Elijah Rising
Elijah Rising
Overcoming Familial Trafficking and Leading Support Groups - Interview w/ Carrie Harney of Hands of Justice - Ep. 78
What is familial trafficking and how does Hands of Justice support survivors?
In this episode, Carrie Harney with Hands of Justice tells us her personal story of being trafficked as a child. It took Carrie many years to realize what she had experienced was exploitation, and it was not until she attended a Hands of Justice event as an adult and heard their presentation that she was able to identify herself as a survivor of trafficking.
Carrie now works as an Advocate for Hands of Justice and walks us through the many services they provide to survivors.
Carrie discusses:
- Her own personal vulnerabilities that led to a trafficking situation
- The importance of economic empowerment for survivors and what Hands of Justice does to help them achieve that
- Beautiful stories of redemption that Hands of Justice has experienced with the women they serve
Learn more at: https://www.handsofjustice.org/
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Welcome back to the Elijah Rising podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about familial trafficking and the work that an amazing organization called Hands of Justice is doing to combat both it and other forms of trafficking. Today I'm joined by Keri. She's a lead advocate with Hands of Justice, and why don't you tell us a little bit about what Hands of Justice does?
Speaker 2:what Hands of Justice does. So at Hands of Justice we kind of like to bridge that gap between people who, between what people like to think of as residential care, and for people who are just trying because residential care is great. We obviously think organizations that have residential care are amazing. We partner with four different organizations in the area. But a lot of people, unless they're willing to give up their jobs and their homes, and if they have a spouse or children or a pet, they can't go into residential care. So we offer economic empowerment and support services for survivors, both male and female, who are just trying to get through life.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. You guys do so much and I hope that we'll unpack that a little bit more as we go through. But the piece that you guys bring to the table is so needed and it's just such a gift to the city.
Speaker 2:So many people who don't have an understanding of human trafficking think that one of the main reasons people relapse is drugs and they think, oh, the number one reason why people relapse is drugs. At Hands of Justice, we firmly believe that the number one reason people relapse is lack of economic empowerment. They get out of the life, they have no skills, they oftentimes have no documents and they don't have the ability to get a job and support themselves, and so we try to kind of come in and fill that gap. We have a dignity boutique where people can come and receive free clothing and toiletry items to help with. Just a lot of times people escape with the clothes on their back, but also if they need something for interviewing or need clothes for a job, we offer that to people.
Speaker 2:We have a myriad of different support groups for both men and women. We have support groups in the evening. We are starting a support group during the days for our thought processes that maybe somebody might need it during their lunch hour and they don't have the ability to log in at night and do a support group if they have small kids. So we're starting that. We have a support group for men as well, and we partner with four different organizations in um in the area and who are safe houses, and we offer support group services to them, as well as people who are just living their lives and need support and encouragement. Yeah, um, I personally um lead three of those, and then we have other people that lead the other ones as well, that are amazing at it, and it's one of my. It is the favorite, my favorite part about my job is leading those support groups and getting to work one-on-one with survivors and help them to become overcomers.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Well, so tell us a little bit about how you got involved with Hands of Justice.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love to tell the stories One of my favorite stories of all time, because I get to brag on God a little bit. So I was drawn to work with two different anti-trafficking organizations. Years before I ever self-identified as a trafficking victim, god just put them on my heart to start volunteering. I met a few women and God just gave me this tremendous amount of love for them and I wanted to pour into their lives. So I was volunteering on a pretty consistent and regular basis, and one of those women that I met she was in a safe house when I met her asked me to be her plus one at a hands of justice fundraising event, and so I went to the event to support her.
Speaker 2:However, I was sitting at the table that was full of the speakers and the overcomers Wow and throughout the night, people from the stage would point at our table and they would say these amazing overcomers, I, they're so brave and they're so strong, and they would just brag on everybody at the table. And I immediately got annoyed by that. I just was so annoyed and so uncomfortable in my skin and I'm sitting there and I'm smiling. And then I asked myself the question I was like God, why is this bothering me so much, like, why am I getting annoyed by that? Because I kept saying to myself I'm just a victim of childhood SA, I'm not a victim of trafficking. And so I just sat there at the gala at the table and I asked God, why is this annoying me so much? And so I self-identified as a trafficking victim at a Hands of Justice event. Wow, that night I called my friend and said I believe that I was trafficked, and she gave me Becca, our founder's phone number. Becca, I called Becca, she answered and she got me connected with a support group. And that is how I first got introduced to Hands of Justice, was at their event.
Speaker 2:I self-identified there and then I got plugged into a support group. I lead that very support group now that I once participated in as a survivor Wow. And I get goosebumps every time I tell this story. And I have them now. And I've told this story so many times because, like I said, I'd love to be able to brag on God and what he did for me. But he built me a support structure before I ever knew I would need it. And I had this ironclad support structure of people who themselves had been trafficked, who I'd been pouring into, who I loved with this godly love, and I had organizations that were willing to support me and help me along my healing journey.
Speaker 2:So as I grew in my healing, my role in Hands of Justice grew as well, and I started out as the substitute group leader to the group that I attended and then to one other one as well, and then, after a while, then I just became group leader and then, as things progressed along and more and more healing happened, I ended up being an assistant advocate, and now my title is technically lead advocate, but I don't like to be like I'm the lead. That's not what that's. Advocate. And now my title is technically lead advocate, but I don't like to be like I'm the lead. That's not what that's about, and so now I get to offer advocacy services to survivors as well as lead these support groups Incredible, what an incredible story.
Speaker 1:I actually have never heard that, so I'm like blown away. Yeah, and I think that goes to show even to our listeners. You know, I think sometimes in this field we think, oh, everyone's heard about trafficking or everyone understands, you know, and there's so many. The vast majority of people actually do not understand. They don't. Yeah so the importance of awareness and then for people just like yourself who have a lived experience and going wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 2:That's me, you know, and almost every time I speak, someone in the audience self-identifies as as a victim of trafficking. Yeah, and I think that that for the everyone that comes forward and says, oh my gosh, I just really there's people in the audience that aren't coming forward because they don't feel free to do that. Specifically, I've only met very few victims of familial trafficking that are willing to speak out because of just the dynamics with the family and all the guilt and shame and fear that goes into that. So that God has given me this level of freedom and um to be able to speak, and to be able to speak without fear, without um shame or self-loathing, I think is just my honor and my privilege to be able to pour into others and um my life verse is isaiah 61 3 and it's like talks about beauty for ashes and this is my beauty for ashes every single day.
Speaker 2:That's amazing and I get to pour into other overcomers and help them along their healing journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're like a beacon, like come this way right. You're like casting the light, and so can you. You mentioned familial trafficking. You know it's something that I think a lot of people either aren't familiar with that term, understand what it means and or even don't believe that happens in the United States. Would you mind unpacking that for us a little bit? I would love to.
Speaker 2:So familial trafficking, as a definition, is the exploitation of a child at the hands of their family, either through labor trafficking or sex trafficking. So if you think of a child in a sweatshop in Indonesia, that's a form of familial trafficking. Their parents have sold them to this sweatshop. Everybody's familiar with that kind of idea of trafficking. Oftentimes in America we think of familial trafficking as something that might happen overseas, where parents might feel they're forced to sell one of their children to sex trafficking in order to support the rest of the family.
Speaker 2:But what I've discovered in my work and as I might speak, is that people do not think familial trafficking is something that happens here in the United States and they are very uncomfortable with the idea that it's happening.
Speaker 2:In every city and every town in the United States of America it's happening, and I think people like to kind of put up a blinder oh, that doesn't happen here.
Speaker 2:And so that's why I feel that it's so important for me to speak whenever God gives me opportunity, because I can tell people it does happen here, it happened to me and it happened to my sister as well, and it's happening all around you. And at no point in my childhood or adolescence did anyone a teacher, a counselor, anyone recognize what was going on with me and help? And I exhibited every single trauma response you would expect a child to exhibit if they're being trafficked at such an early age and nobody helped nobody. So whatever I can do to raise awareness, to speak, because sometimes I think of it like this have you ever had a family member or somebody you know that had a health issue but they don't want to go to the doctor because they don't want to know? They're like if I go to the doctor, then it becomes real and so I'm not going to go to the doctor, I'm just going to suffer and deal. I feel like a lot of people act that way when it comes to trafficking.
Speaker 2:If I don't know about it. So true, if I don't educate myself on it, then it's not real and I don't have to worry about that as much because that happens to other people, right? And so I get to be that mirror and hold it up and show people like this is happening. This is happening, and just because you might just like if you ignore a tumor, it's not going to go away, just if you ignore trafficking it's, it doesn't mean it's going to go away, yeah, it doesn't mean that your family members or yourself are exempt from it, right. It just means that you're all the more likely to maybe end up a prior victim or your family member because you're not educating yourself to the dangers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think it's taken. So there's there's so much nuance with familial trafficking, you know, and you mentioned, you know the signs and the exhibiting behaviors. Do you mind touching on that just a little bit? I'm thinking for our listeners maybe, who are like teachers or, you know, in places where there are kids around. But even if you're not in that position, if you have children or teenagers and they have friends and they come over, I mean, these are things that we can be educated to watch out for them as well. Exactly.
Speaker 2:I think it's very hard for people to look at a child and ask themselves is this child exhibiting signs of PTSD or complex PTSD? Because they don't want to think that way. So for me I um, just to give a little context um, I was trafficked at the beginning, at the age of three. My sister was born with a birth defect in her eyes and my parents needed money for surgery and I earned the money for that surgery and that is when my trafficking journey began, at three. So people don't want to look at a three-year-old or a five-year-old. So for me, one of the main things was I was incredibly disconnected from my body because I just compartmentalized. So I was very awkward. And very things that were easy for other people to do, like in gym class, I physically couldn't do them. I did not know how to move the way everybody else moved, I couldn't. So I was very disconnected from my body. It was incredibly anxious at a very early age. Also, like I was, you know, forced to. I wasn't, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:Once the sex trafficking ended for me, then, after that point, I was forced to like earn my keep through, like doing all of the cooking, all of the. I started cooking dinner at eight years old for the family. Like had to make a menu, grocery list, all of the things. So then so the the all of that fear and that trauma it just continued on of like, did I hang their shirts up the right way? Did I did? Is there any? Like, grit left in the sink from cleaning the sink? Am I gonna get beat for that? So the anxiety that I felt even after the trafficking started was incredibly apparent. I was an incredibly anxious child, but nobody helped and nobody cared and um and so I didn't act out in the traditional ways that people think through because, again, I was three. Yeah, so I'm not going to go out and drink or use drugs or do any of the things that you would perceive as typical acting out behavior, because I didn't have that ability to do that. But I was incredibly disassociative. I could disassociate at the drop of a hat. I loved to read and just lose my. I still do. It's the only socially approved form of disassociation is reading, and so I would just, I would just check out and I would be gone.
Speaker 2:And I exhibited signs of ADHD, but it was really the symptoms of PTSD. Yeah, and so often if you look at, just on paper, the signs of ADHD in a child and the signs of complex PTSD in a child. A lot of those are overlap, and so we'll be so quick to believe, oh, my child has, or this child, a teacher, an educator, this child has ADHD, let's get them medicated, it's going to fix it Right, instead of thinking, ok, could this be a trauma response? It could be ADHD. It also could be a trauma response, and as educators and school counselors, daycare workers, you may be the only people that this child ever sees. I went to school, I participated in extracurricular activities because I had to appear to be normal, and so there were opportunities, but there was just nobody who was willing to look past my quote-unquote problems to see what the root cause might have been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was you bring up a really interesting point because, um, you know, children who are familial trafficked are, vast majority, are going to school, they're going to church, even they're traveling, they're doing some quote unquote like normal things. But maybe, you know, behind closed doors things are not as they seem, and so I think that's another misconception that we can break down for people because you think, oh well, they're just at a hotel room or they're like locked away somewhere. That's not the case at all. They're all around us.
Speaker 2:Right. So statistically, across the board children and adults only 2% of people who are trafficked are kidnapped. So that applies to children as well as adults. So people like to have this image of oh, if my child's not kidnapped, they're not going to be trafficked, this isn't something I have to worry about. But if there's an uncle or an aunt who takes them for long periods of time, if there's a neighbor that babysits and cares for them, it can be happening to your child. And so that level of awareness nobody wants to think that. Nobody wants to sit there and think is my child, you don't want to make your child be afraid, you don't want to cross that, but at the same time, because nobody likes to think that it's a leading contributor to children being exploited and not getting help that they need long term.
Speaker 1:Totally, we've done so many outreaches where you know a young girl will come into the hotel room and we meet with her and talk with her and she's like, oh well, I have to get back to class tomorrow. Or you know, my uncle's waiting for me. I mean just the craziest scenarios. And you're like, oh my, this is right here, and it's really is all around us and our neighborhoods and, like you said, daycares, all of these things. Would you mind sharing a little bit more about what Hands of Justice does? There is so much that you guys are doing and you have such an amazing team working alongside survivors, but you mentioned that you have support groups for men. I mean, I know I could go on and on, right.
Speaker 1:But, let's just start there. So what does that look like?
Speaker 2:And I do want to stress that there's only four of us on staff, so we are a very small organization. So, while my role may be lead advocate, we do whatever needs to get done, sure.
Speaker 1:Many hats we do, we wear a lot of hats.
Speaker 2:So support groups are my favorite part of what I get to do. I personally get to lead three, and then we have support groups for men. We have a daytime support group as well, and then we have a support group for family members of trafficking victims, and so we try to be very holistic in our approach to this, because trafficking affects the entire family. Yeah, yeah, you know, 30% of trafficking victims are male and we are one of the few organizations that offer services to men. They are completely separate from our services to women because, for obvious reasons, we don't want there to be any re-traumatization or issues. So we partner with in our support groups with four organizations in the Houston area who have safe homes and I get to lead support groups with them. And then we also have support groups for people much like myself when I needed that support group when I first self-identified who were living their lives but need that support and that structure.
Speaker 2:So we will get together via Zoom and so they're open nationwide. We get together. There'll be a topic for the week, but oftentimes, um, I might have a great topic in mind and then somebody will need help with a certain thing. So, like god, just gives me strength to pivot, yeah, and we just um, we just lean into one another. We support one another wherever we may be in our walk.
Speaker 2:We'll have people who've been out of the life for a very, very long time, and then we'll have people who've been out of the life for a very, very long time, and then we'll have people who are fresh out of the life in these support groups and so we just support one another and encourage one another to keep going and it's a very much a judgment free zone, which is very, very important For me. The first time I came to a support group, it felt very much like when you would walk into like a church for the first time and feel like everybody's like-minded, or if you do some sort of like crocheting or knitting or pottery or whatever, when you would go to like an event and everybody there is like you and everybody has the same kind of interest as you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me it felt very much like oh, okay everybody here is like me and they get it, yeah, and they understand, yeah, and so our traumas may be very different.
Speaker 2:Um, mine started at a very young age and ended at a young age, but trauma is trauma and so we just it's the pillar of what we do at Hands of Justice.
Speaker 2:After that point, after support groups, we have our advocacy services, scholarships, ged training, like I said, and then we try to have outings periodically throughout the year where people from the different organizations and the support groups can all get together and I have to tell you, these are some of the most beautiful times.
Speaker 2:Our Christmas party is always one of the most encouraging and beautiful times of the year, because you might have people my age who've been trafficked, and all the way down to maybe teenagers at these places, and so for everybody to see like we're all doing, we're all living life, we're all walking towards healing, we're all doing the work that needs to be done, and it's just such an encouragement to be in a big space that's full of overcomers and it we hear stories afterwards like that blessed me so much so, and so when she said that it was such a blessing to me and it resonated with me, um, these, these type of things are just so very important for overcomers, because we, um, you know, with ptsd and especially complex ptsd, comes hypervigilance, um not having felt safety, not having, and so to walk into a space where everybody is the same and we're nobody's going to judge you for, for keeping your head on the swivel and making sure you're safe and we're all just going to be there together and and support one another.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's it's we get to comfort others with the comfort we've been given of God.
Speaker 1:And that's to me is amazing and beautiful and I.
Speaker 2:It's hard, it's exhausting, but it's the best part of my job and I love it so much.
Speaker 1:That's so important because I think that trauma isolates whether you've lost a loved one or, like you know, you've been through something that you've been through. Like trauma is isolating. You don't feel, feel not everyone gets it, not everyone gets it, not everyone has been through it and it's. It's something that if you can be in a room or on zoom right with um, with other people who have the same kind of experiences, you you don't have explain yourself, you don't have to defend yourself, you know none of that. All that goes away. And if it seems like it would be a place where survivors can truly kind of relax, be themselves, um, yeah, it's just incredible. What you guys are doing and that you have support groups for men is so unique, and then for the family as well, I can just see how powerful that would be Right, because you know, only 1% of people traffic ever make it out.
Speaker 2:So for for like. So I'm sitting here representing like for me being out. There's 99 people behind me that never do. Well, those are people, 99 people with families, and they need support and they need um to to be with somebody that can and they go. Oh, you too, you know right, oh right, oh, you do that too. Yeah, worry too you. All of that. It's just so validating and it's something, um, you know, that's just a beautiful thing to come out of a tragedy, yeah, of your child being in the life, to be able to have people that support you and come beside you and you can form bonds with it's an amazing thing and it's so needed and, um, we are one of the few organizations that does have the services for men, like you said, but also the family as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's incredible important yeah, and I want to touch on another thing really quick. So we, you know you mentioned that you work with all the safe homes in the city, of which there are four right. Not very many.
Speaker 2:There are not.
Speaker 1:Even in a big city, you know. So that has been a real blessing, I know, to Elijah Rising, I'm sure to the others, so we can have a safe space where the residents in our care can meet up with other survivors and say like, okay, I'm not alone, I'm not a weirdo, right, because I'm in this home or in this program. There's other people who are at different stages of life, and not only that, but they're down the road, maybe from where I want to be, and so that's like something to aspire to, you know. And they're not with our staff, right, because I'm sure they get tired of our staff all the time. So it's just such a win, a win for us, and I hope it's a win for you guys. But we've been so blessed by those support groups no-transcript and it's I again.
Speaker 2:I love it and I do think that I obviously we come aside, we partner with safe homes and residential care facilities, but I think that when you're in the same place with the same people day in and day out, you tend to get this kind of myopic and this slightly jaded view on things. And so just to be able to have an outlet and be able to talk to somebody that you don't talk to every day or sees and I don't know what's going on in the house.
Speaker 2:I get to just have fresh ears and hold space for them and what they're going through, and I think it's just, it's for me and I hope for them. It's a beautiful thing to be able to offer them a outlet that's outside of what their day in, day out life is. Yeah, because when you're with, you know when you, when you're in these programs and you're not locked in but you're, you know you're go. Yeah you're committed.
Speaker 2:You're kind of working the program. Yes, it just becomes very like little things um, get blown up into big things and but then when you communicate it to somebody, you're like wait Now that I say it out loud If it's somebody who's not in the house with me. Maybe that wasn't that big of a deal after all.
Speaker 2:But when you're in the house it's kind of like a pressure cooker in these homes and so like I get to be that steam valve and where they can just let off the pressure a little bit and then they can go back and then for a week and then they get to come back to me, let off a little pressure of what's going on in their day-to-day lives and then go.
Speaker 1:so I I get to be a small part, um of what their healing journey is and I I'm grateful for that that's huge, you know, and um, it is such an interesting niche because, you know, I think, even in the movement we think, think, oh, there's so much healing, there's so much restorative work that needs to be done. A safe home is the answer, but, to your point, it's not always the answer for everybody. Not everyone can, you know, have the time or the space to do that. A lot of many, many people, women, have children. So that's the number one reason nationwide that women get rejected from programs because they have children in their care. They can't just, you know, drop them off with Nana or whatever.
Speaker 1:They don't have that luxury, and so you know it's. It really is a unique niche that you guys have to serve, kind of that in-between place where survivors are trying to rebuild, trying to heal, but also having to manage just day-to-day things. So is there like a success story that you might want to share with our listeners?
Speaker 2:Yes, I love getting asked that, so I'm going to share one from about group and then one from. So, as I I said, I've recently gotten the privilege of having the elijah rising ladies um join me for support group and they um are also in group with um ladies from another organization as well, and it's so interesting to me because when the ladies are by themselves, they might be complaining, they might be telling me everything that's gone wrong that week, but when the two organizations come together, it creates this environment where one person may share and then the other, the ladies from the other organization, are speaking life to them and encouraging them, and I just kind of get to sit back for a minute and then the other organization will do the same thing as well, and so they are encouraging and supporting one another in these support groups. Um, and I'm sorry, I'm getting emotional about it, because it's this beautiful thing, because it's showing that a their healing is progressing, they're having like clear thoughts and understanding and then they're wanting to pour into people like themselves, and so for me it's such an encouragement that the groups are working, and so I love that, and whenever they do that, they'll be like oh, I felt like that and I wanted to leave and I wanted to throw away everything, but I didn't. This is what worked for me and this is, and this it's just huge, because I also think that it's huge for me to witness. But I think for the person that's getting to speak, life and encourage someone, they've never gotten to be a role model before. They've been more of a cautionary tale, not something to aspire to. So when they get to speak to other women and encourage them with, um, things that have worked for them, it's huge and it it can really be life-altering because they're like, oh wait, I do have something worthwhile to say, um, I do have something that is actually healing and that will work. Yeah, and so I love, I love that um, and it's so beautiful and, um, I have an independent client that, um, we're just so very proud of.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to go into too many of her personal details, but a little over a year ago she was like 87 pounds. She's walking with a cane. She had relapsed back into the life and into drugs and we were worried we were going to lose her. We genuinely were concerned that she was going to die in the life. She has type 1 diabetes and had had several strokes, and so she was. We believed she's going to die in the life this time. Yeah, because on average it takes seven tries to get out. And so she. Almost a year ago she got out of the life she had off the drugs.
Speaker 2:She is so clear-headed now and is so grateful. Her favorite thing in life is every Sunday she gets to go to the grocery store and she gets to buy the groceries that she's going to eat that week and she gets to eat what she wants, because she was starved in the life and food was used as control. My goodness, and her absolute joy in life excited, jumping up and down the way some people might jump up and down because they're going to see Taylor Swift or something else. She is so excited to go to the grocery store. Yeah, wow, and it's beautiful. And so she is going to be winning an award from a small organization up in Dallas called Lost Lilies, and it's a very small organization. They just want to get together once a year and bless an overcomer and encourage them to keep on fighting the good fight. And so we'll be taking her up to Dallas in June and then she will have her year freedom date and her year sober in July. Wow, that's huge.
Speaker 2:So it's amazing to see. It's amazing that she's alive, because one percent of us make it out, but it's also amazing to just get to hear how clear she is now, the understanding that she has about what happened to her, um and everything else. And her story is particularly poignant, um, because she was born in the life. She was born to um a drug addicted mother in the life and then that perpetuated and now she's breaking that cycle and she's she is like setting that boundary and she's stopping that cycle in her life and, um, she encourages all of us, yeah and um, when we might be struggling, we're like like, oh, but this one she's doing so good and we thought we were going to lose her.
Speaker 2:We thought she was going to die and she's here and she's clear headed and she's not just sober but she's sober minded as well, and she recently got baptized Wow, and it's such. And she says that she feels completely different and she can feel a difference this time. And it's just the power of God and what he can do, and so I'm so very grateful to get to just come alongside her on her healing journey and support and encourage and love her.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, carrie. You guys are doing such phenomenal work. I mean we could sit here all day, I think, and share stories and testimonies.
Speaker 2:And I would love to do that one sometime.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else, before we sign off for our listeners that we haven't touched on, that you think it's important for them to know?
Speaker 2:Okay, I I know that everybody's going to cringe when I say this and I think that it's so much like when your pastor talks about tithing, how everybody kind of checks out for a moment and I'm begging you please don't check out and just listen, but we're completely a nonprofit.
Speaker 2:We do not receive any money from the government. We do not. None of us are in it for the money. You know, we have a shoestring staff that is doing amazing things and is changing the world, one overcomer at a time. But funding is an issue and we need funding and I don't like to fear monger or put fear in anyone's heart, but if something happened to somebody you love, a child you loved, you would want us to be there for them, right, but we can only be there for them if we receive the money and if you care enough about the victims of trafficking to give.
Speaker 2:Um, I hate talking about money. I hate talking about that aspect because I believe that god will provide, yeah, but also god might, may provide through the people listening to this podcast and giving them an opportunity to give and letting them know that. How vitally important it is, because the overcomer that I talked about and how she's receiving her award and she's sober If we hadn't been there for her I'm not saying she might not have gotten sober, but her journey would have been that much harder. And if you were like me and you suddenly self-identified as a victim. You would want us to be there. You would want us to be there because it was personal. But trafficking, human trafficking, is personal. Just because it doesn't affect you personally, it doesn't mean that it's affecting people that you see every day. It's affecting people that you know, but you just don't hear about it. And so the only way for trafficking to for the battle to be fought is for people to care and to volunteer and to serve. But also, sometimes people just need to care by logging on and making a donation, and that's. You don't have to do what I do. You don't have to do what y'all do. Y'all just you can care, and so I think that's an important thing to bring up, as much as it's cringy and I don't want to. But we can only continue to do what we do if people keep the lights on, because we do have a facility, we do have a building. As much as you know, there are people who are volunteering and would be in the fight, but in order to effectively do what we need to do, we have to have that facility. And so I just want to encourage people to really ask God what God might have for them in that way and encourage people to sign up for our newsletter. Go on our website. My personal testimony was filmed for YouTube a few months back and if you go to the handsofjusticeorg website, it's on there and you could watch more about my testimony. If you want to hear about my story and something I share with people and I don't I don't always share it, but I am feeling led to do so right now is January 30th, 2023.
Speaker 2:My sister committed suicide as a direct result of the traumas that she suffered as a child that we both suffered as a child and my sister. She broke in a different way than I broke. I was a very broken little child, but she broke differently than I did, and she didn't get to find healing and pour into other people. She didn't get to find healing and be the wife and the mother that she wanted to be. She didn't get to find that. Um, and I did and I do, and so I praise god for that and I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 2:But people are literally dying in the life. And then she'd been out for a long time. She was an adult woman. Yeah, but if people don't get the care that they need and they don't receive the services that they need. This burden can become too heavy to bear, yeah, and it can become overwhelming, yeah, and so, um, I was already in this fight before, um, it happened, but now I'm just like I'm that much more on fire and that much more dedicated because I don't want anybody to end up like my sister yeah, I don't want anybody to be alone in their pain, and that's something I don't fire and that much more dedicated because I don't want anybody to end up like my sister. I don't want anybody to be alone in their pain, and that's something I don't want, and that's something Hands of Justice, as an organization, doesn't want, which is why we support people, whether they're family members, they're men or they're women, at all stages and ages. We want to be there for you and hold space and help you heal.
Speaker 1:It's incredible. Thank you for sharing that. I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you, there is no doubt that this issue is a life or death. I mean you've just shared two stories out of I'm sure dozens or hundreds of where I mean it really comes down to life or death. Do we have the resources available? Do we have the people available? Do we have the people available and are we willing to meet that need? So again, they can find you guys at handsofjusticeorg. All the donation portals are there. I'm sure you guys have the other information about your resources. And just to be clear for anybody who is in the Houston area, these guys are in Montgomery County. They're kind of on the north side of Houston, but they serve you guys, serve all the whole nation.
Speaker 2:It sounds like, yes, we don't set a boundary, so we support support groups or advocacy services, anyone. So we're not just geographical. We are strategically located in Conroe because there isn't anything up there in that area that's anti-trafficking. So we want to be able to serve Huntsville and that area as well, but we do not put any sort of geographic boundaries on the people that we serve.
Speaker 1:Which is so cool because you, doing it by Zoom, you literally can reach I mean so many people. You can just spread and spread and spread and continue to grow. That's our hope. Yeah Well, keri, it has been such an honor to have you here. I hope we get to have you again on our podcast.
Speaker 2:I would love that and thank you for having me and for giving me this opportunity. I'm grateful, very, very grateful.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's been a joy and an honor. Thank you so much for listening and please like and subscribe.