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Several of the women we've introduced to you through TCW's Cause of the Year: Combat Sex Trafficking got involved in fighting this horrific issue through their jobs. Here we introduce you to a woman who stumbled on this issue in a more relatable way—through a television program. Her story serves as an inspiring reminder that even one woman in God's powerful hands can make a big difference in this broken world. —the Editors
Christian recording artist Natalie Grant was enjoying a rare quiet evening at home four years ago. Her husband, Bernie, was still at work, so she decided to unwind by watching television. Natalie curled up with a cup of tea, and flipped to Law & Order: SVU.
What she saw was anything but relaxing.
That episode of the reality-inspired crime drama focused on human trafficking, a term Natalie had never heard before. The images of young girls kept in cages and forced into prostitution shocked her.
"I thought, There's no way this is really happening," she says. So she grabbed her laptop and Googled human trafficking. What she found online that night changed her life.
Startling Facts and Faces"The facts are staggering: Six million children are sold and abused worldwide, some as young as five years old," Natalie later wrote about her research. A 2004 U.S. Department of Justice report estimated more than half a million people are trafficked across international borders each year. Of those people, 70 percent are females, 50 percent are children—and most are forced into prostitution.
Through her Internet search, Natalie discovered Shared Hope International (www.SharedHope.org), a faith-based organization that fights human trafficking. Her sense of urgency to call Shared Hope surprised her. "It's not like me to be so radically moved, so I knew it was the Holy Spirit moving me to make that call."
Just three months later, Natalie and Bernie traveled to Mumbai, India, where they and a group from Shared Hope toured the red-light district. As Natalie walked those streets, she saw hundreds of girls trapped in prostitution. One girl in particular is etched in Natalie's memory. Looking into an upstairs window, Natalie glimpsed a six-year-old girl sitting in a cage. Slave owners often cage child prostitutes to break their wills and allow them out only to "service" clients.
The girl's eyes met Natalie's for only seconds, but the moment was life changing for Natalie. "She wasn't just a girl who was poor—I'd seen that before," Natalie says, referring to her work with other relief ministries. "She wasn't just a child who had AIDS—I'd seen that, too. She wasn't just an orphan who lived among garbage heaps—again, something I'd already seen. She was a poor little girl with AIDS and broken bones. She lived in a cage and was raped 30 times a day. That vision is burned forever in my mind. And she was just one of thousands."
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