Working with the Safe House Project, we have created a multi-faceted interactive training for pastors, teachers, and other community leaders. We are equipping them to train about the science and sickening realities of trafficking. These leaders need strategies for helping both individuals and communities prevent their precious young ones from falling into the hands of those who would rob them of their innocence.
One component of the initiative will be basic self-defense training for children, parents, and even grannies. In collaboration with an, It Takes Courage! trained leader at Pink Kick, a local South African self-defense organization, we will teach safety tips and basic moves to use when someone is aggressive. In our last ITC! Conference Khumbelo of Pink Kick worked with our teachers and pastors; these essential skills are already making a difference for our Kerus family at the Orphan Care Center.
Another component will be in collaboration with our partner TWR, the world’s most extensive Christian broadcasting ministry. TWR is providing Holding Esther, a series of six audio dramas outlining the sex trafficking issue in story form, for our use. Kerus is writing the educational materials. Together, we will train church leaders and caregivers of children who have been exploited and use the program in Sunday School or camping programs to help teenagers spot and prevent trafficking of themselves or their peers.
With the training curricula nearing completion, we are excited to move to the next critical stage-production! The goal is to roll out various aspects of the sex trafficking prevention initiative when we return to South Africa later this year. And we hope to make all materials available to every significant ministry in over 52 nations worldwide where we trained over the last 20 years. We are incredibly grateful for those already on board and look forward to partnering with even more kindred hearts who care deeply about the dangers these vulnerable children face and want to make a difference.