One man is hoping to change the lives of domestic sex trafficking victims in a small Iowa town by raising almost a million dollars to fund a safe home for them during the Christmas season.
Nate Beaird, the media manager of Open Bible Church, launched his “Merry Christmas Nate!” campaign in October with the objective to raise $750,000 to help purchase a transitional living home for Wings of Refuge, an Iowa-based Christian organization dedicated to seeking “restoration” for adult women affected by domestic sex trafficking.
The organization is in need of a “transitional living home” where women who are ready to start living more independently can be in a more urban area where they have better access to transportation, grocery stores and job opportunities, Beaird explained to TheDCNF.
“When they get to a point where they want to start living independently, they want to go to school and get a job and they don’t have drivers’ licenses. So the same small town that is sort of a sanctuary also starts restricting them when they want to grow,” Beaird told TheDCNF.
The money Beaird raises through the campaign is to cover the cost of a five to seven bedroom house on a sizable plot of land to give the women security and privacy, the salary of a full time staffer to live in the house as well, and money for items the women might need.
Bearid’s Christmas campaign first started a few months ago after he talked with a staffer working at Wings of Refuge about a sting operation that took down a sex trafficking ring. During the conversation, Beaird acknowledged that women coming out of sex trafficking need more help to get back on their feet to detox and ensure they don’t go back to their old lifestyles.
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“I felt that there was maybe something I could do to help that situation,” Beaird said to TheDCNF when he learned that without a support system, many of the girls can fall back into the lifestyle either out of coercion or need.
Wings of Refuge was started in 2014 after Joy Fopma, the organization’s developmental director, realized how slavery, in the form of sex trafficking, still affected the county. After watching the documentary “Nefarious: A Merchant of Souls” on sex trafficking, she began wrestling, praying, and seeking counsel on how to get involved. Shortly after, the organization was born.
Since its creation, the organization has helped 16 women by trying to provide a safe home where they can heal from their trauma mentally, spiritually and physically. Fopma says the work to restore the victims comes with its challenges, but the little triumphs of progress these women experience on their path to healing is crucial.
“Success is when she goes from sleeping three hours a night because of the trauma, triggers and nightmares to sleeping five hours a night. Success is when she starts believing she’s not a whore and a slut but she is even entertaining the idea that she could be worth something,” Fopma told TheDCNF.
The new safe home is also crucial to allow these women to have the opportunity to live in an urban area that allows them to have some sort of anonymity and gives them a sort of safety net as they stabilize between leaving the safe home and becoming completely independent.
“Moving forward, we would love to have a transitional living center because we noticed that when they come out of our cocoon we created for them that sometimes moving them on their own right away brings back some of those vulnerabilities factors: being able to afford housing, being able to grocery shop and finding community,” Bev Shipley, the executive director of Wings of Refuge, told The DCNF.
As of now the campaign has raised $5,000 of its $750,000 goal.
“This campaign works so well with the Christmas story because the Christmas story is about a man who came down to earth to set captives free and rescue people. That connects so well with this because that’s what we’re trying to do, not only to rescue them but to restore them,” Beaird told TheDCNF.
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