New Life Update

Winter 2025

Keeping Them Safe

Lia* felt a deep hopelessness and fear every day. She had three daughters to raise alone. Though her girls were smart and full of potential, she couldn’t afford for them to be in school, and was barely able to feed them. In her community she knew of many children who were sexually abused while they were unsupervised – Lia herself had to frequently leave her daughters alone while she worked odd jobs or searched for ways to earn money. She thought of them every moment she was away from them.

Lia’s oldest daughter was 14. People in her community had been telling her about job opportunities in a big tourist city in Indonesia. The promise was that girls like Lia’s daughter could move there and work in a restaurant or hotel. Then they would be able to regularly send money back home. Lia did not know that most of those girls ended up being trafficked into sexual slavery.

She Is Safe coworkers in Lia’s community told her they wanted to start a group for women who would support each other, learn and save money together and learn to keep their children safe and healthy. Lia immediately joined the group. At their first meeting, she felt a deep connection with the other women there, who also feared for their daughters and struggled to provide for them, while she learned about God’s love for her. Together the women began to learn how to start their own small businesses. They created their own saving and lending pool which generated interest to invest in and grow their businesses. Lia was honored when the leaders asked her to be the treasurer of the group because she was so good with numbers. It gave her a sense of value she had never experienced before.

Now Lia has been able to generate enough money to pay the fees to send her daughters to school, and she is no longer thinking of sending her oldest daughter away to work in a city. They are safe at home together, each learning and growing into who God made her to be.

A Bright Future in the Midst of Darkness

Fifteen-year-old Hayma was excited when her mother, who is in a She Is Safe Group, told her about a SIS Girls Day that was going to happen in her village. She had seen the difference the group had made in her mother’s life – her mother had so much more confidence and resilience, even in the face of constant violence and chaos in their riverside village in Myanmar. Hayma wanted to experience something hopeful, as well.

Teenage girls in Hayma’s village are at risk of trafficking because their families are desperate for survival. They think this option is better than being killed in political violence or starving to death.

At the Girls Day, Hayma learned how to better care of herself. She learned about human trafficking and ways to be safe. She played games, laughed, made connections with safe adults who care for her, and she built a circle of friends. Despite living through a war, she is getting to experience some of the things every teenager should have the opportunity to experience.

Hayma is learning and growing. She knows she has value. Her eyes are opening to see a brighter future.

Building Resilience after Slavery

When Asma* was 11, a terrorist group took over her village in the Middle East. Her father and brothers were killed, but she and her sisters were taken captive to be sold as sex slaves. For several years, she and the other girls in her house lived a life of horrific daily abuse. Sometimes she was forced to spy on the other girls and report to her captors about their activities.

One day, Asma was freed and she now lives with others like her in a local camp. Her abuse left her with complex trauma, a lack of self-worth, and feeling hopeless about the future. But Asma has joined one of our She Is Safe Groups, and she is now beginning to heal and grow. She is learning skills which are building her resilience and giving her hope for a stronger future. Through her She Is Safe Group she is learning that she was created with a loving purpose in mind – to be safe and free.

Message from Our Founder

During January, Human Trafficking Awareness Month, we can be overwhelmed when we learn about the horrors women and girls suffer in sexual slavery. But with our interventions, you and I can be encouraged by the hope and resilience that shine through each woman or girl, reminding us that God’s goodness can be found in even the darkest circumstances.

Thanks to your generous support, especially during our successful matching challenge at the end of 2024, we can reach and equip even more vulnerable girls with His goodness. These priceless ones will come to know God’s love for them and discover new dignity and purpose in ways they could have never imagined without you. How wonderful to leave behind the darkness of slavery and walk in the light of freedom – and even more wonderful, still, to never suffer slavery in the first place. Thank you for generously doing all you can to combat the evil of human trafficking and realize the She Is Safe vision of every vulnerable girl safe, free and equipped ~ this New Year and beyond.

In His love,

 

Michele M. Rickett
Founder & CEO

IN COMMUNITIES KNOWN FOR SELLING GIRLS

$35 gives a girl one month of intervention.

As a RescueOne monthly partner, you can rescue her from sexual slavery, restore her afterward or prevent her from being sold in the first place.

Your monthly gift can offer

  • safe haven in a restoration home
  • vocational training for a new life of freedom
  • income-generating alternatives for families that might
    otherwise sell their girls

When families begin to see what a gift girls are, they shift their thinking toward God’s view of these image-bearers.

Visit sheissafe.org/rescueone to become a RescueOne monthly partner.