Unstoppable: Hear her voice of faith
and freedom soar under lockdown

Even before COVID-19 came to India, Janya* was already vulnerable. She could have been one of the 21 million underage girls who marry too young each year. Child marriage is a form of human trafficking. Over the next five years, as the economic consequences of the pandemic take their toll, that growing number is expected to escalate.

FACT: CHILD MARRIAGE IS CONSIDERED SLAVERY SINCE THE PERSON IS TOO YOUNG TO GIVE CONSENT, IS BEING CONTROLLED BY HER SPOUSE AND IS NOT FREE TO COME AND GO AT ALL, ENDURING A LIFETIME OF SLAVERY.

Janya is 16. Shy and soft spoken, Janya struggled to find her voice and her place in the world. She and her family, followers of Jesus, find it challenging to thrive in an area heavily dominated by those hostile to Christianity.

When Janya’s father lost his job due to the lockdown, the family struggled to survive every day. Now Janya was forced to help supply income for her family. Their options were to:

  1. Marry her to someone quickly to take the burden of an extra child from her family.
  2. Fend off traffickers who constantly try to
    entice her family to sell her.
  3. Have her drop out of school and try to
    find work.

Janya chose option three. She found a job in a plastics company.

At the same time, she joined a local group just for teen girls — a She Is Safe Junior Transformation Group. She learned new skills. How to save money. How to be a leader. Now she uses her strong, confident voice to lead other girls to find their voices and their freedom in Christ too.

Janya is safe. Vulnerable no more to the insidious maneuvers of traffickers. No longer susceptible to being forced into child marriage.
She is free to finish her education and development.

Janya is equipped with skills to have a strong future and build on her faith foundation.

Before It Is Too Late

Human trafficking, aka modern slavery, victimizes a staggering 40 million people. Most are women and girls in the least reached parts of the world. Traffickers coerce victims into debt bondage, labor, begging, sex slavery and forced marriages. Among the most heinous forms of trafficking is child marriage where girls are forced to wed in exchange for money to help their parents and siblings have a better life.

Under the economic pressures of COVID-19, forced child marriage is on the rise as poor families resort to the unthinkable.

The devastation to a little girl who is forced to marry is often beyond what she can endure. Childhood is halted. Education ceases. Hard labor and physical and sexual abuse become routine.

That is why we continue to urgently seek caring partners like you — to intervene before it is
too late.

For the forgotten,


Michele M. Rickett
Founder & CEO

Life through a new lens

 

Typically tourists flock to the beaches of Indonesia year-round, bask in the sun and extravagantly spend their vacation dollars. But in the time of COVID-19 lockdowns, the beaches are empty. Because of the economic downturn, Indonesian women and girls are at extremely high risk of being sold into sex slavery.

But not Sadi.* At least, not anymore. Sadi, at one time in her life, recruited women into her prostitution ring on her popular tourist island. But now she tells her former workers that there is a way out that leads to dignity. She took the She Is Safe business training and learned to start her own business — a mobile food cart. The leaders helped Sadi see life through a new lens — full of opportunities she never knew existed. She says, “Even though I don’t make as much money as before, now my life is much better. I am free, and I am grateful.”

Advocate Spotlight

Kelly Finley: The certainty of changing lives

 

Located in Alpharetta, Georgia, Kelly intersected with She Is Safe CEO Michele Rickett 16 years ago when she heard Michele speak at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell. Michele described the work in Nepal, and Kelly desired to travel there and see the work first hand.

The time wasn’t right then . . . and she’s still waiting. But the desire to go hasn’t diminished. When opportunity comes during retirement in the years ahead, she would love to volunteer more time with SIS.

But Kelly isn’t waiting to do what she can to change lives now. Through her real estate sales, she contributes a portion to She Is Safe.

“I know that She Is Safe is impactful on individual lives. I know when I support SIS, it is actually changing lives forever. A woman or girl is able to live a life otherwise unimaginable. I encourage others to give their resources and know for certain you are changing a life.”

YOU CAN CHANGE LIVES TODAY

In the midst of COVID-19, human traffickers take advantage of economic devastation and lure victims at an alarming rate. Today, you can help shine a light in the darkness of that evil and illuminate a path toward freedom. Support from friends like you makes this life-saving work possible. Your gift of any amount today will offer new life to girls around the world who are most vulnerable to abuse and slavery.

As we help women and girls recover and rebuild from COVID-19, consider these options for your involvement every month. Be a:

  • Generous Giver – Your support in any amount today makes you a valued partner in the mission of She Is Safe to free and equip women and girls to become the women God created them to be.

 

  • Visionary Partner – Join as a monthly giver and provide freedom, shelter, food, caring staff and education, business and leadership training and saving and lending instruction.

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515 East Crossville Road, Suite 310 | Roswell, GA | 30075 | (877) 552-1402 | SheIsSafe.org | Info@SheIsSafe.org