Anti Trafficking Ministry Rescues over 400 Victims

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The anti-trafficking ministry, Helping Captives, rescued more than 400 trafficking victims.

“A lot of times they're on fentanyl, heroin, meth, they've been abused five to ten times a day, and they need emergency stabilization care, and that's what we focus on, and that's what we specialize in," Founder and CEO Caleb Altmeyer told CBN News.

Helping Captives, based in Spokane, Washington, has rescued more than 400 trafficking victims since its founding in 2017.

Altemeyer explains that he launched the ministry after a friend informed him about the severity of trafficking.

"Our neighbor girl that was like a babysitter to me growing up came over to our house and told us her real story 20 years later and she had been trafficked by her parents from the age six and it just shocked our family," explained Altmeyer.

He added how intense things became after the ministry's first safe house opened in 2017.

“When we got into this, it was a lot more extreme than we thought," said Altmeyer. "And we need to have professional staff. We need to have people that were experts in their field, experts in mental health, experts in helping people get off of drugs. We thought we were going to help maybe two or three women if we found them. We had 21 women go through our house in nine months."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that women and girls make up more than 90% of trafficking victims globally, CBN News reported.

"I think it's drug sales and then sex trafficking and then gun sales and stuff like that," Altmeyer shared. "So, it's an extreme problem that we're seeing. I think what was interesting for me to realize is that I think over 50 percent of the sex trafficking cases actually happen in North America. That was a shocking statistic for me to understand."

The ministry also added a 24-7 "Freedom Center", which was previously a former strip club, where law enforcement could bring victims.

"My wife and I were sitting on the couch, and it was like something just hit us and we thought, 'Maybe God's crazy enough that he would take a building that's known for exploiting women and turn it into a place that heals women coming out of sex trafficking,'" noted Altmeyer.

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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.