{"id":12289,"date":"2023-04-06T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.destinyrescue.org\/?p=12289"},"modified":"2023-07-24T15:18:14","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:18:14","slug":"post-rescue-realities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.destinyrescue.org\/blog\/post-rescue-realities\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Rescue Realities"},"content":{"rendered":"
Malai took a deep breath as the man sitting next to her spoke. After three years of being sexually exploited, she finally had a way out.<\/p>\n
And she was frightened.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, her parents told her, their 14-year-old daughter, it was time for her to get a job. Everyone else of age worked hard to maintain their meager lifestyle, and Malai, like most teens in her small Thai village, was expected to contribute financially to the family as soon as she was able. <\/p>\n
Malai was a loyal daughter, committed to doing her part. So, she dropped out of school and left their small farming community to find work in the city. Three years ago, the bus driver had dropped her off next to a beer garden, telling her they were always looking for more \u201chostesses.\u201d <\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Hiding within red-light districts, beer gardens can be fronts for illegal businesses that exploit children<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n
But she soon found that much more was expected of her than typical \u201chostess\u201d duties.<\/p>\n
What followed was three years of exploitation. Three years of enduring abuse, of men demeaning her in the bar before paying the bar owner to take her back to their hotel room for the night. Three years of watching her dreams fade, her self-worth wither and her hopes for the future dim. But she was making money that she could send back to her family, so she endured.<\/p>\n
Then a new man spoke to her at the bar\u2014a kind<\/span>, gentle man who didn\u2019t abuse her. She learned she could trust him and opened up about what led her to work in the beer garden. That\u2019s when he revealed that he was a Destiny Rescue agent. He offered her a way out, and she desperately wanted to take it.<\/p>\n But her family still needed money, and she was woefully behind in her education, making it very difficult to find reputable work. The past three years had done nothing to prepare her to fulfill her obligations to her family, and their needs were just as acute as ever. Would her rescue be a betrayal of her commitments? Was it even possible to start something new?<\/p>\n Malai is a fictional character, but her struggles are all too common among survivors. While we do rescue survivors from kidnapping or outright sex slavery, situations like Malai\u2019s are far more common.<\/p>\n Rescue is much more than just being removed from an exploitative situation. To truly stay free, survivors must be equipped to face the challenges that led to their abuse in the first place.<\/p>\n To help them achieve true freedom, we carefully develop individualized Freedom Plans\u2122 alongside our survivors that are <\/span>unique to each child we rescue. Because these plans are created to address vulnerabilities specific to each situation, they look quite different from one survivor to the next.<\/p>\n No matter their location or background, almost all of our survivors share a few universal struggles.<\/p>\n The trauma these kids suffer is nothing short of immense. After rescue, our caseworkers face the monumental task of helping injured children heal from emotional wounds that twist their sense of self and the world around them.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n Traumatic events are emotionally and psychologically scarring; such events can affect a child’s physical and mental health into adulthood<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n Many children who come into our care are closed off and distant or hardened and cynical. They often display the mannerisms of dispassionate adults; many exhibit self-destructive or violent tendencies. They can be rebellious, harsh, angry and destructive.<\/p>\n To blame this behavior on the child shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what they\u2019ve endured. Trauma robs children of the ability to think positively about anything. They have been brutally conditioned to think of themselves as nothing more than objects to be used. For many, their entire life experience has been one of relentless cruelty.<\/p>\n To survive, the child puts up walls to distance herself from the pain she endures, or worse, comes to believe the lies she\u2019s been fed. The result is a bleak worldview devoid of compassion or love.<\/p>\n If these emotional issues are left unaddressed, the wounds may remain open forever. Children may become trapped in their own pain, essentially remaining victims for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this distorted worldview can cause some children to grow up and become traffickers themselves.<\/p>\n In the face of such debilitating emotional scars, only Christ can offer true freedom. Where possible, those we rescue are enrolled in EMPOWER<\/em>, an unmatched trauma rehabilitation program that opens the path to healing through the power of the gospel.<\/p>\n Children learn to acknowledge what they\u2019ve been through, face the pain and move past it. They\u2019re empowered by learning that God recognizes the weight of the wrongs done to them, even giving his Son to pay the price for them. Children learn to forgive their abusers without excusing their actions, a crucial step in moving forward in life.<\/p>\n EMPOWER<\/em> uses several techniques to aid in healing, including group meetings, personal counseling sessions, hypothetical visualizations and even games.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n A caseworker meets with survivors in Thailand<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n This counseling is also crucial in family reconciliation. In families like Malai\u2019s, parents sometimes bear some responsibility for their child\u2019s abuse. Of course, in dangerous situations, we work with local partners to find new guardians.<\/p>\n However, if family reconciliation is possible, we will bring family members for group sessions with the child. While the result isn\u2019t always a storybook reunification, facilitating an open, honest dialogue among the family is crucial for healing.<\/p>\n The change that these steps evoke is striking.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve had reports of 12 or 13-year-old girls who came into the program looking hard, haggard and twice their age. By the time they left, it was said they looked much younger, laughing and playing like kids again. One girl was suicidal just after her rescue<\/a>, but now sings joyfully in a local church choir. One young man who was extremely violent and destructive experienced a complete change in personality. Five years later, this gracious soul continues to move forward on a very positive trajectory.<\/p>\n Caring for the spiritual and emotional health of survivors is an honor and privilege, but we don\u2019t exercise it in every project. Some countries do not allow us to help post-rescue, while other governments take the aftercare of the survivors upon themselves. Victims simply need to be returned to their families in some instances, such as in border rescues<\/a>.<\/p>\n All of this only emphasizes our mission to tailor every aspect of care to each survivor’s specific situation. Whether leading the charge with life-changing counseling or helping a girl get home to her family, we want each survivor to leave our care equipped to live a life of freedom.<\/p>\n The desperation caused by poverty is an almost universal driver of sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n The poverty these survivors face is unlike anything most of us could ever imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n With skyscrapers looming in the background, a community in Uganda demonstrates the harsh realities of many of the country\u2019s citizens<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n While most survivors in the Philippines return to typical apartments or sturdy concrete homes, a few from the most impoverished of communities live in makeshift houses that must be rebuilt after every monsoon. Many survivors in Africa gain access to clean water for the first time when they enter our care. Two young boys were so conditioned by nearly constant starvation that, upon entering their new guardian\u2019s home, they ate everything, including dry goods such as rice, flour and the like! It took many days for them to learn they could count on regular meals every day.<\/span><\/p>\n Even in the best circumstances, most families in areas of high exploitation must work hard to make good on weekly expenses. As discussed earlier, it often requires multiple income streams to support a single household. It\u2019s not uncommon to work long hours six days a week for a lifetime just to keep food on the table. Add in the fact that most primary schools in many of our regions of rescue isn\u2019t free, and the margin gets even thinner.<\/p>\n
\nThe Problem: Trauma<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
Our Answer: EMPOWER<\/em><\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
The Problem: Poverty<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t