You have a part to play to fight trafficking
Written by Julie Walton
Most of the time when we are telling you stories, it is of our dear friends and colleagues in Thailand. And we have to carefully choose each month which piece of their brilliance to share with you, as the stories of the quality and excellence of their work abound. They really are as good as they sound, and it’s a privilege to tell you their stories.
But this month, we get to tell you about something really special we got to be a part of here in Austin. Remember when I wrote to you in May about the massive impact that can occur when we support kids in foster care? (You can read that blog here). The woman that asked me that question decided to take me up on my offer to change the world, by applying her unique set of talents to do just that: come around foster kids and families, and it has been pure joy to watch!
You see, this is the burden and the brilliance of our work. This whole problem we’re working on? It is way too massive to solve on our own. But in that conundrum is also the beauty: we don’t have to fix it alone. And when the problem actually gets better is when your gifts bump up against my gifts, which bump up against someone else’s and so on and so forth. As idyllic as that may sound, it really is the only way to solve this crisis around orphaned and vulnerable children, their families and the evils they face with exploitation and human trafficking.
So I’d like to tell you about how we as a global organization got to help with a really special local project this summer. One of our highly esteemed partners is an organization here in Austin called Helping Hand Home. They are a residential treatment center, meaning they offer highly specialized residential care to kids in the foster care system who have endured the worst of the worst. In addition to this amazing work, they also license many foster families throughout Austin. (Check out their work here, we love them!).
Early on in the summer, I was talking with one of their staff members when she shared how discouraged their foster families had become during this season of COVID and its restrictions. I left the call and couldn’t shake feeling like there had to be something we could do. Fast forward to my friend who wants to fight trafficking.
As she’s asking me the question, I remember this need. I smile at her, and say “the way you can impact human trafficking is to support foster kids…in fact, I have an idea for you.”
I went on to share the various needs that the foster families were facing when her face brightened and she said, “do you think they’d like to have a sandbox installed for some of the families? Because my husband and I build sandboxes, and we’d love to install some at the homes of the foster families.”
And this is how it is done, friends. I have exactly zero clue how to build a sandbox. But my friend specializes in it. She proceeded to gather a couple other families and they committed to building ten sandboxes for ten Helping Hand foster families. Ashlee and I got to go along for one of the installations and it was beautiful. We stood with the foster mom as she shared through tears what her foster child is facing. We cried with her and prayed with her as her foster child happily played with the new sandbox. This family is literally fighting human trafficking by using their unique gift to support foster kids.
And lest you think this is overly simple, may I remind you: YOU are the only you that ever was or ever will be. You have skills, unique ideas, you hold very important pieces to this puzzle. It is not just superheroes or super-humans who are called to protect orphaned and vulnerable children. While it is likely that you will never be asked to join a rescue mission in a faraway land to pull children out of trafficking, you still have a part to play.
While building sandboxes might not seem like a direct response to human trafficking, investing in kids in foster care prevents children from ever being trafficked in the first place.
This is why our GCA teams roll up to the city dump in Mae Sot each week. This is why they know the names of each child who shyly emerges to come play. This is why they have time to sit with a weary mama on the floor of her house and remind her again why her role in her children’s life is so very valuable and significant-indeed irreplaceable.
That’s how we win this battle. Name by name, face by face, kid by kid… you could even say, sandbox by sandbox.
What part will you play?
