Martin is a staff member here on YWAM Las Vegas and he wrote this about his efforts to solve some of the needs of our city:
Victims of Las Vegas
September 14, 2010 by Martin
Las Vegas is a hub of sex workers and the human trafficking that goes with it. Many of these workers are international victims of human trafficking who were deceived, threatened, kidnapped, blackmailed, or trapped in some other way. Mostly women and girls, they come to the USA thinking that they will get an opportunity to make a better life for themselves or their children but find themselves held under physical and psychological bondage. They can’t leave if they wanted to. They have nowhere to go and many can’t even speak the language.
When the Las Vegas Metro Police liberates these international victims, they get sent to a safe house managed by the Salvation Army of Las Vegas. They are just beginning to be treated as victims instead of criminals. They are able to get a new T visa which allows them to live and work in the US rather than suffer the shame of returning to their homelands. Recently I met with the coordinators of this safe house and found that these victims, after having been put in the safe house, have to wait months in order to receive services or help in order to integrate into the community. We started free English as a Second Language classes out of the Pier Community Resource Center in the poorest neighborhood of Las Vegas and we are now going to start teaching ESL to these international victims of human trafficking. Later we hope to work with them with other life skills such as budgeting, setting goals, and job readiness training. We can also share about the amazing love of Jesus and the redemptive and transformational account of Mary Magdalene. Hopefully we can help them to do what they came to the US for: to make a better life for themselves and their children.
