It is often difficult for us to communicate to our Freedom Family the impact of their support within the dark world of human trafficking. It is often those who have experienced the work first-hand who are able to capture the power of this impact the best.

Below is a reflection from a volunteer who worked with our partner organization in Thailand, Home of New Beginnings.

MICHELE’S REFLECTION

“…There were millions of thoughts, millions of emotions, millions of pieces of data racing through the highways of my brain, crashing here and flowing there. I was on sensory overload, and the thought of trying to streamline it all into one continuous path of logical information was overwhelming…

How do I make you, the reader, understand the sounds as I walked in ‘Soi 8’ — the blaring music, the calls of the girls, the laughter and boisterous bellows of the men, or the smells of sweet perfume mixed with sewer vapors and street food and dirty streets? How do I make you see the beauty of outcast girls who are hated by their culture, sold by their mamasans, and groped and abused by men?

How do I describe to you the squeals of laughter as they play limbo and musical chairs at a party — the one moment they can recall what it was like to be little — before they were ravaged and robbed of their innocence? How do I make you hear the room erupt with the screams of delight as you pull out a trash bag full of stuffed animals and wallets and makeup kits and they realize they will soon receive one of those simple gifts?

How do I make you marvel at the warrior spirit of a rescued girl as she invades a bar and attempts to rescue her comrades? She was once there, and now she knows how hope feels, and she wants them all to know it also. She relentlessly pursues until whole bars are cleared out because these girls are going to a party.

Do you see it now? Do you feel it? Do you understand it? Of course you don’t. I’m not even sure I do, and I saw it first-hand. I struggle to grasp it all. But I wanted to at least attempt to bring you into my mind and paint you a very raw picture.”

FREE FOR LIFE’S ROLE

Free for Life is partnering with Home of New Beginnings to meet the needs of highly at-risk young women in Thailand. Through this program, Free for Life is sponsoring the shelter and education of women and girls, just like the ones described in Michele’s reflection. The family-style environment of the shelter has no time limit on a woman or girl’s recovery and every individual will receive formal and informal education.