"Why is it so easy for us to compartmentalize things? We can hear the facts surrounding human trafficking and be temporarily outraged, but then go on with life as usual because it doesn’t really touch us. We tuck those images away somewhere so that we can go on like it isn’t really happening. I know firsthand because I have done that for a long time.

Then finally one day God broke through the walls I built up to supposedly protect myself.

I have seen girls in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe and come face to face with the reality of human trafficking. I’ve met girls in India and Ethiopia and been honored that we could be a part of setting them free.

But it wasn’t until God allowed me to meet one young girl, precisely the age of one of my daughters, that I first allowed my mind and heart to go where no parent can bare…to think of one of my own daughters in this terrible position. I became furious, I cried, and my heart broke.

I hurt at a new level, and I knew that it still didn’t touch the despair that God feels for His children. Yet somehow this pain feels right—it is a more appropriate response. No more compartmentalizing; no more protecting myself from the pain. It is happening. These girls have no choice and neither should we. We must feel the full impact and we must act."

—Ginger Stache
Chief Media Officer 

Sell your body to evil men or die of starvation. It’s a terrible choice to have to make. And though she’s just nineteen years old, Birtukan has made this choice since she was fourteen. But she finds strength when she gazes into the eyes of her seven-month-old daughter, Aamina.

"I make this choice because I don’t want my daughter to do the same," she says. Her Ethiopian name, Aamina, means "safe," and Birtukan has decided she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her promise.

Birtukan sells her body to survive. For five years, she has lived and performed her work in a 4’ x 9’ room—no days off…no vacation…no rest. As many as fifteen men a day abuse her body to satisfy their evil desires.

But on this day, Birtukan has been offered a chance to escape this life…and she takes it. Under the protection of our team, Birtukan and Aamina moved out of their tiny room and away from their oppressors. Today, they live at our Hand of Hope women’s home, where they begun the road to healing.
 
Here, Birtukan gazes into Aamina’s beautiful eyes, knowing they will never have to live that life again.
 

"Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down," says the Lord.
—Jeremiah 6:15 NAS

"Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs." —Isaiah 61:7 NAS