Spring 2025
Jaya* (15) and Abiya* (16) trusted their teacher Tamia*, who taught them since childhood. Jaya and Abiya said they felt lucky to get any kind of education – in rural Nepal, it is rare for girls to have the opportunity to go to school. For months Tamia had been telling them about job opportunities in India, where her family lived. Jaya and Abiya grew up in severe poverty, and the girls wanted to help provide a better life for their families. They believed their teacher wanted to help them. But Tamia also told them not to tell their parents, because they would stop the girls from visiting India to find jobs.
Unbeknownst to their parents, Jaya and Abiya left with their teacher on an overnight bus. They arrived early the next morning near the Nepal/India border, which is a notorious hotbed for human trafficking. Tamia told the girls to cross the border on a rickshaw while she followed behind.
She Is Safe local coworkers noticed the two young girls attempting to cross the border alone and stopped them to ask a few important questions. The girls had no idea where they were going in India. who is experienced with intercepting potential trafficking victims at the border, noticed enough red flags to reach out to the girls’ families. The parents were relieved someone found their daughters and asked for them to be stopped. These young girls were taken to safety and provided counseling about human trafficking. Later, they were safely returned home to their families.
There is a special market in the Indian brothels for young Nepali girls and many are not as fortunate as Jaya and Abiya. Your partnership makes it possible for rescues like this to protect innocent girls from being sold. Now they can remain safe and free, never enduring the horrors of being trafficked.
Sonya* and Amy* are sisters who were born in a rural village in northern India. Here, the primary source of income is working in tea fields. Their parents struggled every day to provide for their daughters. They worked long hours doing manual labor, but made very little and knew they would never be able to provide them with a good future.
Both parents had to work long days to have any hope of survival. They could not afford to send both girls to school, so Amy was left locked alone in the dark at home while her older sister Sonya went . An offer came from a family to take Sonya, promising to care for her and give her a better education. Their parents, desperate to find a way to provide for their girls, agreed to send Sonya away. This is a common tactic used by traffickers to take young girls from their families to be sold into sexual slavery.
Thankfully, a social worker found out about the plan and realized how vulnerable this family was to being exploited. They recommended both girls go to live in a nearby Restoration Home supported by compassionate SIS friends. Now Amy, who loves to dance, and Sonya, who loves to draw, are experiencing a safe, stable environment where both girls are experiencing the love of Jesus and have access to a good education, nutritious meals, and the tools they need to build a strong future. Thank you for helping little girls like Amy and Sonya have a safe place to grow up, without the risk of being trafficked!
One of the biggest trends we’ve seen as we enter 2025 is the rise of technology being used in exploitation and trafficking.
A young teenage girl in the Middle East was recently the victim of a rising trend in sex trafficking taking place around the world. Like many other vulnerable young girls, she was lured into taking sexually revealing photos and then trapped in bondage by them. Some girls are sold using these photos. Others are forced into on-going exploitation which destroys their lives.
Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) is also growing at an alarming rate. After COVID-19, two-thirds of frontline anti-trafficking workers reported seeing an increase in online recruitment by traffickers, including through webcam and forced online pornography. The National Human Trafficking Hotline reported the internet as the top recruitment location for all forms of trafficking.
This kind of trafficking looks different than a girl trapped in a brothel, but the bondage and exploitation is just as real. With your help, She Is Safe is working through our rescue and restoration programs to address this growing trend. Your support is a crucial part of expanding our efforts to combat this threat.
Message from Our Founder
As we are surrounded by reminders of new life this spring, it is always a joy to celebrate the stories of life change you make possible through your partnership with She Is Safe! So many vulnerable girls live in bondage – and many see death as the only escape from their brutal circumstances. But because of your support, these girls now have a different option. They are forging new paths and being equipped to build strong futures, for themselves and their families.
Your generosity and compassion help girls learn about a God who loves them and created them for a good purpose. They are equipped for freedom. With your help, they are empowered to build futures they never would have believed were possible before.
In this newsletter you will see stories of life change, as well as hear about new threats we are combatting in the arena of online sexual exploitation. We couldn’t rise to meet these new challenges without you. I am so grateful for your faithfulness. Thank you for investing in the fight against human trafficking and helping bring freedom to the women and girls who need it most.
In His love,
Michele M. Rickett
Founder & CEO
