20 Years Combatting Human Trafficking Part 4
I could not just allow people to be enslaved in the United States. I knew I could not give our children a country where slavery exists.
Twenty years ago, I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. I had no idea what I was getting into. All I knew was that I had to do something. I could not just allow people to be enslaved in the United States. I knew I could not give our children a country where slavery exists. I knew it was up to me to assist the victims and turn them into survivors and not simply leave them to the authorities to handle.
These are notes from the event where it all began for me.
In January of 2003, I was a student member of the President's Peace Commission at St. Mary's University, in San Antonio, Texas. I was a participant in a group that organized a public event featuring a speech by Dr. Laura Lederer of the U. S. State Department. We coproduced the event with the Shalom Network of the School Sisters of Notre Dame hosting it.
The next day there was an invitation only to a meeting of officials from our area. A professor gave me her seat in the meeting. This is where it all began. I learned that I was the only one in attendance who could work on this issue. Everyone had jobs that were not tasked with duties related to human trafficking. They also needed training and at the time no one was available. This was my calling I knew I was meant to be involved in helping these people.
My next step was to help create an event centered around human trafficking. I was fortunate to invite and feature Francis Bok, a man who had been enslaved as a child in the Sudan. I hired him to speak at St. Mary's University. He lived in Boston at the time. I wrote my first words about human trafficking to properly introduce him. Over three hundred people attended the event with Francis.
Over the years Francis and I kept crossing paths. When I went to work for YMCA International in Houston, he spoke at Second Baptist Church which was about 5 minutes from my office. Two years later I returned to San Antonio and Francis had been scheduled to speak there too. I attended. Next, I went to Orange County, CA and within the first month Francis was there to speak.
We have stayed in touch over the years. Francis is now in South Sudan, the world's newest country. When we met his ever being able to return home was an impossibility. He now is helping to build his new country.
What a Miracle!!