Will you join me in RESCUE???

"Rescue is not an event; it's a process. A girl's "rescue" is not consummated in the event of removing her from harm's way. This is simply the beginning of the journey. Rescue, understood properly, is the process and passage a girl will go through in finding her voice. We want to honor her journey as she moves from victim to survivor to leader."

The previous quote is one of the guiding principles that Transitions Global (the group I work with) operates by. I think that it is a mind set like this that is vital to the work that we do! We see so much emphasis put on "raising awareness" or seeing agencies "kick in the doors" because it is the glamorous thing to report on. We love to see hundreds of people at rallies or a bunch of cops with well intentioned westerners kicking in the door to some scummy third world brothel rescuing the screaming children... But once all that is done.... Once the stage is packed up, the speaker is headed to another rally, the lights have been turned off, volunteers pick up all the empty cups, janitors clean the toilets. Once the victims are "rescued", the pimps have escaped, the brothel is shut down (at least for now), the little girls screams and wailings have subsided to quite whimpers and stifled sobs while they wait at the Police station to be processed.... THEN WHAT!?!

In most cases these girls just fall through the system and are quickly re-trafficked and/or are re-exploited. There is a small percentage that end up getting bounced around from NGO to NGO getting some services and then are re-trafficked. The average success rate of safe-homes around the globe is 30%.... This means these girls are being failed 70% of the time! And that is just of the number of girls that are lucky enough to make it into a safe-home. When I was in Cambodia in December I talked to an organization that was ready to rescue a huge group of girls, but were waiting because they had nowhere to put the girls once they "rescued" them.

This isn't just happening overseas... Here in the US we have 300,000 American children that are being trafficked in the US every year and we only have 39 beds available for them. We are currently working on setting up a home in Portland, Oregon and we have a vice-cop that says she could fill our home in 24 hours! Our founder always says, "The only difference in the slave trade between the US and any other part of the world is.... Geography!"

The picture above is of me and a survivor in Cambodia that I have the honor to serve. She is a stronger individual than I think I could ever be. Her story is horrific but thanks to the work that Transitions Global does, she has an incredibly bright future. One of the things that most impressed me was when I asked her what she liked most about Transitions... She said, "all of the other NGO's felt temporary, but Transitions feels like home." That phrase melted my heart!

Here comes the rub.... It takes money to work through the process of "Rescuing" these girls! But it is not a lot of money (in the grand scheme of things). Transitions is a grassroots organization that needs passionate people to become involved! Even though we are small we are effective! Our success rate is between 75-80%!!! This is huge, when compared to the previous figures! In order for us to increase and make a significant impact on this issue, we need people like you to get involved!

If you are still reading it means that you care... Awesome! I am going to ask you to partner with me! I have a personal goal of getting 600 people to donate $10 a month. When I do this, I will be able to make sure that all of Cambodia's basic monthly needs are taken care of for a year. I am on a mission to recruit 100 people that will, 1.) Donate $10 a month and 2.) Will get 6 other people to donate $10 a month as well!

Will you join me in the "process" of Rescuing these girls?

If you will... Please, #1.) Send me an email at sethjohnson78@gmail.com and let me know that you have taken the challenge, 2.) Click this LINK and fill out the donation info, and 3.) get 6 others to do the same!

Love you all! Thank you for joining me in this journey!!!!