Tag Archives: Women at Risk International

Voices of Freedom: Liz Midkiff – Part 3

No matter the cost: Liz Midkiff risked everything to find freedom – and her voice

Human trafficking survivor and WAR, Int’l Ambassador Liz Midkiff is determined to keep others from experiencing the horrors she endured (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)


By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains sensitive information about violence and rape that may be distressing or traumatic for some individuals.


Liz Midkiff was trafficked for two years before she found a way out. Held captive physically and emotionally, Midkiff finally had enough.

“I finally got out of it by running into the woods,” said Midkiff. “I think I just lost my mind. At one point I’m like, they can kill us all. I’m going to call my dad.”

Midkiff called her father at 4 a.m. and asked him to come get her – immediately. “He didn’t ask any questions. He got me and took me home. They lived four hours away.”

Midkiff was willing to risk everything to regain her freedom (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

Midkiff and her father didn’t talk during the car ride home. In fact, he did not know what he had rescued his daughter from until years later. He simply knew his daughter called, she was frantic, and he needed to go get her.

Though Midkiff received threatening phone calls after she escaped, her traffickers did not want to cross state lines, so she was not in physical danger.

Midkiff stayed with her parents as she began the healing process, describing her parents’ home as her safe house.

“Even if you get somebody out of [trafficking], you’ve got to get them to a place that’s safe or they’re never going to heal,” said Midkiff, adding that many victims do not have a safe place to go to. “I feel really blessed that I had parents that were able to help me.”

Finding hope and purpose

Midkiff’s healing process was long and difficult, mentally and physically.

“I had to have multiple surgeries because people did some ungodly things,” said Midkiff.

Midkiff’s attempts to facilitate healing were not easy – but she did not give up (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

The mental and emotional side of healing was difficult for many reasons.

“It wasn’t easy because I didn’t even know I was trafficked until years later,” Midkiff admitted, adding that she was continually told she simply had “bad boyfriends” and that her experiences happen to everyone. “I didn’t know there was an actual name for it.”

It wasn’t until she heard trafficking talked about on television that Midkiff realized: This is what happened to me.

Armed with that knowledge, Midkiff attempted to facilitate healing by talking with various therapists, but did not find it helpful.

“Most therapists have no idea what trafficking is,” said Midkiff. “They have no idea how to speak to a survivor.”

Midkiff found herself struggling with deep-seated anger as she sought meaning in what happened to her. “I just wanted to have meaning to what happened. I wanted to make sense of it, and I wanted purpose in my life.”

Eventually, Midkiff found a Christian counselor who asked where her journey first began. Midkiff explained about her mission trip to Thailand and the call she felt from God to fight trafficking. The counselor then asked Midkiff: “Do you think it’s a possibility that Satan heard that goal too, and he wanted to try to bring you down because you have something so powerful to say?”

Midkiff felt like a switch had been flipped.

“When I felt like I had a call on my life, I feel like that was from God. Three years later, I just happened to be trafficked myself.

Midkiff refused to let guilt and anger rule her life (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

“I feel that Satan tried to bring me down with the one thing I was supposed to fight. That there is something that I have to say that is so powerful, he just wanted to destroy it.”

For years, Midkiff did keep silent. “I didn’t want to talk about it. If I can’t even protect myself, how can I help other people?”

As Midkiff struggled with survivor’s guilt over escaping the trafficking business while others remained victims, Midkiff’s husband echoed the suggestion that Midkiff might have something to say.

“Maybe you have something that needs to be said, and so you need to use that to fight it,” Midkiff’s husband told her. “Instead of in anger, fight it by helping other people.”

Midkiff began seeing other survivors lead programs and meetings and was intrigued.

“Hearing from other survivors, how powerful their story is and how they can help others with what they went through, I thought, I have that. There are so many things that could be said about what happened to me.”

A lifelong journey of healing

Aspects of her physical trauma remain with Midkiff even now – and she refuses to be silenced about those experiences.

“To this day, I don’t sleep in a bed,” said Midkiff. “And if I do, I don’t sleep.

“I’ve been out of this for 15 years now, but to this day, I will wake up so tense I won’t be able to move, or I’ll have nightmares the whole night. I either sleep in a chair, or I sleep on the floor.”

Midkiff’s husband Roger (right) patiently won her trust and love (Courtesy, Midkiff)

When she married her husband, Roger slept on a couch and Midkiff slept on the floor.

“Eventually he just slept on the floor with me. He’s a big guy, so it shows his love, to be able to come down to my level.”

The fact that Midkiff was able to trust someone enough to marry was a monumental hurdle in its own right – and it took time.

“We would just hang out, [and] he became my best friend. He was different from every guy I’ve ever met.”

But even friendship didn’t come easily for Midkiff.

“I didn’t have friends. It’s still hard for me to make friends. I didn’t trust anybody. It was just me and my dog. I was very much a loner, and my husband very much pursued me, but in a friendship sort of way.”

When Midkiff’s dog died, Roger was there to support her.

“My dog had been through all of that with me. When he died, it was like my life was falling apart. But then Roger would just be there, just hang out with me as a normal person. He was never forceful, he was never weird.

“And I realized this is how people are supposed to be. I think that helped me be able to laugh again and be able to have fun.”

When Roger said he wanted to date Midkiff, she revealed everything in her past, fully expecting him to walk away.

It took time for Midkiff to trust that not all relationships are transactional (Courtesy, Midkiff)

“He didn’t leave,” said Midkiff. “He hugged me and said, ‘None of this was ever your fault.’ That was a turning point.”

But obstacles remained.

Because Midkiff’s experiences with men were entirely transactional, certain aspects of her relationship with Roger were difficult. When Roger took her hand or bought her flowers, Midkiff  was instantly transported back to her past and became angry, asking what he wanted from her.

“During dating – and even marriage – there was a lot of ironing out of those things,” said Midkiff.

A large part of her healing came from turning back to her Christian faith.

“When [the trafficking] was actually happening, I would say I turned away from it, especially when the church rejected me,” said Midkiff. “That was my final straw. I had a nice little showdown with God in the car, actually. I still believed in Him, but didn’t want anything to do with Him.”

However, Midkiff could see God at work through specific instances where she was shielded from harm by people who said God sent them to protect her.

As Midkiff tried to make sense of why she went through being trafficked, she found purpose in her faith – and found her voice.

Taking a S.T.A.N.D

Midkiff says every step she takes toward speaking out has solidified her belief that God has called her to fight human trafficking.

Liz Midkiff, human trafficking survivor and WAR, Int’l Ambassador (right) with Rebecca McDonald, Founder and Executive Director of WAR, Int’l (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

“Things are happening,” said Midkiff. “The S.T.A.N.D class, different situations I’ve had talking to people, and seeing people freed from shame they felt. People only I would have been able to talk to.

“If you talk to another survivor, it means something different because they understand. I think it’s helped me a lot with my anger and guilt.”

Midkiff began speaking at public events – and happened to share her story at a Women At Risk, International CFR event where founder Rebecca McDonald was in attendance. The next day, McDonald invited Midkiff to speak at more WAR events.

Midkiff has worked with the nonprofit for the past five years, finding she fits well into the role of speaker. And Midkiff’s voice is having a powerful effect.

“Working with WAR, I can speak for survivors, and I can help them.”

Knowledge and preparation are vital

For the past five years, Midkiff has been sharing her story to help others recognize and prevent human trafficking. However, she only shared her story at WAR events. In April 2023, Midkiff took a leap of faith and shared her story on Facebook for the first time.

Midkiff uses her personal knowledge and everything she has learned to protect others (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

But she wants to do more.

Knowledge and recognition of what human trafficking truly consists of is vital in preventing trafficking. However, even if Midkiff had been prepared, she knew her trafficker for six months, and he seemed trustworthy. How could she have known she was entering a dangerous situation?

What would have made a difference, Midkiff said, was having knowledge of how to get out of that situation. “It’s not just how to prevent it but, if this happens to you or your friends, what can you do?”

Knowledge of what trafficking actually looks like is also important.

Midkiff observed that people have a basic knowledge of what trafficking is, but don’t know what it looks like or what to do if they see it. And most people don’t know what grooming means in the trafficking world.

“That’s where I feel I can help,” said Midkiff. “And WAR is such a big help to people because every trafficking case is different and we have the resources, we have the knowledge to back it up. We have Homeland Security, we have the FBI, we have all these things that maybe the everyday person doesn’t have.”

An ambassador for truth

Midkiff works to educate both children and adults about trafficking (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

As an ambassador for WAR, Midkiff’s ministry is funded through the generosity of supporters. Her passion for protecting children from trafficking keeps her continually seeking ministry opportunities.

“I created the S.T.A.N.D. classes because that was something that was really important to me as a mom.”

S.T.A.N.D. classes are available for children as young as 5-years-old and contain age appropriate material regarding safe relationships, stranger danger, private parts and personal privacy. Teen classes may include content about drugs, money, phones and social media.

However, Midkiff has noticed many parents avoid talking to their children about trafficking because they believe it will scare them.

Midkiff has already begun teaching her oldest son (left) about appropriate interactions and relationships (Courtesy, Midkiff)

“I think adults are more scared than the kids are,” said Midkiff, adding that even if they do talk to their kids, there are things parents would not know about.

“What I do is so new, and such a hard topic, that people are a little apprehensive about having me come out. So [I’m] just trying to be bold, stepping out and fighting for kids now because the media is certainly fighting to get your kids right now. Trafficking is happening.”

While Midkiff may never fully make sense of what happened to her, “I’ve come to the peace of: it happened. For whatever reason it happened, I have something to say that needs to be said. And that drives me to seek out these opportunities.”


*Continue reading Liz Midkiff’s survivor story and misconceptions about human trafficking in part four of her Voices of Freedom series, coming to WKTV Journal on Jan. 27, 2025.


Take a S.T.A.N.D.

Liz Midkiff, human trafficking survivor and WAR, Int’l ambassador will lead the S.T.A.N.D. classes (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

WAR, Int’l is hosting two S.T.A.N.D. classes on Jan. 25 at the WAR Chest Boutique in Wyoming.

Created and designed by Liz Midkiff and Rebecca McDonald, these classes are teach safety awareness, trafficking signs, age appropriate communications/actions, and more.

– The Kids S.T.A.N.D. Session will be held from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. for children ages 5-10 years old.

– The Teen S.T.A.N.D. Session will be held from 12:30 – 2 p.m. for youth ages 11-17 years old.

More details and registration information can be found here.



Resources

*In an emergency, call 911.

– If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline. It is a free, 24/7 service that offers confidential and multilingual support, information and local resources for victims, survivors, and witnesses of human trafficking.

The hotline can be reached:

– If you believe a child is involved, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or www.cybertipline.com, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

– Additional resources can be found here: Trafficking Resources.

Women at Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) can be reached by phone at 616-855-0796, toll free at 877 END-SLAVERY (363-7528), or via email at info@warinternational.org. You can also reach them via their website contact form.

Voices of Freedom: Liz Midkiff – Part 2

“The Discount Girl”: Trafficking survivor Liz Midkiff reveals horrors endured while in captivity

A two-year cycle of sexual, physical and mental abuse as a sex trafficking victim had begun for Liz Midkiff (Courtesy, pxhere.com)


By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains sensitive information about violence and rape that may be distressing or traumatic for some individuals.


After agreeing to go on a date with a man she had known for six months, Liz Midkiff was knocked unconscious and woke in a hotel room to find she was being gang-raped by ten men.

A two-year cycle of sexual, physical and mental abuse as a sex trafficking victim had begun.

Nowhere to turn

The day after the incident in the hotel room, Midkiff debated whether to call the police. The man who trafficked her was a police academy trainee, and she doubted they would believe her.

Midkiff needed protection – but no longer knew who to trust (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

In the end, Midkiff did call the police.

An officer came to her house but told Midkiff they could not find the man who trafficked her. Midkiff offered to tell him where he lived, worked, even what car he drove.

The officer insisted they could not find him – then offered to take her out on a date.

Midkiff was in an impossible situation, unable to seek refuge from people who were supposed to protect her.

“So I ended up going in the other direction,” said Midkiff. “If you can’t trust the people that you’re supposed to trust, then you start looking for other outlets.

“That led me down a road of trusting the wrong people. People that basically protect you against other people. You just have to do stuff for them to protect you.”

Isolated – in more ways than one

One trafficker held Midkiff captive at knifepoint for hours as a way to mentally break her down.

“He held me down in a car in a Kroger parking lot with my arms behind my back for hours,” said Midkiff, adding that he held a knife to her throat the entire time. “For hours he was screaming at me…until I finally said the things he wanted me to say.”

Trafficking victims are often held captive by threats of violence (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

During those hours in that car, Midkiff wondered why no one intervened on her behalf. After all, they were in a public place.

“This wasn’t happening in someone’s dirty basement,” said Midkiff. “A lot of these things happened in public places.”

A misconception of human trafficking victims is that they are weak and too scared to ask for help. Midkiff said victims can ask for help – but they won’t.

“I felt like anybody I talked to was potentially being put in danger,” said Midkiff. “They had already hurt me, so why wouldn’t I think that they would hurt someone else? They started threatening my family. Not only that they would kill them, but how they would kill them. They would threaten my friends, who [the traffickers] had met.”

This was all possible, Midkiff said, because her co-worker had groomed her. He spent six months finding out who Midkiff’s family and friends were, as well as what made her vulnerable and scared.

Attempting to protect her family and friends, Midkiff cut off contact with them – effectively isolating herself.

A chain of abuse

Midkiff found herself at the mercy of a chain of traffickers as her body was sold repeatedly.

When she looks back, wondering how she continually ended up with people who abused her, Midkiff realized she was introduced to them by people she trusted.

“People I thought I could trust were like, ‘Hey you should work here. They’ll help you, they’ll protect you,’” said Midkiff, adding that her new employer would then begin trafficking her. “They all knew each other. It was all part of the game.”

That “game” viewed Midkiff as nothing more than property.  Because of this, many trafficking victims are forced to get branded in the form of a tattoo.

Trafficking victims are viewed as nothing more than property to their traffickers, and many are physically branded for life (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“A lot of tattoos are actually bar codes, and they scan you in like a piece of meat,” said Midkiff. “Or they will say ‘property of‘ and have the name of the pimp – so when you’re done being raped, they make sure you get taken back to the right person. You’re their property.”

Midkiff said she was fortunate to never receive a tattoo, but those survivors who do are forced to see it every day when they look in the mirror.

Turned away – and turned back in

When Midkiff found herself in a particularly dangerous situation, an employer offered to let Midkiff stay at his house.

“He then locked me in a room for days while guys paid to come have sex with me in this room,” Midkiff said.

It was during this time that Midkiff decided to run. One Sunday morning, she jumped from a window and ran until she found a car. Midkiff immediately drove to a church, confident she would find help.

Each time Midkiff sought help, the result was the same (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“I’m running to the doors of this church, like in a movie,” said Midkiff. “And these two men in suits – they shut the door in my face.”

Midkiff was frantic as she begged to be let inside while looking over her shoulder to see if she had been followed by her trafficker. Yet the men refused to let her inside, saying she was not dressed for church.

Desperate, Midkiff approached a man who appeared wealthy, thinking his money and connections would influence people to help her. After hearing her story, the man asked for the names of Midkiff’s traffickers. When she told him, he informed her that he knew them.

“He brought me right back to them,” said Midkiff. “And he said, ‘No, this is what you’re worth.’”

Each time Midkiff sought help, the result was the same.

“I couldn’t go to the police, couldn’t go to the church, couldn’t trust friends,” said Midkiff. “So then you feel helpless and hopeless.”

The “Discount Girl”

Not only did Midkiff feel helpless and without hope, she was physically broken.

Midkiff has lifelong physical complications from the abuse she endured (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

“I actually became the Discount Girl because they [physically] broke me,” said Midkiff, explaining that clients were often violent. “I was sold for $9.95 instead of the normal cost. I wasn’t making them as much money.”

One man hung Midkiff on a doorknob by her shoulder blade; her shoulder height will always be uneven as a result.

A visit to the chiropractor revealed a permanently damaged back.

“I saw the pictures of my back, and my back is literally broken,” said Midkiff. “It’s crooked. To this day, I can see that. And that memory of the time that happened will still be there.”

Despite numerous surgeries to repair damage done to her body, Midkiff said she is still unable to sit down comfortably.

“This is why I speak. I like to switch how people think about things. People just think, Yep, somebody got punched in the face. No, it’s things that live with them for the rest of their life.”

No matter the consequences…

But Midkiff refused to live under the control of traffickers for the rest of her life – she wanted freedom.

A day arrived when something inside Midkiff snapped – she’d had enough. And she once again decided to run…no matter the consequences.

*Continue reading Liz Midkiff’s survivor story in part three of her Voices of Freedom series, coming to WKTV Journal on Jan. 20, 2025.


Take a S.T.A.N.D.

Liz Midkiff, human trafficking survivor and WAR, Int’l ambassador will lead the S.T.A.N.D. classes (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

WAR, Int’l is hosting two S.T.A.N.D. classes on Jan. 25 at the WAR Chest Boutique in Wyoming.

Created and designed by Liz Midkiff and Rebecca McDonald, these classes are teach safety awareness, trafficking signs, age appropriate communications/actions, and more.

– The Kids S.T.A.N.D. Session will be held from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. for children ages 5-10 years old.

– The Teen S.T.A.N.D. Session will be held from 12:30 – 2 p.m. for youth ages 11-17 years old.

More details and registration information can be found here.



Resources

*In an emergency, call 911.

– If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline. It is a free, 24/7 service that offers confidential and multilingual support, information and local resources for victims, survivors, and witnesses of human trafficking.

The hotline can be reached:

– If you believe a child is involved, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or www.cybertipline.com, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

– Additional resources can be found here: Trafficking Resources.

Women at Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) can be reached by phone at 616-855-0796, toll free at 877 END-SLAVERY (363-7528), or via email at info@warinternational.org. You can also reach them via their website contact form.

Voices of Freedom: Liz Midkiff – Part 1

Human trafficking survivor reveals how her life’s calling turned into a two-year nightmare

(Courtesy photo)


By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains sensitive information about violence and rape that may be distressing or traumatic for some individuals.


A two-month trip to Thailand at age 15 left Liz Midkiff passionate about fighting human trafficking.

At age 18, Midkiff herself was trafficked for two years.

Fifteen years later, human trafficking survivor and Women At Risk, International ambassador Liz Midkiff is giving voice to her story in the hopes that educating others through her own experiences will prevent other children from being subjected to the same horrors.

From perception to reality

During Midkiff’s mission trip to Thailand, she taught English at local universities and learned about Thailand culture. Part of that culture involved the red-light district.

Midkiff believed human trafficking only happened in other countries, not in the United States (Courtesy photo)

“Part of the trip also was to go to the red-light district and learn about what that looked like, and talk to the girls about the safe houses that we had worked with there,” said Midkiff. “We were walking on the streets and I was like, why are there other girls my age standing here in their underwear?”

Women and children were lined up along the street, waiting for people to buy them as their trafficker stood nearby, armed with a gun. Midkiff was flabbergasted, never having seen anything like it in the United States.

“I didn’t understand it because I was 15, and this never happens in America,” said Midkiff. “That’s what I thought: This is what sex trafficking is, and this type of thing only happens in other countries.”

Midkiff’s attention was drawn to a girl who looked about her own age, and asked the translator if she could talk to the girl. “For whatever reason, I just feel like I really need to talk to that girl.”

However, to take the girl off the street meant paying her trafficker so he didn’t lose money. Midkiff was undeterred. She pulled out her Thai money and paid the fee – the equivalent of $2.

But the experience was not what Midkiff expected.

“It’s just a bracelet”

“We got her dinner, but she wouldn’t eat it,” said Midkiff. “She’s just sitting there, swinging her legs, and she’s looking at my bracelet.”

Midkiff had no idea that a simple bracelet could mean so much to a trafficking victim (Courtesy photo)

The bracelet was nothing special, made out of cheap yarn that Midkiff braided together. Yet the girl continued to stare at it. The translator explained that the girl thought the bracelet was beautiful.

Midkiff was confused. “It’s cheap,” Midkiff argued. “It doesn’t have any value; it was $2.”

How much do you think we just paid to take her to dinner? the translator replied.

That simple question hit Midkiff like a lightning bolt, the reality of the situation hitting her full-on. “We took her to dinner, whereas most people would take her and do awful things,” said Midkiff.

“I gave her my bracelet. I ripped it off my hand, handed it to her, and this girl’s face lit up. She went from depressed and sad – she started glowing. From this bracelet.”

Midkiff tried talking the girl into going to a safe house, but the girl refused.

“Whatever the trafficker had over her was stronger than what we could try to convince her of,” said Midkiff. “That made me so upset. How could someone have so much power over someone that they wouldn’t come with us? We have a safe place for her, why wouldn’t she want to come with us?”

Heartbroken, Midkiff eventually returned the girl to her trafficker. “But she came back smiling because I had given her this bracelet.”

Identity is the only thing traffickers cannot fight against (Courtesy photo)

The trafficker argued with the translator, extremely angry. The translator told Midkiff and the mission group they needed to leave and not come back.

“It’s just a bracelet,” protested Midkiff.

“No, it wasn’t just a bracelet,” said the translator. “You gave her an identity, and that is the only thing stronger than what he has over her. You gave her hope, you gave her a way out, you gave her something that made her feel loved and valued, and he can’t beat that.”

At that moment, Midkiff said it felt as if God verbally spoke to her, saying she would be back to fight sex trafficking.

“I looked at that girl, and she looked at me, and it was almost like the movies, where you feel nothing even has to be said,” said Midkiff. “I looked at that trafficker and said, ‘You can’t have her. She’s not yours.’”

From dreams to nightmares

Midkiff and her mission group left, but Midkiff says that will always remain the starting point of her journey.

Her dream of returning to Thailand to fight trafficking, however, was cut short as Midkiff herself became a victim of sex trafficking at age 18.

Midkiff’s dream to fight human trafficking turned into her own personal nightmare (Courtesy photo)

An unexpected adversary

Midkiff had moved from Michigan to another state, four hours from her family and friends. While training at a professional ballet company, she also worked for a well-known corporation.

Midkiff became friends with an established manager at the corporation. She knew him for six months before this manager asked her out on a date.

“A lot of times people have this image of what traffickers look like,” said Midkiff. “They’re thinking it looks like the guy in Thailand who had the big gun.

“You’d never guess it would be a manager at a well-known corporate place that everybody knows.”

Having worked with this man every day for six months, Midkiff believed she knew him well enough to trust him on a date.

“We don’t go on a date,” said Midkiff. “He takes me to a hotel. He hit me over the head, and I woke up to 10 men gang-raping me at this hotel. In America.”

What followed was two years of violent sexual and physical abuse.

*Continue reading Liz Midkiff’s survivor story in part two of her Voices of Freedom series, coming to WKTV Journal on Jan. 13, 2025.


Take a S.T.A.N.D.

Liz Midkiff, human trafficking survivor and WAR, Int’l ambassador will lead the S.T.A.N.D. classes (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)

WAR, Int’l is hosting two S.T.A.N.D. classes on Jan. 25 at the WAR Chest Boutique in Wyoming.

Created and designed by Liz Midkiff and Rebecca McDonald, these classes are teach safety awareness, trafficking signs, age appropriate communications/actions, and more.

– The Kids S.T.A.N.D. Session will be held from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. for children ages 5-10 years old.

– The Teen S.T.A.N.D. Session will be held from 12:30 – 2 p.m. for youth ages 11-17 years old.

More details and registration information can be found here.



Resources

*In an emergency, call 911.

– If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline. It is a free, 24/7 service that offers confidential and multilingual support, information and local resources for victims, survivors, and witnesses of human trafficking.

The hotline can be reached:

– If you believe a child is involved, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or www.cybertipline.com, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

– Additional resources can be found here: Trafficking Resources.

Women at Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) can be reached by phone at 616-855-0796, toll free at 877 END-SLAVERY (363-7528), or via email at info@warinternational.org. You can also reach them via their website contact form.

Grace Bible College student ‘part of solution’ to local human trafficking problem

Grace Bible College’s Kate Shellenbarger, with Wyoming police Det./Lt. James Maguffee. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

Many college students live in a sort of societal cocoon, inside the walls of their schools and surrounded by their friends and classmates. Some are barely able to decide what classes they want to take each year, let alone their career path. They often change their majors multiple times as they progress through their late teens and early 20s.

 

Grace Bible College’s Kate Shellenbarger is not your ordinary college student. No less a witness than Wyoming Police Det./Lt. James Maguffee would testify to that fact.

 

Soon after she arrived at Grace, the soon-to-be junior at the Wyoming college ventured off campus and waded into the murky midst of a possible local example of the nationwide problem of human sex trafficking — and her determination to “do something” about it has brought her recognition from the City of Wyoming Department of Public Safety.

 

She also has decided that combatting the problem of human trafficking is the educational and career path she is driven to by her small-town upbringing, her Christian-based morals, and her ever-expanding world view.

 

Shellenbarger already had some knowledge of the human trafficking issue, from her high school, having been involved with the “One Dress, One Month” idea, where someone wears the same plain dress for a month to invite people to open a discussion on the issue. She brought the “One Dress” idea to her new college, but then she amped up her advocacy.

 

“I come from a small town in Ohio, so it was different there than it is here, in a big city, like Grand Rapids,” Shellenbarger said in an interview with WKTV. “When I came here, I had a friend who I talked with, talked to her about human trafficking. She was the one who saw something and told me and we said, ‘Lets look up and see what this particular business is.’ It looks kind of sketchy to me.”

 

It was a massage parlor that attracted their attention — a business that can often be legitimate and operated by law-abiding persons, but can also be the location of illegitimate but hard-to-prove criminal activities such as prostitution. And where there is prostitution there is often human trafficking.

 

“I got kind of mad,” Shellenbarger said. “I knew it was right down the road. I didn’t understand why it was happening right in front of my face — right here and right down the road. So I called the police. … I was hoping they were already doing something about it. That was my hope.”

 

Working with local authorities; not just complaining

 

It was then that she began her discussions with the City of Wyoming Department of Public Safety, specifically Maguffee.

 

This story “is a 20-something college student cold-calling the police department and waiting until she got to the right extension to talk to somebody — there is patience involved even with that,” Maguffee said. “Really, it is just a willingness to call and have a discussion with your local law enforcement about your concerns, and see where that conversation goes. In this case, … [Shellenbarger] and I talked and we had mutual concerns, things we had both seen. But instead of her just making it a ‘I’m making a complaint, now go do something about it!’, she and I were able to say, ‘Hey, what can we do together?’. What can we do next? That’s when the conversation really can get going.”

 

Through Maguffee, and others, she learned more about the problem and local groups working on the problem of human sex trafficking. (For more information on the subject of human sex trafficking, including a WKTV Journal — In Focus discussion with Wyoming police department’s representative on two groups battling the problem and a link to an award-winning locally produced documentary, “Stuck In Traffic”, see related story here.)

 

Much of what Shellenbarger found out, many of the avenues she saw to get involved, frustrated her.

 

“I wanted to do something right now, and a lot of them were ‘You can do this when you get this degree’ or ‘You can do this when you turn this age’,” she said. “I was getting frustrated, but then I found S.O.A.P.”

 

Other groups working on the problem

 

Shellenbarger’s discussion with Maguffee led her to the Kent County Human Trafficking Taskforce, a Western Michigan victim-advocacy group which includes the local chapter of Women at Risk International (WAR). (For more information on an upcoming conference led by representatives of WAR, see related story here.)

 

And a seemingly small activity working with WAR during the 2015 run of ArtPrize led Schllenbarger to “do something now” — she decided to volunteer with WAR and other local groups working on the S.O.A.P. Project (Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution), to deliver soap to area hotels and motels — soap wrapped in paper with the telephone number of a hotline to help victims report and escape trafficking crimes.

 

“There were a lot of people — men and women and kids, all helping to package soap,” she said. “There were a group of girls from Grand Valley (State University) helping me pass out the soap.”

 

Working with WAR’s S.O.A.P. project in 2015, inspired her to lead a can drive to raise funds for the 2016 S.O.A.P. project — both at her college and, with Maguffee’s help, throughout the City of Wyoming. That combined effort led to about 4,000 cans and about $400 to buy soap to be distributed to motels and southern Kent County.

 

It also led to Shellenbarger being honored this March at Wyoming Department of Public Safety’s annual award ceremony, and to her deciding to change her educational and career path.

 

“It boosted my confidence a lot. I showed me that I can do something right now, even being a broke college student, I can do whatever I put my mind to,” she said. “As far as my career, I wasn’t planning on doing anything associated with criminal justice — I was going to get into human services, to be a child psychologist. But that changed once I realized how passionate I was about this.”

 

She added that she hopes to work with Wyoming Police Department through a college internship, then, maybe, go to work with the FBI, or a nonprofit in the field, or doing research on the issue, she said.

 

As far as her continued work with the Wyoming Police Department, Maguffee said he would not be surprised by anything Schllenbarger does.

 

“To me, this is the important moral of this, especially for people like … [Shellenbarger] and other young people who are interested in getting started and making a change,” he said. “It is really patience over the long term.

 

“The cynic could talk about her and say that [only a little was accomplished] through a lot of effort — collecting $400 and buying toiletries with a hotline number on them and distributing them to hotels. That’s a great thing. And my hope is that some exploited individual will call one of those numbers and get some help.

 

“But even if that doesn’t happen, all of this is worth it because a group of young people at Grace Bible College are saying ‘Hey, there are some things going on that we can have an impact on’.”

Shop to Rescue, Shop to Save

Women at Risk Internationalkathy_grayThe holidays are a time of shopping for family and friends, but have you ever thought of shopping for a cause?

The War Chest Boutique, located in the Women At Risk, International headquarters at 2790 44th Street in Wyoming, offers an opportunity to do just that. The elegant and spacious storefront displays items produced or supported by women who have escaped sexual slavery or other at-risk situations such as domestic violence, substance abuse, and exploitation. The products include spa items, scarves, cards, bags, and beautiful jewelry made from items unique to their country of origin such as pearls, gems, paper, and nuts.

From its humble beginnings in the kitchen of founder and president, Rebecca McDonald, Women at Risk, International, or WAR Int’L, now has safe houses in 40 countries. These safe houses and related programs work to rescue women and children from the ravages of human trafficking and bring them to a place where they can enjoy job training, education, counseling, therapy, and mentoring. Stephanie Cozzolino, Retail District Manager, shared that recently the organization achieved a grant allowing WAR Int’L to increase the size of their program. Cozzolino asserts their excitement that lives can be restored and dignity reclaimed.

Women at Risk InternationalYou may be thinking that WAR Int’L is a noble cause to help these women and children in foreign lands, but that human trafficking doesn’t have an effect on your life. Unfortunately, sexual exploitation not only exists overseas but indeed is thriving underground in small towns across America; Yes, even towns like Wyoming, Kentwood, and Grandville.

An estimated 2,400 children are living in slavery, exploited, or sold in West Michigan, according to the U. S. Department of State.

According to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Michigan ranks 13th in the country for the number of sex trafficking victims.

You may remember the recent news headlines when WCSG radio personality, John Balyo, was arrested and convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for arranging sexual encounters with minors. Internet child pornography is an ever-growing industry in our country. According to the FBI, “The new slavery…human trafficking, is the fastest growing segment of organized crime.”

“There is a misconception that all traffickers are men,” states Cozzolino. “It is surprising that women play a growing role in the trafficking and prostitution business.”

Large public events such as the Superbowl have become the largest incidents for human trafficking in the United States. Likewise, Cozzolino statesWomen at Risk International local Grand Rapids events such as Art Prize have drawn similar crime. Many from out-of-town use internet sources like Backpage to obtain children and women for illicit purposes. War Int’L closely monitors these events, participating with groups like the S.O.A.P. project to offer rescue and assistance to those in need.

The S.O.A.P. project works to place bars of soap in hotel bathrooms (many times the only time the victim is away from her captor) with the number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center imprinted on the wrapper. Aside from large events, intervention and assistance is also offered at bars, strip clubs, and red light districts within the city.

Traffickers are very adept at luring vulnerable teens with flattery, gifts, or the promise of love or riches before drugging them and selling their bodies to the highest bidders. Those victims who are able to escape are left with nothing but scars, both emotional and physical. That is where WAR Int’L comes in. Rescued and at-risk women can come to the WAR Int’L headquarters for protection and assistance. Safe houses offer “safe places to turn crisis into hope, where women can be rescued, restored, and empowered to walk with dignity.”

Women at Risk InternationalHow can you help? Shop! That’s right, it’s as easy as visiting the War Chest Boutique in Wyoming (or its counterparts in Rockford, MI and Napierville, IL) and picking out an item, made with love by a woman who has overcome darkness and is on the path to independence. One hundred percent of the money from the product made by these women returns to them and their programs. Staff at WAR Int’L are compensated through donations.

Looking forward to the spring, Cozzolino explained that the current Winter Wonderland theme in the anteroom will be transformed into a café, staffed with baristas to make and serve fresh coffee and treats. Please take the time to stop in for a break and peruse the gorgeous products being sold in the name of love.

While donations are always appreciated, you can also host a War Chest party at your home, church, office, or at the War Chest Boutique. Please go to www.Warinternational.org for more information.

Kathy is a long-time employee with Spectrum Health. She has been married for 28 years to her wonderful husband, Duke. Together they have 2 children, Emily and Daniel. In her free time she enjoys volunteering with the Casting Bread Mobile Food Pantry at Kentwood Christian Church, making sandwiches at Kids Food Basket, and leading Ladies Bible Study on Thursday nights. Writing has been her passion since elementary school and she loves to write about how others enjoy what they are passionate about!