Once a month or so,
we visit one of the local detention centers in our area. Our goal is to give the young girls
incarcerated there tools so that when they are released they are educated
and aware of what to look for and how to stand up for themselves.
We don’t know the
reasons any of these minor girls are in the detention center, but mostly all
come from broken families or have been placed in the foster care system. Unfortunately, most of them do not have
healthy relationships modeled for them and the relationships they are exposed
to often include violence, sex abuse, drug and alcohol use, or any combination
of these things. Children raised in
these environments are considered at risk for trafficking.
Before going to the
juvenile detention center, I pictured girls who were hardened. I thought they might be difficult to talk to
and would be disinterested in whatever we had to say. I was wrong.
The girls here are creative and funny.
They interact easily and ask lots of questions on whatever topic we are
presenting on that day. They share about
their life and sometimes how they feel.
It has been a pleasure to get to know them and to see them interested in
learning about what we have to say.
Our visits last
about an hour or an hour and half, depending on the day, but our impact there
could possibly last a lifetime. We never
know if our visits plant hope, change a trajectory, or keep someone safe. We may not know the outcome of their story
until we get to heaven, but we do see the smiles on their faces, hear the sincere
thank you’s for coming, and sometimes receive the blessing of a hug.
We start our visits
with teaching time on our topic of the day.
We do this in a large group and we invite them to participate. Each member of our team has a chance to
present a portion of the day’s topic.
After are large group teaching time, we break into small groups for a
craft. This is where we have a chance to
talk them about what they’ve just heard and go a little deeper with them about
our topic. It has been so rewarding and
fulfilling to serve in this capacity.
Here are some points
from different topics that really impacted me:
Self Esteem:
She (I’ll call her
Mary) sits at the end of the row, away from the rest of the group. She sees the stuffed animals that have been
brought in for them and says “Don’t you be giving me one of those.” She repeats herself to make sure she’s been
heard.
This day we are
talking to the girls about self-esteem. She
sits through the presentation with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. She appears to be disinterested. Perhaps she is even asleep. We go through our talk and the rest of the
girls are engaged, interested, interacting and asking questions. We give our presentation to them on our topic
in a large group and then break into small groups for our art project. Today we are having them write their name
down the side of a piece of paper. Their
task is to come up with a positive trait or characteristic for each letter of
their name. I am amazed at how difficult this is for them. They do not easily see themselves in a
positive light. Even with a list of
adjectives provided for them they struggle. Mary joins the group and asks what we are
doing. She asks which name she should
use as she has several different names.
I suggest she use her given name and she writes her name beautifully
down the side of the page. She is very
thoughtful about the words she chooses to describe herself, asking if she can
use this word or that word. It gives us
an opportunity to ask her why she is choosing a particular word or how she sees
that word as a description of herself. She
opens up and even smiles some. Her
project is beautiful and creative. I
tell her to hang it on her wall because all of those things on that paper are
true of her and she smiles and says she will.
It is time to leave and we are ready to hand out the stuffed
animals. Mary now asks if she can have
two. She’d like one for her and one for
her niece.
Drugs:
Today we are talking
to the girls about drugs and drug abuse.
We have brought in a recovering drug addict to talk to them about her
journey and how quickly her drug use spiraled out of control. I am somewhat shocked to hear that almost all
of them say they have tried drugs, and many of them say they have tried hard
core drugs. One girl tells us the line
she said she would never cross kept moving further and further and now there
are no drugs that she hasn’t tried. This
day the girls are probably the most interested I have seen them. They ask a lot of questions as the guest
speaker talks and some of them approach her afterward to talk further about
their struggles. I feel like what she
shared about her own journey has made an impact and I leave feeling thankful
for the opportunity to take part in a ministry like this.
Pornography:
We sit in our small
group working on the art project. She is
very quiet as she glues pictures of images that represent her or things she
would like to represent her. We have
just finished watching a video about the realities of pornography where a
survivor has shared what led her to the industry and how it was nothing at all like
the glamorous life she thought it would be. In the video, she talks about how she started
using drugs in order to cope with the pain of what she is doing. I ask the
young girl what she thought of the video.
Without looking up she says, “Her life is my life.” She goes on to share that she dances in a strip
club. She says that since she’s been
here (at the center) and not using drugs she’s been able to think more
clearly. She shares how she is afraid
that when she is released she’ll just go back to doing the same thing because
that’s all she knows. Our team is able
to tell her about a home for minor girls where she could go. She is very interested and says she will tell
her counselor about it. We don’t know
the outcome of that situation, but I take comfort in the fact that she now has
an option she didn’t know she had before.
Myths About Trafficking:
My part of today’s
topic is to talk about a common misconception.
Myth: Only foreigners or immigrants are victims of
human trafficking.
Truth: US Citizens and legal permanent residents can
also be victims of human trafficking.
In fact, statistics
show that 83% of sex trafficking victims are actually US citizens. So while it’s true that people are tricked
and brought to the US for the purpose of being trafficked, the majority of who
it’s happening to in the US are US citizens.
Girls just like the ones sitting before me listening to me speak. I ask
them how many of them have thought of, or actually have, run away from home. Almost every one of them raises their
hand. I share with them the statistic
that 1 in 3 runaways will be approached by a pimp within 48 hours of running
away. I want them to know this. I tell them that by frequently running away,
they are putting themselves at risk. I
can see them thinking and I hope that they think about this the next time they
think about running away. They may be
angry or think they are proving a point, but they are putting themselves at
risk each and every time they choose to run away.
These are just some
of the stories that come to mind during our short time of serving there. I know there will be more and I am thankful
to be a part of this team. A team that,
once a month, takes the time to build into the lives of young girls and to
trust God with the outcome of their efforts.
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