Free the Girls

Imagine

Free the Girls, Gangs, Human Trafficking, Justice, Prayer, Urban Ministry -

Courage and strength…these qualities can be hard to come by when we grow up in the best of environments. Now, imagine that you did not grow up in a healthy environment. Imagine that you grew up in a hard situation, that your mother was gone most nights prostituting herself, that your father wasn’t around, and that your siblings didn’t even have the same father as you. Imagine that gangs moved into your neighborhood and forced you to do things you didn’t want to do. Imagine that you were exploited, intimidated, and soon you were in so deep that there was no way out. Imagine that you went to jail, and had a baby there. Imagine the fear, the weakness, the uncertainty. Imagine that you don’t have to imagine any of this […]

Community Food Co-Op Up and Running!

Free the Girls, Justice, Kids at Risk, Prayer, The Lighthouse Project, Urban Ministry -

In recent weeks, all of us on staff at MTES have been discussing the importance of restoring dignity to those that have lost so much. The men, women, and children served by our programs have many things to grieve. Men who live on the streets have often lost their homes and families, women who have been exploited have lost their innocence, and children without a consistent living situation have lost their security. These losses are emotional, physical, and spiritual. Our hearts are moved, and the temptation comes to give hand-outs to those still reeling from such heavy losses. But is there a better way to restore dignity and respect? There are places where “hand-outs” and emergency relief are appropriate, but there are also places where these things can add to […]

Love Like A Gangster

Free the Girls, Gangs, Holidays, Human Trafficking, Urban Ministry -

In El Salvador, Valentine’s Day is called “Love and Friendship Day” and last month we celebrated love and friendship with all of the women involved in the Free The Girls program here in El Salvador. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece were visiting so they helped serve, and a group of women in the States that pray regularly for the girls helped to sponsor the party. We had pizza and candy, a raffle, and a discussion about love. The reality is that these women have received some very mixed-up messages about love. Sex is very distorted in their minds, and abuse and manipulation by “boyfriends” have further confused any notion of romance, love, and affection for them. Part of my work with them is addressing the lies about what love is […]

Free The Girls Christmas in El Salvador

Advent, Free the Girls, Holidays, Human Trafficking -

This past year was one of new opportunities, and personal growth for women involved in the Free The Girls program here at MTES. We continue to be grateful to FTG for partnering with us and enabling us to serve these women that we love and respect. Our girls worked hard in El Salvador this year. For some it has been a year of personal struggle, for others a year of victory. We took some time the week before Christmas to celebrate all of these amazing survivors and to dream together about 2015. We had a guest speaker from Pittsburgh share with us about her own painful past, and the beauty that God has brought from it. Many of the women had tears streaming down their faces as they listened to […]

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Advent, Free the Girls, Fundraising, Kids at Risk, The Lighthouse Project -

Since September, El Salvador has been getting ready for Christmas. In a country with no Halloween and no Thanksgiving to celebrate, Christmas is a really big deal and people start decorating months in advance. Like everyone else, we are getting ready for Christmas too! At MTES, Christmas is a huge opportunity for us to serve others because most of the men, women, and children involved in our ministries have no family to celebrate with this Christmas. We believe that God has called us to step in and share some joy with our friends this season. This year we are going to be celebrating Christmas with children who have no family or cannot safely be with their family, women and girls who have survived human trafficking, the community served by the […]

A Third Too Many

Free the Girls, Human Trafficking, Immigration, Justice, Kids at Risk -

This weekend our newspaper reported a sobering and disturbing statistic about girls in El Salvador. At latest count, thirty percent of all pregnancies in El Salvador are to girls under the age of 15. That is roughly 1 out of every 3. The text under the headline reported that many of the cases are rapes. You can read the report in Spanish here. This is terrible news for girls. The reality is that girls in El Salvador are in crisis. They are vulnerable to rape, abuse, and trafficking. These girls leave school and enter a cycle of poverty that is virtually impossible to break.  A third of all pregnancies to girls under 15 is a third too many. Unfortunately the news isn’t much better for boys. Tori had to do […]

Something to Celebrate

Free the Girls, Human Trafficking, Justice, Kids at Risk -

Yesterday we had a beautiful celebration for our three Quinceañeras (15 year old girls). In this culture, turning 15 is a big deal and communities and churches join together to celebrate the life of the girl turning 15. In many cases, whole communities pitch in to sponsor different parts of the fiesta…a friend may sponsor some of the food, a family member may pay for balloons, a neighbor might provide plates and silverware. When we heard that three of the young survivors we work with would be 15 all in the same timeframe, we knew that we had to celebrate! It was an amazing thing for us to see our donors both in the U.S. and in El Salvador surround these girls with love and form a community of support for them […]

Party Time!

Free the Girls, Fundraising, Human Trafficking, Kids at Risk -

Part of our work in El Salvador includes offering resources to women and girls who are human trafficking survivors. We have several initiatives to serve them and to help them build a better future. We recently discovered that several of the girls we work with will be turning 15 all within the same timeframe and so we’ve decided that it’s time to party! Turning 15 is a really big deal in El Salvador and a 15th birthday celebration is called a Quinceañera.  For many girls in El Salvador (and throughout Latin America), turning 15 is a much bigger party then even a wedding celebration. These girls who have survived the horror of human trafficking have no family or community to celebrate this important moment in their lives. We want to do […]

The Face of Human Trafficking in El Salvador

Free the Girls, Human Trafficking, Justice, Kids at Risk, Prayer -

On Saturday morning I opened the newspaper and began to read the local stories…immigration, crime, the economy. As I flipped through the paper, it fell open onto a story about the recent arrest of 7 people accused of trafficking underage girls for sex.  Five of them are women, and two of them are men. All of them are young, not much older than their victims. This is the face of human trafficking in El Salvador. These are real traffickers who were selling girls in malls around San Salvador, and on their Facebook pages. A news website reported that one of the men had an album titled “My New Girls” advertising young virgins for sale. The article also reported the disgusting fact that the victims were forced to fake their virginity […]

A Roof Over Our Heads…

Free the Girls, Fundraising, Ministry Center Project, The Lighthouse Project, Urban Ministry -

It’s Thursday afternoon just before 2 o’clock and it’s a typical day at the center…hot, humid, and loud. There is a young survivor of human trafficking in the office meeting with me about starting her own business selling bras. Another girl who is already in the program waits to buy another bag of bras to sell. Meanwhile Jon is playing checkers with one of our clients in between phone calls. Outside on the sidewalk there are 25 homeless men, women, and teens waiting for the front door to open so they can come into the Lighthouse Project for our Thursday meeting. They are waiting to shower, eat lunch, and meet with our staff. By 2, there will be at least 10 more. A visiting team and our local volunteers are […]

Search

Categories

Mini Cart 0

Your cart is empty.