Posted by Carl Gerhardt on Jan 30, 2018
On 1/30/2018, Founder & President of Hope Rising Ministries, Sherri Clement spoke to the Magnolia Rotary Club about her mission to provide hope and a future for minor girls who have been rescued from human sex trafficking and exploitation. Pictured above is Sherri Clement.
 
Sherri told everyone that she came from California 5 years ago originally but she believes that God called her to Texas because Houston, Texas is ranked as the number one worst city when it comes to human sex trafficking. Her life work is committed to raising awareness of the dangers of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in order to prevent the victimization of those at risk, to identifying and rescuing victims through outreach efforts and the HOPE LINE, a hot line that allows victims to reach out for help, and to achieving the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual restoration for the rescued victim for as long as the victim needs them.
 
When she first arrived in Texas, she worked only with adults who has escaped the sex trafficking industry because Texas requires a license to help minors. After getting her license in August of last year, her organization (Hope Rising) is committed only to minors by creating special care foster homes where those minors can be healed and brought back into a safe environment. Currently, "Hope Rising" depends entirely on private or church funding to support their efforts. She is taking a different approach to helping these kids and only has 3 kids being cared for. The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is watching her work closely and if she continues to have success, the state of Texas may use her model of bringing sex trafficking escapees back to a "normal" life for all of Texas. 
 
Because foster homes is where most sex trafficking recruitment is targeted Sherri wants to make sure that her foster care homes provide both a safe and loving environment where a young victim has a chance at getting back to a "normal" existence.  Too many foster home parents are in it only for the money they get for housing the kids. In her model, Sherri estimates that it takes about $135.00 per day per kid to supply all of their needs during the time they are with her. 
 
Sherri told everyone that social media like Snap Chat is the biggest tool for sex traffickers. They pretend to be a young person similar in age to their target kid and work on gaining their trust. Once they gain their trust they work to make them believe that their parents are their enemy and offer them a better life. Once they agree to meet them somewhere, the sex trafficker then takes them prisoner and forces them into prostitution or simply sells them to the highest bidder. Sherri stated that a young 13 year old may go for as much as $300,000 on the open market and a pimp can make as much as $3,000 a night per girl. That makes sex trafficking the most lucrative illegal business in the world outside of illegal drugs.
 
Sherry presented a slide show and a movie to give some statistics of the size of the problem and to see what some escapees say about the problem.
 
For more information on "Hope Rising", go to www.hoperisingministries.org or Facebook at www.facebook.com/HopeRisingMinistries/
 
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