Part 2 of a 3-part series on human slavery and freedom business
“Do I really deserve love and care?” blurted twelve-year-old Dara as she looked at the teddy bear and the note attached to it. It was the first time she had been told something like this, and the first time she had ever been given a gift. Dara had just been rescued from a KTV bar in Phnom Penh to which she had been sold by her family some weeks earlier. She sold drinks to male customers which took this beautiful little girl into the dark world of sex slavery.
One wonders how this could happen. How could a family be so desperate as to sell their child into such a dead-end street of child labor, sex slavery and personal dehumanization? It is difficult for most of us to understand what poverty, starvation and desperation can do.
Step 1: Rescue. Dara was now at the front end of the long road to normalcy – one that starts with the first step. Someone cared enough to enter that dark world to provide a starting point in a safe place where trained people committed themselves to walk the road to safety with her.
Step 2: Restoration is a ministry of redemption where Dara began to heal, build her confidence and to look forward to a better future; where she began to see the love of Jesus incarnated in people who protected her, gave counsel, and empowered her to receive an education, vocational training, health care, worry-free sleep, spiritual truths, and most of all love.
Step 3: Re-integration often involves a safe home or a foster family, or it may involve a return to the home of her parents if it is a safe place and the economic situation has improved. Dara learns soft skills such as problem-solving, communication, technical abilities and further education. She then learns hard skills which she can use to enter to work world as a working adult. These may include cooking, management, sewing, hair styling, financial management, driving, computer, farming, English language and other marketable skills.
Job creation is the vision of entrepreneurs who start businesses for those coming out of sex trafficking situations. Businesses, often called freedom businesses, providing work in Cambodia include restaurants, linen factories, hair salons, beauty shops, farms and home sewing coops, among others.
This graphic helps understand the Where, What, Who, Why and How of freedom business and is used with permission of Free Set Global. Check out this pioneer freedom business.
Part 3 will focus on three kingdom business case studies.
Larry Sharp, Director of Training, IBEC Ventures
larry.sharp@ibecventures.com