Six years ago, Eight Days of Hope started a new ministry arm that builds safe places for women and children rescued from sex trafficking.
Eight Days of Hope's Steve Tybor says it is not easy to talk about child sex trafficking and exploitation, but the fact is the $300 billion industry is the fastest growing crime in the world.
He attributes a lot of it to "the epidemic of pornography."
30 years ago, people had to go into a seedy part of town to find pornographic materials, but now, smart phones are exposing it to people "so much earlier."
To date, Eight Days has built 19 faith-based, long-term, residential, therapeutic communities for teenage girls across the country, including the largest campus, Safe Harbor Ohio (pictured above).
"Teenage girls not only get medical care and counseling, but they also go to school on campus," Tybor reports. "They start to heal, and many of them meet Jesus along the way."
What Eight Days refers to this as a "circle of care" aims to appropriately and sensitively surround each girl with the services she needs for her individualized healing plan.
More facilities are in the works for this year, including in Texas, Tennessee, and possibly Georgia.
Tybor says it is unfortunate that this arm is needed, but he tells AFN, "We're going to do all we can to provide hope to those who are feeling hopeless."
Eight Days of Hope partners only with faith-based organizations in these efforts.
