BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
Human Trafficking is very real, but perhaps one of the least talked about dangers to children. However, two agencies in Alabama are working to change that and to help educate the general public.
Alabama Alliance for Human Trafficking and Child Safety was recently formed by Montgomery resident David Humphrey. He was moved to form the organization last year, and since has gathered other people who offer their talents and education to help inform people about a crime that is happening right before their eyes. You can follow them on Facebook under their name, or this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/325050448819120/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22search_results%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22search%22%7D]%7D
Another agency located in Alabama is the WellHouse, which educates, but also provides a residential program for those victims who are trying to escape the system. (See more on that program below.)
As for the AAHTCS organization, Humphrey’s Group and Mama’s Sack Lunches will host a Discovery Spotlight, “A Look at Child Safety”, at 10 a.m. Jan. 18 at 21 S. Perry Street in Montgomery.
This FREE event is for parents and children to learn about child safety, interact in an acting mini workshop with C. Stephen Browder and hear children’s author BJ McCullough. A Question and answer period will follow.
Guest speakers will be:
10 a.m. – C. Stephen Browder, Actor and Mentor
10:30 a.m. – David Humphrey, Founder of AAHTCS
11 a.m. – Shawn Sellers – Director of Education
11:30 a.m. – Special Guest Speaker
Noon – Loyd Jenkins, Asst. Police Chief at Tuskegee Police Department
12: 30 p.m. – Sgt. BJ McCullough from Tuskegee, and Children’s Author.
The program takes in victims from Alabama, but also from other states as well.
About the WellHouse:
Their Mission:
“We exist to honor God by rescuing and providing opportunities for restoration to female victims of human trafficking who have been sexually exploited.”
What They Do
We provide a safe residential environment to women, offering spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical support services. We welcome all women who have been sexually exploited through human trafficking. Regardless of race, color, creed, or religion, women in pain can be assured they will find love and acceptance at The Well House.
You can follow the organization on their website at https://www.the-wellhouse.org/
From their Website:
Our Story
The WellHouse began when a survivor of human trafficking determined that there needed to be a place of safety and trust for victims not yet rescued. Her outreach, and that of others, to women in the Woodlawn area, close to the I-20 corridor, led her to realize that there were no shelters solely for trafficked victims. She then conceived the idea of a home with no prerequisites or requirements that often hinder victims from obtaining needed assistance.
The WellHouse was born from this vision.
We are a 24-hour shelter offering immediate assistance to trafficked women who are rescued from anywhere in the United States. Entry requirements to programs, such as a state identification, proof of homelessness and a birth certificate, can undermine a woman’s access to an immediate, safe environment; therefore, these have been eliminated. We welcome victim survivors who desire help and who want to move toward becoming Overcomers! There is nothing lacking at The WellHouse that would hinder success, and there is everything to gain for a life that was once hopeless!
The name, The WellHouse, is taken from The Bible’s story of the Samaritan woman at the well, because we are a “a place where women never have to thirst again, ”John 4:11-15.
“Sir,” the woman said, “You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
