Dear Partners,

 

Do you remember where you were the first time you were faced with the horrific reality of human trafficking in our communities and around our world?

 

I was attending a conference in which they displayed a documentary about sex trafficking where a rose was continually trampled as a representation of the trauma and devaluing of each life that was victimized by human trafficking. I was fortunate to attend an awareness trip to Cambodia with one of the organizations that was involved in producing the documentary to learn more about human trafficking internationally and the fight each survivor faces on their journey to healing.

 

While in Cambodia our team was exposed to children openly being trafficked and exploited. I will never forget the emptiness and hopelessness in the eyes of the young 11-13-year-old girl’s eyes. Those eyes filled with emptiness, loss, trauma, fear, hopelessness, and the uncertainty of her future were the catalyst that God used to place me in the fight to combat and prevent human trafficking.

 

As I walked onto the aftercare campus in Cambodia and looked at the crowd of girls standing before me, their ages ranging from 4 years old to 17 years old, I was devastated and broken. The innocence and vulnerability that was targeted by traffickers and family members and stripped from each of these young girls’ lives was inconceivable.

 

In that moment God instilled in me the drive and passion to lift up the voices of the voiceless. To empower, equip, and engage each girl in the fight for her life and on her journey of healing.

 

Now here we are, almost 15 years later and the team at StreetLightUSA has provided safety, recovery, and treatment through programming in an effort to walk alongside each girl on her journey to healing. StreetLightUSA has been a part of the recovery of over 1,300 girls locally in the Phoenix and surrounding area. StreetLightUSA continues to expand its reach nationally and internationally, opening our doors to girls globally who have been sex trafficked, exploited, or who are at risk of being exploited. I am humbled by the work that our team at StreetLightUSA does to walk alongside each one of the girls’ lives that are placed in our care. I am proud of each one of the girls who come through the doors of StreetLightUSA as they face what others have done to them in the past and fight to find healing and not allow what others did to them in the past define their future. Each girl that is entrusted to our care comes to us broken physically, broken mentally, broken emotionally, and broken spiritually. During their stay at StreetLightUSA, we are seeing each girl make strides on her journey to healing and restoration.

 

Humbly, and through your support, we are witnessing our girls transform from trauma to triumph. We need you in this fight for their freedom. We hope you will join us in the fight for each one of the girls’ lives we are serving, as well as for the lives of the girls who are still out there now, enslaved in lives that are unimaginable.

 

Gratefully,

 

Johannah Burkle

Executive Director, StreetLightUSA