Unheard Voices

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They arrested him last Tuesday and by Thursday he was sentenced to five years in prison and he has more charges pending, but he's already been sentenced for the lead charge on that. So that was really very swift justice. Welcome to Lantern Rescue, a ministry program dedicated to bringing light into the darkness of human trafficking. It's time to light the way to freedom. This is Lantern Rescue. We tell the stories, we talk about rescues, and we empower you to do something about it.

William Wilberforce once said, let it not be said I was silent when they needed me. This is Lantern Rescue. Welcome to Lantern Rescue. We got a real treat for you today. The team is overseas and we want to introduce some new partners to you, right, Mark? Robbie, we're excited to speak with you today and share with our listeners. A little bit different show for sure. I think every show is probably different than what folks are listening to, but Lord knows that he brings people in our path that we feel like need to be heard and want to share about their work and their ministry and how it collaborates with us.

And so we're in the West African region. And Robbie, I've got TC with me. I've got John, who's been on show before with us in the past. And then we have Sarah with us. And Sarah's really going to be kind of the focus of our show today.

Robbie, she is a West African by nationality, and she's an African by heart. And she really has a brilliant education, but she has a workforce of more than 100 working women across her three companies between the UK and Africa. She's got more than 100 women who she has trained and particularly through one business that she's going to tell us about. And a lot of those women were women who have survived trafficking, have survived abuse, have survived the hardships that we encounter when we work in counter trafficking. Her companies are fair trade with a supply of raw materials from women's cooperatives across Africa. She participates in several motivational workshops for youth.

She even continues to right now, I think even it says she has 30 students who are supported in terms of their school fees. She's doing a lot of work for those. And so as we came here and in our meetings of meeting government and other people, we got to meet Sarah. And really today, Sarah, I'm so excited that you're on the show.

And Robbie is meeting you remotely here. And you're going to tell us about you. You are a young entrepreneur who left corporate and tell us your why. Why do you have such a drive to help those who need help and especially empower women in your country? I think that it's kind of life mission because I have always wanted to do something, do more, do something for people around me, especially women and children in Africa because the population, there are more women, more children than I mean men and older people. And those people are very sensitive or they're very exposed to a lot of stuff.

Abuse, illegal traffic, criminality, poverty, and lack of hospital care, health care, lack of health care. So I was not able to think that I can work and live in Africa without doing something for people around me. Cause I felt like kind of privileged to have access to that level of education. So I thought I should give back by my work and by my journey. You are a complete different than most women in West Africa. You've overcome a lot of things in your own life to be this entrepreneur who's able to assist even other women.

And I know that you're swimming in a different direction in your life. At one point you were even poisoned twice for your work and effort to do something right. And when you talk about the girls that you help now, you kind of laid out some of those factors that influenced the women and girls here in your country and the countries around us. Give us an example, even if somebody like right now that's in your training in your hands that you're taking from point A to Z.

For example, actually I'm training a lady. She came from Central Africa. So she has escaped war and she went here when we actually in West Africa, she came here with her father and they were very, very poor because of the country, the culture, everything was different. And with time her father, he gets sick. So she was the only one in charge of everything without, I mean, without a lot of degree of education.

She has stopped at high school because of the war. So we have met through a relative of her and she has asked to be trained to learn something to do because she was not feeling good about herself, like just be at home and doing nothing or be exposed to some, because some people has approached her and has approached her in the past and proposed her prostitution because she's kind of beautiful, I mean, attractive, based on the standard of a specific people. So she wanted to escape that.

She didn't want to be at the point that she will be, she will feel obliged to enter in that world to feed her father. And so we have met through one of the, I don't know, through one of, we say her kind of her mentor. And I have interviewed her because I needed to know if she was very interested or if it was just a woman who was looking for a hobby. So we have talked and she told me about her story and we have started to work like three months ago and I'm very happy because she's very proactive and she's always there to work. She's very determined.

She has passion and she really wants to change her life and do something by herself. And you've done that for over a hundred women in particularly. Yes. So everybody's listening and she sees John jumping at any time. What you do, so our listeners know, is you give them a business skill.

Exactly. One of your business right now, you've got everything from the only coffee shop in West Africa that we ever found. And then you have a sewing shop, a fashion shop to teach them to sew and that's critical in West Africa. To sew and to embellish. It's very different from what people do around here. They don't do embellishments. It's like it's kind of a luxury field of couture.

So they don't do that because it requires a lot of patience, passion and very expensive tools. Right, so not only you trained for like six months, you give them the tools to do that or if they also want to make jewelry, which is fantastic. These girls do an amazing job and I've got to meet some of them doing that and that's exciting.

How about you TC? You've listed them at Sarah too and you were blown away by her in this whole operation that we came to see and participate in and tell me about. As I have listened to her story and Sarah I want you to comment on this. There are a lot of times in people's lives where they have good ideas. They have good ideas and they go on but when resistance comes when it's hard it's like maybe I'll do something else. You have been poisoned twice. The business that you're in maybe people think oh Sarah's making a lot of money and so she's you know she's just an entrepreneur but actually this is very hard for you.

Yes, every day. So where did that conviction, where did that drive that you have to do these things regardless of the resistance you get? Where did that conviction come from?

How did you get that? I would say that this conviction comes from my faith because I'm very driven by my faith. I'm like okay I've been a lot in my life since I was born and God has always been my focus, my main focus and he has never failed me so even if we went through a lot of difficulties, some storms but every time there was a storm after that there was a big achievement. That's how I see my whole life so what I have learned is to be patient and to say okay this will be an obstacle on my road, this is a problem, this is bad but I have to stay, I have to endure that, I have to stay focused because I know that after that there will be a big achievement.

The more you have resistance, the more you resist, the bigger the achievement after that is. That's how I see life so in every aspect of my life that's how I see life so that is what drives me. John how about you? Sarah would you be willing to tell us a little bit more about why you chose this type of business and how you set it up versus giving somebody a job skill to go find a job somewhere out in the market? I have chosen entrepreneurship first because I really like to be my own boss and do things like I want to do them because people, we don't think the same. I have seen that when I was working because I have worked for seven years in corporate business and in three countries in Africa, in West Africa so what I've seen was the kind of mix of capitalism and capitalism and people abused in a kind of way and I didn't like that.

I didn't like that. I had the chance to be at high positions in top management in some companies when I was very young and what I have seen was not like the way I wanted to manage. It was very different from what I wanted so and doing jewels was my hobby, my first hobby. Design of clothes was my second hobby so I decided to launch my own company in that field because I knew this field so that's how I have started and it was also the best way for me to hire women and to teach them what I knew and to learn from them too. I think that when you know the person's story, you manage that person differently.

Your workforce is not just a bunch of people executing what you say. No, those are individuals and you learn to manage like every person with all of these aspects and you learn from them and you learn on YouTube and the second company is in cosmetics. I have started this one because I saw a need somewhere, a need for some women who were doing organic raw materials. They needed to sell to someone who would be able to make it usable by some other people who needed, who were abroad like in Europe and who needed activity, something to prepare.

So it was like I decided to leave a connection between those two. We'll be right back on Lantern Rescue. Lantern Rescue is a USA-based organization that conducts international rescue operations for people suffering from human trafficking. Lantern specializes in sending former U.S. special operation law enforcement and intelligence personnel to partner with host nations and assist them in creating specialized units to combat ongoing security problems such as genocide, terrorism and human trafficking.

As a non-profit charity, they offer services free of charge to their host nations. Human trafficking has grown into the second largest criminal activity in the world, reaching an estimated 150 billion dollars in annual activity. Lantern Rescue has developed rapidly to combat trafficking. Lantern operates through a trained international network in order to rescue women and children from sex and labor slavery and facilitates holistic aftercare services. They're gearing up for operations right now and you can go to lanternrescue.org to see how you can support them financially. Welcome back to Lantern Rescue and what a treat we have today where the team is overseas and we're getting introduced to some of their new partners in West Africa. So just kind of pick up where you left off there a couple of things you were about to share about the opportunities you've made available for a friend of yours and maybe just kind of tell us about that. Yeah so it was like in 2019 so I have met a lady she came to my fashion shop and she was asking for some very strict clothes and when you see her she was not like she was not feeling good so I asked her to tell me what was wrong because she was bizarre and she has started to talk about her personal life and she has explained that she was in a forced marriage since 10 years and she wanted to leave that because she was not feeling good about about the fact that she hasn't achieved anything in her life and I mean professionally privately there were no alchemy because it was a forced marriage and she has come in my country to it was like a holiday to to like ease her mind and and come back very strong and do what she has to do to escape that marriage so we have talked a lot and the problem was that she didn't have a job she didn't have any activity all of her life was around that union was an abusive and forced marriage and when she left back to to her country so we stayed we stayed in touch and finally she found the courage to face her family face her family and told she she told them that she wanted to leave that marriage and it's it hasn't been easy it hasn't been like it was dirty it was very dirty she has lost actually I would say the half of the family is not talking to her anymore she has left the the house with her kids and now she's she's rebuilding her life oh I would say she's building a new life as a as an independent woman as a girl as a grown woman and everything and so she was looking for an activity she was looking for something to do and so she asked me so she asked me what can I do and at the same time I have discovered some stuff that was going on in in in my country specifically in the specifically in the north of my country where you have a lot of women who are the great winners of the family and their activity is around the activity is around a she butter she butter extraction and she butter oil production but very organic way I mean traditional way and the problem is that they sell this rich I would say rich material because she butter is something which is very rich it's organic and it has a lot of virtues and everything so they sell that to people who are very corrupted the people who used to buy from them they didn't buy at the fair price okay because they know that those women they are in needs any money that they will they will find they would take it to feed their families because they are I mean they are very good breadwinners of their their families so when I have seen that and knowing that where my other friend was located I mean in Europe the market where she was was very very attracted by this kind of of organic stuff that those women are doing in the north of my country so I decided to be the connection between them and I know that there were a big issue about she butter it was the smell the original smell of raw materials so I found a way to change that TC is well aware of that John and you know they use that stuff really okay I think yeah I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure Alan you I brought one one for each of you so you will like them so I found a way to be the connection between those those very different people but with the same needs of being independent and autonomous so I decided to launch this company so we buy at the fair price the raw she butter from those women and because we buy at the fair price they are very they were very open to do more to how can I say it in English when you when a process is raw and it becomes better how do you call it purificated pure process the pure pure butter yes yes actually yes the quality of the raw material is better now and we even we have even taken some pictures to put it on the internet and say this is liquid gold because it used to be a she butter oil with a lot of dirt in it okay right because they didn't care about the quality they just needed to to sell and and have any money but we have talked with them and now the quality is very is very perfect the sugar is very pure and very like yellow like gold with no dirt and we buy we buy it at the fair price we bring it to to the capital and we transform it but we don't transform it like industrial way we let it like organic we just add some uh scents natural organic scents coming from other parts of Africa to fight the smell and we package it and we send it to the other woman who is in Europe and who needed an activity the one to be forced marriage yes the one and and just sorry so in the the ladies who are help package that and put the sense together these are all young girls I mean from yes they've escaped prostitution and forced marriages most of the time marriages most of the time they are from abused marriage yeah so 16 and up is what I see here yes so you're you really are not only doing a good job in business but you're you're you're providing such opportunity for these girls I'm trying yeah yeah thank you you guys I know that we're excited to to have you on the show today we've still got a we've got a couple more minutes I got one question I want to ask you you were the you won your country's best cultural product for West Africa and that was awarded by the U.S. embassy yes it was my first award yeah I want to know what that product was what was it oh it was the jewels the yeah I um then we have three three important words in my fashion company we are inclusive because we we don't do fashion just for one category we do for every shape all shape all colors right all races and in this region all genders in this region world West African women do wear very embellished clothing yeah yeah it's very it's culturally different yeah yeah than other places and you you must be a top provider of that I'm trying to be I'm trying so because we are very inclusive and in even in the materials in the stones we use on the jewels we use stones from different countries in Africa and in the world so it's like you have to when you have that jewel or that's clothes um you can say you can say that you are traveling around the world like you have many countries participating in the art you are wearing that's why I get this hour because I was I wasn't doing clothes at that time when I get that it was my first award and I have done three jewels one representative of West Africa colors and one representative of different song we can find in Central Africa except diamond because it was expensive and one was a kind of union between the northern and south and and the soft like some stones from Africa and some stones from Canada and US wow so all of the jewels were very like link link between everybody you're uh we're all we're all doing we all have to buy our wife something right and I know I know a lot of our listeners are the ladies out there going man where do I get this you know they're wanting to know um I have one other thing I want to finish the show out with so the to sponsor a girl who who needs this because in case our listeners don't understand they'll come here they learn this craft they get the tools to do this yes then they can go back to their village their city and they become an entrepreneur like they're not just learning the skill you're teaching them finance business exactly networking yeah you're teaching them all that stuff you're changing not only their life but the future of their children yes exactly uh and it it's exciting and I know that even some men get mad they didn't you know they're like no you know but Robbie man we miss you because uh we're we're stumbling I know we stumbled to this show but we appreciate Sarah uh sharing with us thank you so much we appreciate your heart well as we wrap up today let's be sure and pray for Mark TC Allen and Wren as well as their new partners like Sarah that we met today and as always if God puts it on your heart to give or to link up with them to do or host one of the rescue events you know go to lanternrescue.org this is the Truth Network