Did You Know? Local Spotlight - Human Trafficking Awareness Month

Did you know that the Daughter Project Girls Home is Kern County’s ONLY residential program for young survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation? We serve up to 10 girls at a time between the ages of 12 and 17 right here in our community… caring for their needs on multiple levels. These children deserve immediate comprehensive care, and that is what our team strives to provide 24 hours a day.

Human trafficking takes many forms, and, yes, our children are at risk.

'Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide – including right here in the United States.’

Someone recently asked me how we measure success. Caring for children comes with a great deal of responsibility. The manner in which we measure success is not unlike how many of you do… an improved grade on a report card, a safe and healthy child, future thinking and goal setting, and the ability to thrive in a family setting.

After almost 6 years at our present location, we are very excited to transition our program to a semi-rural location with ample space to heal and grow.

Thank you for making this possible for young girls who are as precious to God as our own!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We thought it would be fun to share some of the things our girls being cared for at the Daughter Project Girls Home in Kern County are thankful for this year. Holiday times can be especially difficult to be away from family so we work extra hard to provide a festive holiday with opportunities for reflection, positivity and growth.

The young girl whose ’turkey’ is pictured here is mostly thankful for all of the individuals in her life… including family, friends, and team members. Others stated they were thankful for their mothers, not being homeless, being able to enjoy life and simply being alive.

To all of you who are a part of Global Family & the Daughter Project, we thank you for believing that these girls are as precious to God as our own!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

Outstanding!

It is a pleasure to share some exciting highlights from our team in Nepal. One of the challenges we face working with children who have been separated from family, exploited, and trafficked is that they often do not possess a birth certificate. Our social workers advocate on behalf of these children to have guardianship granted through the local government ward. Needless to say, this is NOT an easy task and takes a great deal of perseverance.

Kumari is pictured here with her newly issued birth certificate!

"Kumari (12 years old) always struggled for school admission because she didn't have birth certificate. Her mother abandoned when she was 3-4 years old and her step mother, who was taking care of her, died of heart attack. Her father was not found at all. The only way to get her birth certificate was through the guardianship of local ward chair. After about 6 months of hard work with government papers, Kumari received her birth certificate under the guardianship of local ward chairperson. Kumari gets her legal identity now. The whole ward office team gathered to thank the chairperson for providing guardianship."

And there’s more (too much for one update)… the Nepal government has asked our team to assist in strengthening the country's child protection mechanism at the community level. This will include training municipality level 'child rights officers' in case management and the reintegration of children. The government has long given us praise for the very scientific and meticulous approach we employ to find the families of children brought into our Kathmandu shelter. Now, they want us to train their workers so that more children across all of Nepal can be restored with their families… NOT raised in institutional care.

We celebrate these fantastic accomplishments of our Nepal team led by Suren Rasaily!