After many prayers and countless hours, a missing girl named Sara, has been recovered.
We wrote about her and our search for her a few weeks ago. She is a young girl that went missing several months ago from a community that Operation Underground Railroad aftercare team works closely with.
We work with people that visit that community to strengthen families, provide education, and spread awareness about trafficking. This community is at high risk for trafficking and it is important to educate the at-risk girls about what grooming looks like and how to protect themselves from traffickers.
A year ago, with the help of our in-country partners, we paid the fees to put Sara in school and took every precaution possible to keep her safe.
When we heard that she was potentially kidnapped, our team and partners visited her school to ask her teachers and administration if they had seen her. They had not heard anything.
They also visited her mom and dad for clues as to where Sara might be. There were no leads to be found.
Unfortunately, during that visit, we learned Sara’s parents were not interested in caring for her even if she were found. We couldn’t comprehend what they said about their daughter – words that one could never imagine would come out of a parent’s mouth.
Recently, the community hosted a trip to the ocean. Word spread about the trip in hopes that Sara would hear about it and attend.
Our partners were so excited when they saw Sara walk up, but their hearts were broken when they saw that she was covered in bruises. She said that she had been kidnapped and her trafficker had been selling her to many different clients.
However, she was able to convince her trafficker that she wanted to go to this outing just to see her friends for a little bit. The moment she showed up she pleaded, “Will you help me? I can’t go back, I can’t go back.”
We made sure that Sara knew that there were so many people looking for her, including law enforcement and Child Protective Services. There was no way we would let her go back to the man that was selling her.
Sara is now receiving aftercare services to heal from what she had to go through. She is the story of the ONE.
“I didn’t think anyone would ever come. I didn’t think anyone cared about my individual life,” Sara said.
Sara had so many people looking for her that cared about her individual life, which ultimately led to her being found.
We will make sure to see Sara through her journey of life and healing. Her parents have said that they do not want her to ever come back home, and her trafficker is still looking to exploit her. She thought she would have no where to go, but she is safe now. Tonight, she lays her head down to rest knowing that there is not one person that can break in to put a dollar sign on her head.
We are so grateful for your support for aftercare, operations, and long-term care for these kids. Thank you for caring for them as if they are your own. Thousands of more children will be rescued because of your support. This is a milestone that not only lets us reflect on how many have been rescued since O.U.R.’s inception in 2013, but lets us look forward to the thousands more rescues that will follow.
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Jessica Mass, Director of Aftercare, Operation Underground Railroad.