education and encouraged to explore their talents. Some girls in the home were rescued from brothels where their mothers are sex slaves. Without this intervention, they would become enslaved as well, starting in their preteen years. Diya is thankful for God’s miraculous protection. Through your support, Diya, rather than being enslaved, is now free to grow into who God created her to be.

The post Diya’s Story appeared first on She Is Safe.