The Path of Exploitation

Who We Rescue

Our mission is to rescue children out of sex trafficking and exploitation, which is actually a rather broad category when specifics are considered. The unique circumstances of children within this defined category can vary greatly. To best understand exactly what that means, it is important to understand the dynamics and process of trafficking and exploitation. This knowledge lays a foundation for understanding how a child’s rescue and ultimate freedom can be achieved.

The realm of sexual exploitation is a tangled web of darkness that tricks, entraps and abuses. Traffickers and abusers leverage a child’s vulnerabilities, whether that’s their financial situation, lack of education or simply their physical inability to fight back, in order to exploit them.

This process of manipulation and coercion takes many forms but always results in the tragedy of stolen innocence. We find children being sold in the commercial sex industry. We locate children in exploitative home situations – either pimped out or being abused by trusted family or community members. We also encounter outdated cultural practices including religious sexual enslavement or child marriage.

Our agents have years of experience understanding what vulnerabilities are most common and how children are typically exploited in their particular region. Exploitation is a process, sometimes with warning signs. It is at various stages along this path of exploitation that our agents identify and rescue children from this terrible darkness.

Pre-emptive

A preemptive rescue is the rescue of a child we are certain will soon be exploited without our intervention.

In many commercial-sex-trafficking situations, traffickers use ‘legitimate’ businesses to lure victims in with promises of a job. Two common examples would be a waitress at a bar, or masseuse at a massage parlor. They use this guise to begin the grooming process in order to exploit the child immediately or a short time after ‘employment’. When our agents locate children in the early stages of this process they can bring them to freedom before they experience abuse.

Border rescue agents are also able to intervene early along the path of exploitation. At key country border crossing locations, our agents are trained to identify potential victims of trafficking. In some instances, these individuals are completely unaware of the dangerous situation they were about to encounter and their pre-emptive rescue intervenes before they come to physical harm.

In certain cultures, child marriage still occurs and some religious practices induct children into becoming life-long sex slaves. In these areas our agents have been able to intervene before the dedication ceremonies can take place and rescue children from these terrible futures.

It’s an incredible victory to rescue a child before they are physically abused. They can still exhibit a certain level of trauma from the environments they were subjected to but the healing and recovery process is typically much more stable. If not for our intervention, children in these situations are sometimes mere hours away from horrible abuse.

Verified Exploitation Rescue

A verified exploitation rescue is the rescue of a child we know is currently being sexually exploited.

Often our agents locate a child after the grooming process has ended. Some children in the sex industry are abused right away, often horribly so, in order to break down their spirit and prepare them for a bleak life of exploitation ahead. In some countries, child marriages and cultural rituals claim young girls at tender ages. Too often, our agents find children who are being sexually exploited night after night.

The sad reality is that exploitation is happening right now, all over the globe and these children have no hope of a safe life unless someone intervenes. They are worthy, resilient and capable individuals but alone they are overpowered by the darkness of exploitation. It is our calling and privilege to join together and extend these children a strong hand of hope that once grasped, gives them the opportunity and stability they need to step into a life of freedom.

Rescue strategies vary based on the child’s age, situation of exploitation and other factors. Our agents will proceed with the best rescue strategy, seeking to bring children into freedom and safety as quickly as possible.

Setting Kids Free

There is only one destination at the end of the dark path of exploitation and it’s just that, dark. Children anywhere on the path of exploitation deserve rescue and restoration. No matter at which point in this trajectory we find a child, the aim is to bring them to freedom as soon as possible and empower them on a healthy journey of restoration and a future of hope. Each and every rescue is an enormous victory. One more precious life saved from the darkness, one more beautiful soul free to hope and dream!

You can join the fight to bring these kids to freedom! Your monthly support as a rescue partner equips rescue agents, provides aftercare services and ripples through generations as lives are changed and futures become restored.