For the past three months I've been leading a new Love146 Task Force and it has been very eye-opening, to say the least. The group had our third meeting this past Wednesday, and spent some time talking about the various psychological warfare tactics that traffickers use to accomplish their goal.
After the meeting I had a chance to catch up with a lovely girl who had just moved back to Hartford from Columbus, Ohio, where she had been involved with a ministry called Rahab's Hideaway. Even though I've been learning about child sex trafficking for years now, I was newly astounded at the depth and time traffickers are willing to put into luring new victims. The founder of Rahab's Hideaway has shared about how she was personally pulled in by a husband and wife team who moved into her neighborhood and for over a year and a half built the trust of the local kids--AND their parents.
We talked about how traffickers will use their "bottom girls" to register as students at local high schools and attend classes for the sole purpose of meeting girls, gaining their trust, and eventually trafficking them into the life. Often they look for the girls with low self esteem, who have bad family situations--the ones who can be "easily separated from the pack." However, this can also happen to girls who are "well-off" or even who come from stable home environments. If you are a lonely young girl who is desperate to be loved, you have a target on your back.
Education is critical. This week Love146 held a presentation at a Connecticut high school to talk frankly about the reality of trafficking and the tactics that traffickers use. Truthfully, I think this should become as commonplace a discussion as the anti-drug education we provide to our students.
GEMS put together this 5-minute video called "The Making of a Girl." I think it's fantastic at showing the psychological game traffickers have mastered--and gives us a chance to start thinking and understanding where we have to start providing education, awareness, and emotional support as a counterattack.
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