Tag Archives: WAR

Taking a S.T.A.N.D: WAR, Int’l offers teen class on dangers of human trafficking July 13

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Wyoming, Community Health, Crime Prevention, Going Local, Health, Kent County, Local Business, Local Faces, Our Cities, Upcoming Events, Voices, West Michigan, , , , , , , ,
Women at Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) will lead a teen class on the true nature and dangers of human trafficking (Supplied)


By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


Women at Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) has spent decades providing healing and safe spaces for trafficked women. They also work tirelessly to educate communities about the true nature and dangers of human trafficking.

On July 13, the WAR Chest Boutique in Wyoming will host a teen S.T.A.N.D. class for ages 11-17. The class aims to give the next generation tools they need to stand with confidence against the challenges of the world today.

The teen S.T.A.N.D. session will take place from 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and is led by Liz Midkiff, WAR, Int’l Ambassador and human trafficking survivor. During the class, attendees will make a handmade bracelet they can take home with them.

Session cost is $10 and includes the class, resources and bracelet. Due to limited space, registration will close at 12 p.m. on Friday, July 12. Parents are welcome to come and observe the class.



(Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)



Created and designed by Midkiff and Rebecca McDonald, founder and President of WAR, Int’l, the S.T.A.N.D. acronym teaches youth safety awareness (S), trafficking signs (T), age appropriateness (A), that it is okay to say no (N), and determination (D).

As a human trafficking survivor, Midkiff has spent the last several years under the guidance of McDonald and WAR, Int’l staff, healing and finding her voice. Both have been found in telling her personal story and educating youth and adults about human trafficking.

Liz’s story

(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“The number two trafficker is a fake friend, male or female,” said McDonald.

In Midkiff’s case, she was trafficked by the manager at her place of employment.

“He groomed her,” said McDonald. “He got closer and closer to her, and she trusted him because he was her boss. Then he had her move to Tennessee, away from her family. He started trafficking her, and threatened her family.”

Fortunately, Midkiff was able to escape and call her parents. Her father drove through the night to reach Midkiff and bring her home.

Now, Midkiff wants to speak.

“My passion is to help them find their voice.”

“We have many survivors who want to speak,” said McDonald. “They reach a point in their healing where they want to give voice.”

Having watched Midkiff teach her own young son about safe relationships, as well as share her story with older youth, McDonald is confident in the survivor’s ability to teach and bring awareness to this important topic.

“I’ve seen her grow in her ability to share her story,” said McDonald. “She makes it very kid friendly. We’re giving her an opportunity to do that, and to find her voice.”



(Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)



Midkiff recently left a career in banking to take on speaking engagements full-time.

“Our mission is circles of protection, and we’re another concentric circle around her, helping her leave a career in banking and go into this full-time,” said MacDonald. “It’s our delight to help, see her spread her wings and flourish.”

Child and teen S.T.A.N.D. classes

Midkiff teaches two S.T.A.N.D. classes, one for children ages 5-10, and a teen session for ages 11-17. The messages in both classes are tailored to the kids who attend, offer a question and answer period and a craft.

The child class contains age appropriate material regarding safe relationships, stranger danger, private parts and personal privacy.

The teen class material can feature content around drugs, money, phones and social media.

(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Midkiff also touches on mixed messages regarding stranger danger and complying with a perpetrator versus consenting.

The number one trafficker, said McDonald, is family.

“Kidnapping is 3% of trafficking,” said McDonald. “Stranger danger is a dangerous message by itself because 95% of the time it’s going to be somebody you know.”

Teaching a child to say no is important. However, our bodies have three different responses to trauma: fight, flight and freeze.

If a child does not say no when faced with a traumatic situation, it is not because they did something wrong, it is because their body shut down.

“To freeze is a normal, actually healthy, response to trauma. You’re trying to be quiet and not bring attention to yourself.”

That does not, McDonald continued, mean you were consenting.

“[The class is] a wonderful opportunity to hear from a survivor,” said McDonald. “It’s very practical, and it’s very age appropriate.”

Your story has power

“When it’s your story, no one can argue with you. That’s the power of a survivor,” said McDonald, adding that she urges Midkiff to speak from the heart when telling her story. “What she brings to the table is personal experience, and experience as a mother.”

Midkiff’s story gives hope, something McDonald believes is desperately needed.

“We need to know that there are happy things to get us through brokenness,” said MacDonald. “It’s very addictive when you see women who have been to hell and back put their life back together, rise up, and do something very productive, redemptive and full circle.”


(Courtesy, pxhere.com)

How you can help survivors of human trafficking

Every $300 WAR Int’l sells in product provides a woman a month in a safe house overseas. If a consumer spends $10, they support a woman for a day in the safe house.

Every size contribution creates an impact, whether via donation or shopping.

Class attendees are invited to peruse the boutique before or after the S.T.A.N.D. event to see all the products made by, or sold in support of, at-risk and rescued individuals from around the world.

For additional questions, email info@warchestboutique.com, or call 616-530-1234 and speak to Joy.

Group remembers well-known WW II veteran with birthday celebration

3-bottom, City of Wyoming, Senior Living, ,
David “Goldie” Goldsboro and Sid Lenger served on the same ship, the LST 651, during World War II. (WKTV)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Wyoming’s favorite World War II veteran, Sid Lenger, would have turned 103 on Wednesday, Sept. 8. Knowing that he will be with everyone in spirit, his friends and organizers of the Mr. Sid’s Video Series will be hosting a Mr. Sid’s Birthday Celebration at Marge’s Donut Den at 2 p.m.

The event will feature Legner’s family members and special guest Navy Commander Paul Chardoul. Commander Chardoul did not know Lenger but did serve on a Landing Ship Tank (LST) in Vietnam. Lenger served in the Navy during World War II on the LST 651 including the intense experience of fending off Kamikaze attacks on his 20mm gun during the Battle of Okinawa.

Music provided by John VanderMeer will feature Lenger’s favorite hymns. A short video presentation will tell some things about Lenger including the decision to start a Travel Agency (Lenger Travel), his and his wife’s work for Mission India and in his later years, Lenger’s decision to give tours of the LST 393 anchor at the Mart Dock in Muskegon. Birthday cake will be provided by Marge’s Donut Den.

Due to his work in the travel industry and then later with Mission India, Lenger began hosting travel film programs locally. Due to the interest in the films, Lenger revised the films and began showing his travel films every second Wednesday of the month at Marge’s Donut Den. After his death, at the age of 100, in 2019, his friends, with family support, decided to continue the video series.

 

Upcoming programs are:

Oct. 13: Mr. Sid’s Germany video

Nov. 10: James Smither GVSU Veterans History Project

Dec. 15: Mike Martin’s Christmas “Extravaganza”

Community Awareness: Going to WAR against human trafficking

Citizen Journalism, Volunteers, WKTV Projects, , , ,

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

For many, human trafficking seems like something that takes place in a faraway land when in reality it could be happening right next door.

“There was a mother who was human trafficking her own daughter,” said Women At Risk Youth Ambassador Jenn Amo, who is the featured guest of the Community Awareness’s upcoming show on Women at Risk, International show set to air this month.

Amo tells Community Awareness host Donna Kidner-Smith that there is a lot of misconceptions about human trafficking in that those involved in the trade will target just about anyone: age, race, income and gender really don’t matter.

“In West Michigan, at any given time, about 2,400 minors are for sale,” Amo said, adding that while most of these are online, the number is appalling.

The goal of Women at Risk, International (WAR), a non-profit headquartered in Wyoming, is to provide protection around at-risk women and children. The organization hosts a number of programs designed to help those in need along with educating the public on a variety of issues such as human trafficking.

Amo visits schools and other organizations talking to students and parents about the signs of and how to prevent becoming a victim of human trafficking.

“We call it our wheel of risk because everybody, no matter who you are, faces multiple things in a lifetime,” Amo said. “Sometimes you can handle it on your own and at other times you don’t know where to turn.”

Through the Community Awareness program, Amo discusses the signs of human trafficking, safety steps people can take to avoid  or prevent it, and the importance that the entire community must stay vigilant in reporting questionable activities.

“The traffickers have always been there,” Amo said during the program. “As marijuana was legalized, people thought it would just eliminated what the traffickers do. Instead, we saw an increase in human trafficking. They basically just changed what they were trafficking.”

Amo also discusses what WAR is about, volunteer opportunities and the WAR Chest Boutiques located at 2790 44th St. SW, Wyoming, and 25 Squires St. Square NE, Rockford. These stores are the retail arm of the non-profit featuring hand-crafted items created by at-risk-women (and some at-risk-men) in WAR’s partnering programs that are in more than 40 countries including the United States.

For more about WAR, visit www.warintertnational.org. The Community Awareness program featuring Women At Risk runs Monday, March 7, at 9 p.m. , Wednesday, March 9, at 11 a.m. and Friday March 11, at 10 a.m.

For a complete WKTV lineup, visit www.wktv.org.

Local Non-profit makes a difference for Women at Risk

Local Business, Non-Profits, ,
By Jessica Rowland
Women at Risk
 The WAR Chest Boutique is a non-profit store-front operated by Women At Risk, International giving people a permanent location to shop a variety of unique gifts made by the precious rescued and at-risk women who flow through our programs in over 40 countries around the world, including the United States.
Come in and be an active participant in our mission statement of creating circles of protection around women and SHOP WITH A PURPOSE!
The store is also open upon request for PRIVATE PARTIES where you and your family/friends/co-workers can come in and learn more about the programs of Women At Risk, International and support our cause!

 

WAR Chest Boutique Wyoming
(616) 530-1234
info@warinternational.org

2790 44th St
Wyoming, MI 49519
WAR Chest Boutique Rockford
(616) 863-0100
info@warinternational.org
25 Squires St. Square NE
Rockford, MI 49341

 

Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) is a U.S.-based, non-profit organization. We currently work in over 31 countries creating havens of safety and healing for at-risk women and children. Our purpose and passion is to give voice to the silenced cries of the oppressed, wrap arms of love around them, and whisper messages of purpose and dignity into their brokenness.

 

Through culturally sensitive, value-added intervention projects and programs, WAR, Int’l offers these women and children an opportunity to live life with dignity. Although specifically known for our fight against human trafficking and rehabilitating work with trafficking victims, WAR, Int’l addresses 14 different risk issues facing women and children today.

 

This is what we would like to tell you about how your shopping helps us:

 

Dear Precious Fellow Soldier (really shopper):

 

Each time you buy a gift (for another or yourself) made by a rescued or at-risk woman or even a WAR, Int’l book where the sales go to helping a woman, you are a fellow soldier.  You just jumped in the trenches with me and grabbed a baby, a woman, a child who is  hiding there waiting for us to sneak with them to a safe place. 

 

I have been at this battle long enough to know that if we do not give a woman a way to make a living, she will crawl out of the trench looking for food for her  family.  If she doesn’t, her family or some trafficker will come find her, pull her out, and demand she make them a living.  Rescue is not enough.  Please hear this  clearly.  Those who rescue and do no more, do nothing.  Ninety percent of those rescued in a police raid in Cambodia and sent home without job training get resold.  Rescue is ONLY the start. 

 

So every time you buy a piece of jewelry, know  with certainty that you just made the process work!  You just helped  not only rescue but restore and empower a woman or child to survive with dignity.  It is that simple.  One safe house grew 500% when we started carrying their jewelry and product. 

 

Buying the work of their hands gives life and freedom and dignity.  They are not  asking for a handout, only that you enjoy the beautiful works of art they are making. There is dignity for you. You did not give them something for  nothing.  There is greater dignity for them.  They earned the fruit of that beautiful necklace around your neck.  This brings two women together in a very powerful,   primal way.  I have seen women stand and cry as they try on our jewelry.  It is not because the jewelry is high end, excellent quality, and low priced.  It is because of the woman who made it and what the purchase will mean in her life.

 

When you buy a WAR, Int’l product, you are truly a fellow soldier in the battle of a lifetime to set women and children free from the chains of bondage and slavery. This Christmas when you buy a gift, you just gave the gift of freedom. Imagine that you are handing back to God one of his own who is crying for dignity and worth that he created them to enjoy. 

 

We are giving the gift of life, hope, and dignity to wounded women with the promise of a future that we will walk beside them in their journey to recovery.  Thank you for being that army!  Shop with joy and purpose!