We teach our kids to look both ways before we cross the street. It’s automatic and everyone does it. How do we measure the success of that? Just because we can’t, doesn’t mean we don’t teach them to be prepared when crossing the street.

I believe teaching orphans and vulnerable children about sex trafficking prevention should be “automatic”–like teaching kids about looking both ways before crossing the street.

I think about orphans in Russia who are released from the orphanage at such a young age. Barely 16 or 17, they are thrust into a world they are not prepared to handle.  Sadly, years of living in an institution has taught them to trust adults and authority figures.

Imagine this was you, and someone came to your school in an official capacity advertising high paying jobs for “orphans only?”

That sounds obviously phony to you and me. But not to the girls.

Sex trafficking can be prevented through education about how traffickers work to gain trust, and then exploit it.

That is Sasha’s story. She was out of work and looking for help. Some men at a nightclub offered her food, clothing, and gifts. Sasha never suspected that these men had evil plans for her.

So one night they presented her with a “bill” for all of the things they had given her, and demanded repayment. Unable to repay them, her new “friends” ordered her back to the sauna where she would be forced to have sex with two men to repay her bill. And…begin her life as a forced prostitute.

It’s called “debt bondage,” and traffickers use it to gain a young woman’s trust, and then turn it against them as a debt they can never repay.

When Sasha refused, she was beaten mercilessly. At one point she was held on a log with an axe held at her throat.

Miraculously, she escaped that ordeal, and connected with Children’s HopeChest for after care and support. In 2011, she visited the U.S. for a 5-city speaking tour to share her story, and raise support for trafficking awareness and prevention.

Sasha is one of a very few girls who make it out before they are raped and forced into sexual servitude. And once trafficked, the chances of making it out are less than 1% worldwide.

Today, I invite you to help teach orphans how to “look both ways.” Make a gift to Change Their Story today so that our Russian Ministry Centers can continue teaching girls how to identify, understand, and avoid the tricks that trapped Sasha.

Help us teach them to “look both ways” to help keep them safe from real dangers they face.