'I just want to go home'

On one of their weekly visits to an Immigration Detention Centre in Mexico, project workers, supported by The Freedom Challenge, met Elena, a small nervous Spanish woman. As they listened to her story they realized that she was a victim of human trafficking.

‘I was studying in Barcelona,’ Elena told them, ‘and I met a Mexican guy through Facebook. After some weeks he invited me to visit him. I had never been to Mexico before so I thought it would be a great opportunity.

‘Last February I arrived in Mexico City. I lived with him in a nice neighborhood. He is a writer, so I spent two weeks helping him while he was signing his books at a Book Fair here in the city.

Running away

‘But the next day he started hitting me. After one month I could not take any more. I hit his head and ran away to ask for help. Nobody answered when I knocked on the doors of the big houses in his neighborhood.

I did not have anything with me. When I got to the police station they requested my passport. I explained to them what had happened. But I did not know the address. So they took me to the Immigration Detention Centre. I just want to go back home.’

Trauma

As one of the workers continued to speak with Elena, she admitted that the man had also forced her to have sex. She had clearly suffered a great deal. And to make matters worse she was stuck in the Detention Centre, with no passport, and little hope of getting home anytime soon.

The project volunteers, who regularly visit the detention center to build relationships with the women there, knew they could help Elena. They asked for her family details. Then one volunteer called her family, another called the Embassy, and another found her a safe place to stay away from the Detention Centre.

On an airplane

Within a few days she was staying with a Christian family in Mexico City, being well cared for. A short while later she was on an airplane back to Spain, thanks to the efforts of our project team. She is now receiving counselling for the trauma she experienced, and the team hope and pray that she will find purpose and restoration in the future.

This is just one story of how projects we support help to rescue vulnerable women and children and lead them to a place of safety.   

There are many more Elena’s out there; alone and desperate and needing support.

$150 sets one woman or child on a path to freedom. You can be part of someone’s rescue story today!