Posted: May 19, 2012 - cjonline.com
SUBMITTED
Amber
Barron, who grew up in Topeka and now lives in Nashville, Tenn., is the
executive director of Freedom's Promise, a nonprofit organization that
focuses on preventing human trafficking internationally and
domestically. Barron will speak at 6 p.m. Saturday at a Human
Trafficking Awareness Seminar in the Antioch Family Life Center, 1921
S.E. Indiana Ave.
FREEDOM'S PROMISE
Freedom's Promise is a nonprofit organization committed to the prevention of human trafficking and child sex slavery. For more information, go online to www.freedomspromise.org or call (615) 471-4179.
Freedom's Promise is a nonprofit organization committed to the prevention of human trafficking and child sex slavery. For more information, go online to www.freedomspromise.org or call (615) 471-4179.
FREEDOM’S PROMISE
Freedom’s Promise is a nonprofit organization committed to the prevention of human trafficking and child sex slavery. For more information, go online to www.freedomspromise.org or call (615) 471-4179.
Freedom’s Promise is a nonprofit organization committed to the prevention of human trafficking and child sex slavery. For more information, go online to www.freedomspromise.org or call (615) 471-4179.
By
The story of a Cambodian woman
sold into slavery and prostitution as a child inspired a former Topeka
woman to establish a nonprofit organization to help prevent human
trafficking.
Amber Barron, the executive director of Freedom’s Promise, will speak at 6 p.m. Saturday at a Human Trafficking Awareness Seminar in the Antioch Family Life Center, 1921 S.E. Indiana Ave. Also speaking is Vicky Luttrell, who works at the YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment.
“Human trafficking is a global problem, in developed and undeveloped countries, in rural areas and cities,” she said. “No one is immune to this.”
Barron, 33, grew up in Topeka and attended Randolph Elementary and Landon Middle School before graduating from Topeka High School in 1997. She earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture communication and journalism in 2001 from Kansas State University.
She married Zeb Barron and moved in 2004 to Nashville, Tenn., where her husband pursued a career in music and toured two years with Audio Adrenaline, a Christian rock band.
Barron said she was working at a commercial real estate firm — with the intention of being a stay-at-home mom — when she read an article about Somaly Mam, a Cambodian author and human rights advocate who focuses on the victims of human sex trafficking. Mam, who was essentially orphaned as a small child in the mid-1970s when the Khmer Rouge drove thousands of Cambodians into the countryside, was forced into slavery and then sold to a brothel at age 14.
By the time she reached the end of the article, Barron said, she knew she had a new calling in
her life.
“God told me this was my work,” she said.
Barron began researching human trafficking and discovered it is one of the largest criminal industries in the world. But she struggled with how she fit into the services being offered to help victims.
She sought the help of a local pastor, Dan Trippie, and they eventually decided to establish Freedom’s Promise, a program focusing on prevention of human trafficking.
“(We decided) to prevent rather than rescue and restore,” she said.
Freedom’s Promise received nonprofit status in June 2007 and launched its website in September 2007. In May 2008, Barron joined with Youth with a Mission, a nonprofit Christian missionary organization, to make her first trip to Cambodia.
“We went there for two weeks to learn about the problems they were facing and then figure out where we could plug in and fill a hole (with our services),” she said.
She and husband traveled to Cambodia in August 2009; two other trips followed. While she observed extreme poverty, a poor education system and government corruption, she said it took a while for her to recognize human trafficking because it’s often “hidden in plain sight.”
“Cambodia put on a good face,” she said. “It took years before we were able to see underneath that surface they showed us.”
Barron said Freedom’s Promise has established the Restoration of Vulnerable Children project, which provides supplemental Khmer education, English language classes and sewing training and English language classes for girls ages 12 to early 20s. The programs serve about 425 young Cambodians.
Barron said she also is focused on preventing human trafficking in the United States by promoting awareness among parents and teens.
According to the United Nations’ Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, as estimated 2.5 million people are forced into labor or sexual exploitation at any given time because of human trafficking. Of that number, 56 percent of the victims — 1.4 million people — are in Asia and the Pacific.
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, and the estimated global annual profit made from the exploitation of all trafficked forced labor is $31.6 billion.
Amber Barron, the executive director of Freedom’s Promise, will speak at 6 p.m. Saturday at a Human Trafficking Awareness Seminar in the Antioch Family Life Center, 1921 S.E. Indiana Ave. Also speaking is Vicky Luttrell, who works at the YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment.
“Human trafficking is a global problem, in developed and undeveloped countries, in rural areas and cities,” she said. “No one is immune to this.”
Barron, 33, grew up in Topeka and attended Randolph Elementary and Landon Middle School before graduating from Topeka High School in 1997. She earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture communication and journalism in 2001 from Kansas State University.
She married Zeb Barron and moved in 2004 to Nashville, Tenn., where her husband pursued a career in music and toured two years with Audio Adrenaline, a Christian rock band.
Barron said she was working at a commercial real estate firm — with the intention of being a stay-at-home mom — when she read an article about Somaly Mam, a Cambodian author and human rights advocate who focuses on the victims of human sex trafficking. Mam, who was essentially orphaned as a small child in the mid-1970s when the Khmer Rouge drove thousands of Cambodians into the countryside, was forced into slavery and then sold to a brothel at age 14.
By the time she reached the end of the article, Barron said, she knew she had a new calling in
her life.
“God told me this was my work,” she said.
Barron began researching human trafficking and discovered it is one of the largest criminal industries in the world. But she struggled with how she fit into the services being offered to help victims.
She sought the help of a local pastor, Dan Trippie, and they eventually decided to establish Freedom’s Promise, a program focusing on prevention of human trafficking.
“(We decided) to prevent rather than rescue and restore,” she said.
Freedom’s Promise received nonprofit status in June 2007 and launched its website in September 2007. In May 2008, Barron joined with Youth with a Mission, a nonprofit Christian missionary organization, to make her first trip to Cambodia.
“We went there for two weeks to learn about the problems they were facing and then figure out where we could plug in and fill a hole (with our services),” she said.
She and husband traveled to Cambodia in August 2009; two other trips followed. While she observed extreme poverty, a poor education system and government corruption, she said it took a while for her to recognize human trafficking because it’s often “hidden in plain sight.”
“Cambodia put on a good face,” she said. “It took years before we were able to see underneath that surface they showed us.”
Barron said Freedom’s Promise has established the Restoration of Vulnerable Children project, which provides supplemental Khmer education, English language classes and sewing training and English language classes for girls ages 12 to early 20s. The programs serve about 425 young Cambodians.
Barron said she also is focused on preventing human trafficking in the United States by promoting awareness among parents and teens.
According to the United Nations’ Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, as estimated 2.5 million people are forced into labor or sexual exploitation at any given time because of human trafficking. Of that number, 56 percent of the victims — 1.4 million people — are in Asia and the Pacific.
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, and the estimated global annual profit made from the exploitation of all trafficked forced labor is $31.6 billion.
Jan Biles can be reached at (785) 295-1292 or jan.biles@cjonline.com.
Read Jan's blog: Northeast-Kansas-News.
Read Jan's blog: Northeast-Kansas-News.
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