Mercy is a 16-year-old girl who is six months pregnant currently living at Christine’s House in Gulu, Uganda. Mercy is the second of four children who were being raised by their mother who suffers with a disability. Mercy’s parents separated when she was young, leaving her mother to provide for the children on her own. Her mother struggled to pay the children’s school fees, buy sanitary pads, or even shoes. Her mother began farming on a small scale just to feed her family.
The reality is, our youth are experiencing sexual abuse more and more, and it becomes difficult for youth to name their experiences as sexual abuse because it’s been so normalized. For example, sexting is a normal way of communication between youth, and I can assure you it’s happening in almost every school across the U.S.— yet sexting is sexual abuse. When youth and adults can name something so normal as abuse, we prevent it from happening and restore those who’ve gone through it.
Hi. My name is Dyimon. If you are reading this I am delighted you’ve taken a few moments to listen to my words and I hope after you read this you will be compelled to share what you’ve learned with others. When I was 20 years old, I narrowly escaped with my life after being sex trafficked.
Freedom 4/24 aims to expand the work of Freedom Firm by providing a grant to cover restoration efforts for 4 trafficked girls from Madhya Pradesh. Girls who have been trafficked and rescued from Nagpur tend to originate from Madhya Pradesh. During the restoration process, a social worker works with the girls to create a restoration plan to make certain each girl’s immediate needs are met.
In 2020, Beginnings is working to open a farm-to-table restaurant that will provide income to sustain their safe home and give education to the survivors. Poverty often leaves women and children with no other choice but to sell themselves to feed their family—this restaurant equips survivors to provide financially for their families.
Compelled: To have a powerful irresistible effect or influence; driven. Every day, vulnerable women and children are compelled by lies, manipulation, and abuse and become victims of sexual slavery. But every day, we can be compelled by the love of Christ to do whatever we can to fight slavery, be their ally, and use our resources and freedom to make her justice, our burden.
We can’t wait to see her picture, to hear her story, to say her name. She’s a victim of sexual exploitation, but will soon be a rescued survivor. We don’t know who she is yet, but we know she deserves a life free from sexual slavery and has experienced more pain than many of us will ever have to. It costs $4,000 for our partner, Freedom Firm, to rescue one sex trafficking victim in Madhya Pradesh, India. Together, we can rescue one girl.
Because of the lockdown in Uganda, food security in both poor urban and rural areas is becoming a big problem. Our partner has the proper contacts to be able to purchase and distribute food, even in these lockdown situations. Seven dollars can provide food for an individual in Uganda for an entire week. Will you donate $7 or more to help meet the immediate needs of our friends in Uganda?
As I began that run, I remembered that every 30 seconds, someone in the world is being trafficked. During that 5K run—60 victims. I wanted each step to be used as a voice for each victim and a new life of transformation and hope begin for them. What an incredible way to pray and advocate, to be alongside these girls and show love and support.
Priscilla ultimately decided to share her story hoping that once people had heard it they would be compelled to do something to help girls and women just like her. On April 11, YOU have the chance to help victims and survivors like Priscilla by joining us for the Run 4 Their Lives Lynchburg Virtual 5k!
There is a link between pornography and sex trafficking. The correlation is not hard to find, in fact, it’s pretty obvious. But in the current sex-driven culture, pornography is praised and promoted, and the majority of this world is blind to how it directly affects sex trafficking. There has been a spike in porn during the current coronavirus pandemic, and it’s important to understand the link to modern-day slavery.
This week, we got reports from our partner in Thailand, Beginnings Foundation, that because of COVID-19, hundreds of bars are shut down. What was once one of the most notorious red-light districts in the world, is almost completely dark and void of people. The street that was usually lined with thousands of girls waiting and dancing outside hundreds of bars, customers and gawkers shoulder to shoulder, is virtually empty.
Even while we face this pandemic, something none of us has ever experienced, and the future is full of unknowns, our mission remains the same. Freedom 4/24 is here to bring freedom, to bring justice to women and children who are being trafficked and exploited. Research indicates that trafficking can experience a boom in the wake of a disaster, an idea that remains consistent with the observed patterns of trafficking preying on vulnerability.
Today is International Women’s Day—a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Many influential women may come to our minds when we think of the word “achievements”—political leaders, women of faith, business leaders, CEOs, teachers, even our moms or other mom-like figures in our life. I can think of a few great women, but today, the woman that comes to mind is a 13-year-old girl named Stella that I met in 2016. The strongest 13-year-old I know.
In 2016, I went to Uganda, Africa with Freedom 4/24, and I met a pregnant 13-year-old who was weeks away from giving birth to her child—the child of her abuser. Stella was 12 years old when someone took advantage of her vulnerabilities. Her mother was mentally ill and her father was not present in her life. For about a month, every day on her way to and from school, she was raped by a classmate. The innocence of a child stolen over and over again—it’s hard to comprehend, it’s evil, it doesn’t make sense. Taken advantage of and exploited, Stella became pregnant.
If you are willing, take a moment to make this story more personal. Could Stella be your daughter, your sister, your friend, yourself? I can’t imagine the scars, physical and emotional, that she carried during that time. I can’t imagine the lies she believed about herself—that she was worth nothing more than what a man wanted from her sexually, that her mother and father did not care about her life, that she might as well not exist because life ahead was not something to look forward to.
On top of that, because of her pregnancy and the extent of her trauma, Stella had no choice but to drop out of school. Uneducated women do not have a bright future in Uganda and are more vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking, and forced early marriage. Stella, not knowing what to do or where to go, was found by Christine’s House, Freedom 4/24’s partner in Uganda.
Girls her age should be having slumber parties and laughing together, yet Stella was having a child in less than a month.
I remember seeing Stella for the first time at Christine’s House. She had only been there for a few months, and when I looked in her eyes, I saw a lifeless young girl. It broke my heart—I had never seen someone so dead inside. Girls her age should be having slumber parties and laughing together, yet Stella was having a child in less than a month. When I talked to her, her words were short, and she didn’t look me in the eyes, but when asked about her baby, she couldn’t even formulate words—tears would stream down her face. If I were in her place, I wouldn’t want to believe or think about the coming month either.
Years later, after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy, Stella is still a teenager, but one of the strongest teenagers I know. She is a mom, she laughs and has life in her eyes—her soul. She has experienced the darkest of nights, yet held on to hope. Stella has Jesus as her Savior, and although her past will not change, she has made the most of her life right now; she is filled with joy that only comes from a loving Father.
The strongest women I know have lived through the winter seasons of their soul and made it to spring. The strongest women I know have replaced lies of self-doubt and unworthiness with the Truth. The strongest women I know are not strong because of what they have accomplished, but rather what they have allowed the Creator to accomplish through them. Stella doesn’t have a certain amount of followers on social media, she isn’t making 6 figures, she isn’t a CEO or whatever we so commonly define as “accomplished” women—but she is courageous, gracious, kind, and strong. She is a woman I admire, and will always admire not for what she achieved but for who she is and what she has overcome.
So, today, let’s honor women all over the world. To the women who are leading in business, politics, or ministry, thank you for never giving up. For the moms who are raising world changers, thank you for never giving up. For the students who don’t know what the future looks like, don’t give up. And to the women who are living in darkness, you are not alone. Despite the scars you wear daily, God has a plan for your life.
From our team of women at Freedom 4/24 to you, let’s change the world together.
Learn more about Stella’s story:
Jaclyn Blackford is the Director of Communications and Marketing at Freedom 4/24. She has followed the work of Freedom 4/24 since high school and moved to Lynchburg from Florida in 2015, interned with Freedom 4/24 2016, and started her current role in 2019. Outside of work, Jaclyn enjoys eating ice cream, watching movies, and being outside with her best friend and husband, Taylor.
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