Combating Human Trafficking | CLIP | America’s Hope

up next on America's hope she was gang raped and then became a part of the gang's property being sexually trafficked around the United States but she fought back in a most unusual way find out why Bishop Donna hubber today is Saving Lives because hope [Music] prevails [Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening welcome to America's hope I'm Kelly Wright and tonight we're talking about a very serious issue all of our issues are serious of course but this one involves human trafficking the traffic of human Souls most notably women and children and even some men are human trafficked did you know that modern day slavery is far worse than it's ever been when it was legal and more people are trafficked in and out of America and around the world for sexual favors and it even involves child exploitation tonight we're going to delve into this with a woman who overcame being a victim and she is now going out trying to make more people aware of trafficking and through that she's making more people aware of Hope and our hope is not an easy task it's actually heavy lifting that's our Focus tonight on America's hope overcoming the depravity of human trafficking so we've been focusing on the movie sound of freedom and how they've made so many people throughout the world aware of human trafficking most particular child exploitation joining us now now is a bishop Donna Hubbert she's very familiar with this plight that's affecting so many children you see she experienced her own situation as someone who was human trafficked and sexually trafficked uh Bishop Donna Hubbert you've been going around the world helping people in fact you are an ambassador uh for the airline industry uh teaching Airline uh workers how to be prepared how to site what's going on and how to see and then report it what can you tell us about making people more aware of child exploitation and child sexual trafficking because it is an everpresent danger even right here in America absolutely thank you again Kelly for uh Mr Wright Kelly Wright for having me here on America's hope and for being willing to open this discussion um it's important that we talk about it because if we anytime that we don't talk about something it's considered acceptable behavior that's the way our communities have lived anything that everybody's doing and nobody's talking about is considered acceptable behavior and for so long children have been exploited but no one did anything about it um and our communities often kept silent about what was happening but it's important that we recognize that our children are our most vulnerable citizens they are the most vulnerable C citizens because they don't know who to trust and who not to trust and so traffickers count on us being too busy to pay attention and to see what we're looking at and they count on us being too busy in our own lives to take the time to stop and see about someone else and so the other thing is most people don't want to report it and I have to say this uh and and say it with as much emphasis as I can most people don't say something when they see something because number one they don't want to get involved and number two they don't want to be wrong and for that reason most people don't report it so when I do the training whether it's to um uh parents of children in elementary school middle school or high school or whether I do the training to people who are adults I tell them it's not our responsibility to prosecute anybody to find anyone guilty what our responsibility is is to recognize it and report it and knowing what to recognize and knowing what to report is what makes the difference that's how lives are saved it's KN how to report it what to report what are the things that we should be looking out for so that we protect our children and our children's children and our neighbors children so many of us as parents have to work two jobs or we're working a job that keeps us away for a long periods of time we trust that our children come home from school and they sit down and do their homework that's not always the case um where are your children children hanging out um who are they hanging with so we're talking about elementary school children and we're also talking about what are they watching on that on that phone that you've given them on that iPad that you've given them on that laptop that you've given them and when you notice that they're spending more time doing that than they are playing outside or engaging with other family members then you need to get involved with what they're looking at and you need to get involved with it at a time when they're not looking at it so you need to be able to go into their sites and see what they're looking at when you're talking about young teenagers now you want to talk about how long are they staying out where are they hanging out who are they hanging with and and what are their excuses when they can't when you ask them where they've been what are the reasons who and and who are they hanging with um those are the things that make a difference because when they start having gaps of time when they can't account for that time you got to know where they are and who they're with are children being lured into this because of what they see online is there you know are the criminals online and luring children into these this kind of uh illicit activity absolutely there are Back Pages there are Tik toks and and Instagrams unfortunately where things are posted that have code words on them that children understand that adults don't even understand tattoos are not all bad but some of the kids are ending up with tattoos at very young ages and we don't know know that those tattoos are also branding signs um when you start talking about teenagers ask your teenagers do they have friends that leave uh school at lunchtime with an older boyfriend who drives a fancy car and they come back sometimes looking like they're they've been uh on drugs sometimes they don't come back to school Sometimes they come back with a lot of more money than a teenager would averagely have would normally have they may dress more provocatively and sometimes they have bruises the other thing Kelly that's really interesting is a lot of children are being picked up and taken to juvenile hall and Juvenile jail and what's happening is traffickers have become so um smart that they are recruiting young people even in jail they will ask a young person who's a runaway where are you going to live when you get out and if they say I don't have any place to go well you can come and live with me and my dad you can come and live with me and my boyfriend and this is the kind of recruiting that's being done even in jails right now and juvenile um detention centers so they're actually enticing them and seducing them into what they what a child might think is a better way of living and and then they find out that they're wrapped up in a nightmare and and too fearful to get out uh look in all of this how did how do you bring hope to families of of finding their children and saving their children who have been victimized already um I think I had to break it down into two questions those parents who uh well maybe three questions so to be proactive be involved in your children's lives we have 18 Summers with our children and if you start counting down how many Summers you've already had that means you only have a certain number left but what's happening to them in those Summers what's happening to them in those years is what is going to formulate their identity and so many young people get engaged in human trafficking because they've lost their identity to something that happened to them and often times it's something that they don't even tell their parents happen to them so I would say first of all be involved in your children's lives I don't I mean literally involved not only in their lives but whoever's around them and the people that they're around that's number one for for families who have children that are missing then it it's going to take some hard work it's going to take talking to officials authorities and it's going to take them some of the diffult things like signs that you saw that you didn't pay attention to and so often we're worried about our reputation and what other people think about us but our child is out there hoping that you haven't forgotten them hoping that you that somebody is going to come and rescue them that somebody will see them when I was being trafficked and I was a young adult but when I was being trafficked the one thing I wanted was for someone to see me someone see me and quite often we'll D down these dark streets and see these young girls out late at night dressed inappropriately and we say that's somebody else's problem somebody else's business and we don't pay attention to it until that shows up in the news or it shows up as a missing person yeah and we think about I just saw that kid I just saw that girl I just saw that boy on the street and then for the I you know I would also say for those parents who have had that trauma happen to their children they don't don't think that and and I'm saying this in all earnesty because I am a bishop don't think that once you finish praying that's all you have to do I we you need help we need therapists they need to be able to talk to someone they need to be able to heal because there's a difference between being healed and being delivered you might be rescued but you're really only saved when when you're really only rescued when somebody comes to get you in other words just because you are no longer in that situation doesn't mean that you don't think that you are still enslaved and it's it's a process of the Mind traffickers are first going to go after those children's minds and make them feel that nobody cares about them the family has forgotten about them nobody's going to want them everything from telling them if you if you go back home we're going to send these pictures and your parents are going to be ashamed and the community is going to know and when a kid when you're talking about a young person a teenager hears that and they think about the shame that they may bring to their family it almost paralyzes them it makes them feel that they have no one to turn to except that trafficker who is exploiting them um and so if you have has had some trauma such as trafficking or exploitation happened to them get them to help that they need yes you do need people of faith praying for you praying for that child um praying for that family because you don't just steal the child you steal that family's hope you steal that family's heart and so if you've had that happen get them the help that they need yes you want people that care about you praying for you not about you but praying for you and praying for your children but you also need professionals to help uh turn that process of trauma into Triumph and turn that process of being a victim into being a survivor