This year, they plan to offer loans to 30 women to start microenterprise businesses. They’re seeking an experienced businessperson to oversee such business development. “We need most the people who think they are least qualified to be a missionary,” Christa says, “because often missionaries are the least qualified to start and run successful businesses.” While their hopes are high, Christa and Mark are not naïve to the challenges of their ministry, especially working with women who often lack formal education and are recovering from sexual exploitation. The miracle, Mark says, occurs when exploited women realize their inherent dignity and need for God. He estimates a transition time of three to five years from life in prostitution to stable work elsewhere, while women grow in Christ and serve in a local church. To encourage similar ministries around the world, the Crawford and other ministry leaders are forming the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution (ICAP). Begun last spring, ICAP will offer training and resources to dozens of existing projects, encourage the growth of new ministries, and develop regional networks.
Jute for Freedom: When Kerry Hilton moved to India, he was stunned by the sight of 6,000 women and girls prostituting themselves on the streets of Kolkata (Calcutta). It was 2000, and Kerry had relocated from New Zealand with his wife and three children. The women lined the streets of Sonagachi, one of Asia’s largest red-light districts, enticing customers. More than 2.3 million girls and women are believed to make up India’s sex industry – and prostitution transactions totaled $4.1 million a day in 2004. Although Hilton had moved to India to minister to such women, he didn’t know where to begin. But he thought, “If business could get them into the sex industry, why can’t business get them out – and help them find Jesus at the same time?” A friend helped Hilton draw up a business plan. They experimented with manufacturing leather bags, buffalo horn products, and finally jute, an environmentally friendly fiber. Locally produced cotton bags couldn’t compete with China’s low prices, but since India grows a majority of the world’s jute, they determined that jute bags could compete. Hilton rented a building surrounded by brothels and hired 20 women who wanted to escape prostitution. Hilton’s wife, Annie, trained the women in a couple months to sew 30 jute bags a day.
Today, 70 former prostitutes work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Freeset, sewing 100,000 tote and gift bags a year. The bags are sold internationally, largely by word of mouth, and many are custom-designed for the Christian conference market. The women earn about $52 a month including benefits, more than they’d get paid sewing nearly anywhere else in Kolkata. Hilton says he’s not simply rescuing women; the women are also transforming the community. They pray daily at Freeset and meet in prayer cells each Wednesday. Local pastors frequently lead devotions. The women return home to the same place they used to serve customers. “We’re seeking a business takeover – a freedom business takeover of the sex business,” Hilton says. “We want markets, not donations.” Not Just Feeling Sorry: A similar “freedom business” is booming in Cambodia, thanks to social entrepreneur Pierre Tami. The Swiss Christian businessman left the airline industry in 1994 to establish Hagar Cambodia, a shelter and rehabilitation center for women and children in Phnom Penh. With the aid of professional staff and the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, Tami developed three flourishing businesses – producing soy milk, sewing silk products, and cooking/catering – to provide employment for women and to help them support their families. Last year, Hagar Catering donated almost half its profits to ministry. But two years ago, it was on the verge of closing. Frank Woods, a volunteer with 30 years of experience in the catering industry, turned the business around. Woods is now financially supported by a local church in Australia; he shows the women in Hagar Catering how God can help them in their daily lives as they cook and serve meals to hotel staff and garment factory workers.
Recently, Hagar Catering won a contract for the American embassy’s staff cafeteria, beating out other well-established businesses. “They chose us not because they felt sorry for us [and the women], but because of our quality service,” Tami says. While Hagar’s businesses aren’t meant to fully finance its services, he expects them to become full-fledged commercial ventures generating a profit margin of 5 to 15 percent.
Rather than a missions or church-planting organization, Tami says Hagar International is a Christian agency that witnesses via acts of Christlike compassion and justice. “We don’t use these tragedies [in women’s lives] to be Bible-bashers. We journey together with them, with love and compassion, to find the injustices and speak up on their behalf in very practical terms.” The agency works with local churches, which are responsible for discipling women and girls who want to grow in their faith. “That’s not just feeling sorry for ‘these poor women.’ We want to see them fully empowered, with dignity and self esteem, and productive in society,” Tami explains. “We believe the gospel of the kingdom is to bring the wholeness of life into women.” Tami hopes to spread his ministry model to “Hagars” who are fleeing violence, joblessness, abuse, and rape in Afghanistan, Nepal, Vietnam, and beyond. “We believe we’re part of God’s response to Hagar,” he says. “‘Don’t be afraid. God has heard your cry and the child’s.'”
Beyond Charity: Just Food, Inc., Freeset, and Hagar International are capitalizing on a new trend in mission – helping the poor and oppressed escape their plight through business. Microenterprise ministries like Opportunity International are another expression of this emphasis. For the last four years, Mats Tunehag has been linking churches, agencies, and Christians with business skills to ministries fighting trafficking and prostitution. As the World Evangelical Alliance’s and Lausanne’s senior associate for Business as Mission (BAM), Tunehag is calling on churches worldwide to deploy gifted businesspeople to work where they can create lasting change. A business approach to ministry requires market analysis – examining the local market and beyond, identifying competitors, and allocating capital -which requires involving people with business experience. Tunehag defines BAM as business with a kingdom perspective, where God transforms people and their communities spiritually, socially, and economically. “Business is not just about getting people a job and income,” he says. “It’s a vital instrument in the transformation process.” Tunehag wants to supplement the charity model. “We’re thinking that if we’re going to do something, we must raise money and give it away, by providing medical help or working in a shelter or something.” But preventing trafficking and prostitution depends on sustainable jobs and income, so business opportunities are key. “If God has called you to business, where should you do it?” Tunehag says. “Ask [yourself]: ‘Where could I have the most impact for the kingdom, especially for the least, the lost, and the lowliest?'”
From Nuts to Taxi Rides: After Moon’s rescue from the brothel, the Crawfords helped her start a business selling assorted nuts, which didn’t pan out. A second effort, selling souvenirs to Thai tourists, proved more profitable. Then, a few months after her rescue, Moon married a Thai man and soon had two babies. Two years ago, Just Food, Inc., loaned the family $200 for Moon’s husband to launch a motorcycle taxi business. The family now earns $5 a day in Myanmar, double the amount they require for food and basic needs. After years of pouring Jesus’ love into the lives of Moon and her young family, the Crawfords’ team is witnessing a transformation of her entire family system. Moon’s husband, who became a Christian four months ago, now reads the Bible to her daily, and local women on the Garden of Hope’s staff are teaching Moon to read and write while they disciple her.
Moon, with her knowledge of human trafficking, helps Mark train staff to work with victims of trafficking and exploited street kids. “I cannot teach reading or writing or help in a lot of ways, but I can use my experience to help other girls like me,” she says. “I don’t want the same thing to happen to them.” Recently, Moon helped rescue Wan, a 16-year-old girl. Wan was dirty, hungry, and wearing a very short skirt while walking the streets near the Thai border. Moon bought her lunch and a soft drink, and then heard God telling her to help the girl more. Wan said her parents had encouraged her to prostitute herself. Minutes before a trafficker arrived to ship Wan to Bangkok, Moon led her to safety at a staff person’s house. Moon counseled her during many late nights, and the staff prayed and encouraged Wan until she realized she had other options besides prostitution. Moon’s identity has changed from rescued to rescuer, from victim to counselor, thanks to the Crawford’s’ ministry and God’s redemptive love. But hundreds of thousands of women and girls around the globe are still waiting to escape. What of the increasing rate of prostitution in Nigeria? Where are Ministries/Churches targeting to reach them? Who will offer succor to these dear people without hope and without God? Helping Hands Rescue Center is a mission of helps in this direction, you can partner. (Source: Adapted from Dawn Herzog Jewell’s writing entitled: “Red-Light Rescue” in Christianity Today Magazine. Have question, you may call: 08033399821 or write: akpogena@yahoo.com. Stay blessed.
Dr. Lewis Akpogena
08055059656
E-mail: akpogena@yahoo.com
