This week I want to highlight a group called Love146.
They are an international anti-trafficking group with US offices in New Haven
and Houston, who offer safe housing and rehabilitation for girls rescued from
sex trafficking; they also offer training and resources for those willing to go
out and work in the trenches.
Their moving introduction video talks of how Love146 was
created, when several of the co-founders embarked upon an undercover operation
in Southeast Asia in 2002, hoping to learn how best to fight the horrors of
child trafficking. They were unprepared for what they saw—in once instance, children
with numbers attached to them, sitting behind a window, watching cartoons while
waiting to be ordered off of a menu by number. Literally. One of the co-founders
admits to feeling an overwhelming rage and desire to smash the window, to pull
the girls to safety. Because this was an undercover mission, that response was
impossible. They felt helpless. But one of the girls, #146, changed everything
for them. Whereas most of the other children’s faces registered hopelessness
and resignation—a typical and very human response to repeated trauma—in the
eyes of #146 they saw defiance. She was still registering a desire to fight,
there was still a light in her eyes. She was their call to action, and the
reason Love146 was created.
Their mission statement is, “Abolition and Restoration!
We combat child trafficking & exploitation with the unexpected and restore
survivors with excellence.”
If you have a chance, pop over to their website and check
them out. They work in the trenches. They see the unimaginable.
