Can you imagine being a parent and unknowingly handing your child over to a trafficker? This chilling thought is the harsh reality we unpack with Kimberly McDonald Walden, the brave founder, and CEO of GLM2 Foundation. The fear of sex trafficking may seem distant and unthinkable to many, but Kimberly brings it uncomfortably close, unmasking the horrifying tactics traffickers use, manipulating vulnerabilities and exploiting unsuspecting parents. The sad truth is that the tactics of these criminals are remarkably effective, which is why we also discuss the critical need for not only immediate relief but also long-term aftercare for survivors.
We journey deep into the murky reality of human trafficking in our world today – an unspeakable crime that is closer to us than we'd like to think. Augusta, Georgia, for instance, is unfortunately not immune to this issue. Yet, it's not all despair. Initiatives are being taken, laws are being passed, and people like Kimberly are stepping up. We explore the work of the Georgia Coalition Against Human Trafficking, among others, and touch upon the need for education before you can make a difference—even when it comes to volunteering.
As we navigate this thorny issue, we also highlight the intersection of technology, social media, and human trafficking, and how these platforms have, sadly, made the problem worse. But amidst all the grim realities, there are sparks of hope. The GLM2 Foundation, for example, is a beacon of light, providing much-needed support and transforming the lives of victims. And there's more – we also delve into an exciting upcoming community partnership initiative, the Courage to Rise Fun Run/Walk, which you won't want to miss. And, as we wrap up, you'll learn how you can contribute to the solution and support the exceptional work of the GLM2 Foundation.
If you or someone you know is being trafficked and is looking for help. Please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888
Visit GLM2 here.
Links Below!
Insta: https://instagram.com/forthenation_podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forthenationpod/
Website: https://forthenationpod.com
Can you imagine being a parent and unknowingly handing your child over to a trafficker? This chilling thought is the harsh reality we unpack with Kimberly McDonald Walden, the brave founder, and CEO of GLM2 Foundation. The fear of sex trafficking may seem distant and unthinkable to many, but Kimberly brings it uncomfortably close, unmasking the horrifying tactics traffickers use, manipulating vulnerabilities and exploiting unsuspecting parents. The sad truth is that the tactics of these criminals are remarkably effective, which is why we also discuss the critical need for not only immediate relief but also long-term aftercare for survivors.
We journey deep into the murky reality of human trafficking in our world today – an unspeakable crime that is closer to us than we'd like to think. Augusta, Georgia, for instance, is unfortunately not immune to this issue. Yet, it's not all despair. Initiatives are being taken, laws are being passed, and people like Kimberly are stepping up. We explore the work of the Georgia Coalition Against Human Trafficking, among others, and touch upon the need for education before you can make a difference—even when it comes to volunteering.
As we navigate this thorny issue, we also highlight the intersection of technology, social media, and human trafficking, and how these platforms have, sadly, made the problem worse. But amidst all the grim realities, there are sparks of hope. The GLM2 Foundation, for example, is a beacon of light, providing much-needed support and transforming the lives of victims. And there's more – we also delve into an exciting upcoming community partnership initiative, the Courage to Rise Fun Run/Walk, which you won't want to miss. And, as we wrap up, you'll learn how you can contribute to the solution and support the exceptional work of the GLM2 Foundation.
If you or someone you know is being trafficked and is looking for help. Please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888
Visit GLM2 here.
Links Below!
Insta: https://instagram.com/forthenation_podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forthenationpod/
Website: https://forthenationpod.com
Hey everyone, it's Mike with For the Nation podcast. Before we get to the episode, I want to share that sex trafficking can be a dark and disturbing topic. However, it's important that we educate ourselves so that we can help do our part to end the suffering and help victims. If you or someone you know is affected by sex trafficking, please call the number below or list it in the show notes. That said, today's guest is a champion for women and children affected by sex trafficking. She is the founder and CEO of GLM2 Foundation, which aims to transform victims' lives and really help them flourish. Her name is Kimberly McDonald Walden. Without further ado, let's get to the episode. I do want to get to that game, though, so can we do that right after? I just kind of get this introduction going.
Speaker 2:It's not really a game, it's just a situation. If I put you in a situation, I'm going to explain how quickly things can be done.
Speaker 1:Alrighty, well, before we do that, let me just kind of introduce you. I'm sitting here with Kimberly McDonald Walden. I said that correctly. Yes, she is the founder of GLM2 Foundation, which stands for God Loves Me Too Foundation, incorporated. Go ahead and just kind of take a couple minutes or however long you want, and just kind of introduce yourself. Who is Kimberly McDonald Walden?
Speaker 2:Well, as you said, I'm the founder and CEO of GLM2. And what we do is we provide safe dwelling places and long-term aftercare for women and their children who've been affected by sex trafficking and domestic violence. So we come alongside people for a minimum of two years and a maximum of five. The reason being is that when you're working with trafficking survivors, most of the ones that we work with have been addicted to things like mess and heroin and stuff like that, and so they come out of a short-term facility, which short-term facilities are great, but most are 30, 60, 90 days, maybe a year.
Speaker 2:Most you can't have your children with them with you that kind of thing, but it takes your brain 14 months to abstain off of mess before synapses really start connect again, and 18 to 24 months before you really start thinking clearly again. So now, if you think of the numbers I just told you, 30, 60, 90 days in a short-term facility, and it takes your brain 14 months, right?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, you're nowhere near it.
Speaker 2:You haven't dealt with trauma, you haven't dealt with anything, you've just had a drug out of your system, basically. And the short-term facilities do what they're supposed to do. I kind of akin them to an emergency room, right, you know? Let's say, if you were in a car accident and you had to have surgery in the emergency room, you don't go back to the emergency room for meds, you don't go back to the emergency room for follow-up, you don't go back to the emergency room for physical therapy. We have systems in place for that. What happens in most situations and issues that we have in society is there's truly no long-term care, right? So when they come out of a 30, 60, 90-day program, don't have a job, don't have a place to live. Oh, by the way, here your kid's back. Right.
Speaker 2:You know, now you've got to take care of them too. You haven't dealt with the trauma. This drug is still in your system. It's a recipe for failure, because people always want to say let's go rescue, let's go rescue, let's go rescue. And I'm like then what? What are you going to do with them? What are you going to do?
Speaker 2:with them when they get out Right. So that's that question. Everybody wants to. Let's go rescue, which is great, Don't get me wrong. Right, but there has to be systems set up for after that to be able to help them live a normal life.
Speaker 1:Right, I love that. Yeah, it's like a holistic approach that really looks after the long-term care. It's not just like, hey, we did our job.
Speaker 2:Check the box, let's go.
Speaker 1:Right, so before, I do want to get into all that stuff, but we were talking before this just kind of like how pervasive social engineering is and to bring awareness to parents. Like hey, a perfect stranger could come in and get all sorts of information from your kids and they just don't know what they're doing. And you were about to go through this little situation with me, so yeah, so traffickers are very manipulative.
Speaker 2:Most go after vulnerabilities, right. And so if, like, you and I were just talking and you said you have a child, right, and so now I know that you have a child, so let's say I'm a trafficker and I'm getting to know you, right, and then let's say I meet your wife and I go, hey, you know what, your wife is really beautiful and would you would? Would you guys be interested? So Tim Tebow is doing this thing for night to shine, all right, and he's doing a calendar and all this other stuff and you know, taking pictures of families, and you know and want, want to be able to sell this for night to shine. Would you be interested? You know we can do a photo shoot. So the whole family comes to the photo shoot.
Speaker 2:It's legit, they take the pictures, they show you the proofs, I mean they just everything. It's a legitimate thing, right? So you go, oh, this is so cool, right. And they're like all right, we're going to submit you right To Tim Tebow to see if he picks you. So they wait a couple of weeks, right? Tim Tebow is a legitimate person. Yeah, he is.
Speaker 2:Night to shine is a legitimate you know purpose Yep Right Exactly.
Speaker 2:Me too, me too, right. So it's like, yeah, this is awesome, this would be so cool, right? And who wouldn't want to go meet Tim Tebow, right? So, anyway, they wait a couple of weeks and they call you back and they go hey, mike, here's the deal. You guys have been chosen, you've been chosen. They're going to fly you first class out to Los Angeles, all right, and basically do a professional photo shoot with your family, and they give you the ticket, they give you everything. You get out there and they go okay, we're going into this area right here, all right, tim Tebow is in the next room. What we're going to do is but we need you to leave your phones right here. Okay, we have our phones, et cetera, here, because we have professional photographers. Right.
Speaker 2:All right. So we want you to leave that there. And then you go in and there's no Tim Tebow. And now somebody says to your wife I need you to take your clothes off. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And I need you to go ahead and do that, and you, as a man, are going to go. No, and they're going to hold you with gunpoint or whatever and say let me explain something to you. If she doesn't do that, I'm going to have five men come in and violate your child in front of you. Her clothes are coming off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's and it's it's it's people manipulate and they are sad in today's world that you can't trust like you should be able to trust. But think about that situation and you're an adult, all right. Now think about kids online. They're talking to people who they think are the same age as them, all right, and they're having this. This happened to my neighbor's child. He texted me one night and said I think my daughter's being groomed for trafficking.
Speaker 2:And I got all the information. I said, yep, she sure is. I said get me all of her electronics. You have to have you know, I'm calling my task force guy and get all the electronics, all the passwords, all the social media accounts you know, and we'll get him on it.
Speaker 2:Right, and they were able to locate who this was and found him and that was that, but she was being groomed and, by the way, this was a 38 year old African American male in Rio de Janeiro talking to her and another little girl on Washington road pretending to be a 14 year old. Wow.
Speaker 2:Okay, pretending to be a 14 year old, and so you know. And that's the other thing I always you know, caution, parents. I'm like please make you know. Number one your child should have no privacy in your house. It's your house. Stop being the friend. Okay, stop being the friend. They can be gone, like that, all right. And secondly is you know, know all of their accounts and all of their passwords. Because if someone goes missing, the first thing FBI, any police officers, whatever are going to ask uh, what? What is the password to their phone? What is the password to their Tik Tok account? And most parents are like I don't know.
Speaker 2:When I was growing up I'm a lot older than you, but when I was growing up, I was taught my phone number, my address, every, you know what I'm saying Like I knew all of that stuff. Right now, these days, parents, it's reversed. But parents don't know the information on their children and what's worse is they don't know who they're talking to online, okay, all these you know game gaming, um apps, all of you know. I mean, like my neighbor's child, it was. It started on roadblocks and went to discord, you know. And these chatrooms get smaller and smaller and as they do right. That's the scare. Like the bigger chat rooms are not that big of a deal, but the smaller.
Speaker 2:I always tell parents, if you don't personally know somebody that they're talking to the answers no, the answers no, because you don't know who is pretending on the other end. You have no idea. You know like there was a 17 year old little boy who um captain of the football team, you know, living the dream. Right Already had scouts looking at him for college. Right, mom and dad go to a good church, dad's deacon. In the church. He has a five year old little brother. He starts talking to a 20 year old girl online and after a few months the conversation turned sexual. They decide to meet. He goes and gets flowers and it's going to be all swabbed and devineered and all that, right, yeah, yeah, he's a hero at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, like I said, he thinks he's all that in a bag of chips because he's talking to a little 22 year old, right, right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So he goes and knocks on a hotel room door and he's met by a 45 year old man who drags him in, beats him and says let me tell you how this is going to go down. You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do, okay, or I'm going to go to your football team because, just so you know, nowhere in the conversation did I ever say that I was a girl. You just thought that because of a picture. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, I'm going to go to your football team and I'm going to tell them you're gay and you like older men. And then I'm going to go to your church and I'm going to embarrass your parents and you'll probably lose the scholarships that you're looking at, by the way. And oh, when you have that five year old little brother, I'll kill him. Okay.
Speaker 2:A 17 year old little boy. His frontal lobe was not developed. Okay, frontal lobe's not developed. Now you and I know get out of that room, no matter what, even if you get hurt. Get out of the room, go downstairs, call the police, call your parents. No amount of embarrassment is worth your life. That little boy was trafficked.
Speaker 1:It's like, it's almost just like the words escape you. It's so devastating, so disgusting, vile, you know. Yes, how did you? What did you do before this? If I could start there.
Speaker 2:Oh, I did a lot of different things. Like a lifetime ago I used to produce commercials and music videos in Los Angeles and then when I moved back, I was actually focusing on music because I'm a musician, singer, songwriter as well, and so back in the day I had done a lot of stuff in country music. I had opened up for Billy Ray Cyrus and opened up for Wayland Jennings before he died, and you know Horford, garth Brooks, drizzy Yearwood.
Speaker 2:Anyway, you know, these are lifetimes ago, you know. And then I actually started working in for a developer here for ATC Development and had a 20 year career there and you know, in new construction we built townhomes and apartment complexes. And then God called me away to do what I'm doing now, you know, and everybody thought I was out of my mind, but I left my day. I started GLM II in 2015, is when I actually started the nonprofit, but then I had to have six life or death surgeries to keep me here, Kind of had to put everything on hold. And then in 2018, it was like it was time, and so in 2018, I walked away from everything I knew with security, and here I am now.
Speaker 1:So you go from producing commercials, music videos to country music, to then being working with development and then starting this nonprofit, and you said that you felt called to do it. What was that that made you feel called to this? Was there like a specific moment, something that happened in your life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of specific moments that took place, but one, literally somebody. I was on a medical mission trip and someone actually came up to me and said I've got a word of the Lord for you, and I went okay and yeah, one of those like okay.
Speaker 2:You know, she said transitional housing and I was like all right, god, what does that mean, you know? And I didn't hear anything. Didn't know anything, you know. I was praying about it and then came back and I went to hear someone speak and she told the story of how her mother was a prostitute and started prostituting her out at the age of three. And I just wept that whole time and it was just those kinds of things that kept happening.
Speaker 2:I had never heard of trafficking. So this thing started happening and it was overwhelming, like to the point you can't sleep at night, right, and all of this stuff. And so it was just like, okay, something's gotta be done. And so I started researching and meeting with people and finding out as much information as I could. And that's when I said, like you know, I realized it was like there's a huge gap, like there's a lot of short-term stuff but there's nothing that helps them Really. These survivors move forward. And so our lane just so you know, glmt's lane. We are 18 and older and their children. Okay, because we found that most of the time when mom has been trafficked, the child has as well or has experienced some sort of abuse and the reason we do domestic violence as well is because most of the time we find that when a girl is, let's say, you know, we have a girl that was trafficked by her mom, okay, and when that takes place, then as they get older, every relationship is domestic violence, because that's all they know is the abuse right.
Speaker 2:So we encapsulate, you know, both of those, so that we can help people heal from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's not just the healing, it's flourishing after the fact, Absolutely and understand that recovery, and especially with trauma, you know, and I'll talk to you a little bit about trauma as well but recovery is not necessarily the absence of trauma. It just means that trauma, those triggers, don't control your life and you have healthier coping mechanisms. Right, that you've developed a healthier way to deal with something. Right, that if you have anger, instead of punching a hole in the wall, right, like there's grounding exercises that you can do, or go for a walk or you know that kind of thing, so that you're not, you know, exuding these emotions based on a trigger that just happened. You recognize this is a trigger and a lot of people don't understand what triggers are right, and it can be anything. It can be a song, it could be lighting, it could be anything Like.
Speaker 2:You know, when I first started this, a lot of my friends were like, hey, we can get you, you know shampoos and conditioners and you know soaps and all that stuff, because we travel, we'll give you all the hotel stuff, right, I'll save you a ton of money. And I was like, no, I can't do that. And they were like, oh, we don't understand. I'm like your heart's in the right place, but the execution is wrong, because that's what these folks use to clean up between clients. Right, I will set off PTSD in a big way.
Speaker 2:You know not only that, but how devaluing you know, after all you've been through, right, being sold 25 to 40 times a day for sacks right, after all you've been through that you don't deserve a full-sized bottle of shampoo. Right, it's rebuilding them as people and reminding them that they're human beings because they've been sold as a product. And when someone is sold, you know, in trafficking, when someone is sold for sacks, right, because a lot of people just think, oh, it's just sacks and I'm like no, no, so if someone purchases you, well, first of all, they don't care anything about you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right they could care less about you. You are a means to an end. That's it. You're a product. Like I'm consuming this water, they're going to consume you. But let's say they've purchased you for an hour, so in that hour, yes, you will be raped. You may be optimized, you may be cut, beaten, burned, branded, urinated on, defecated on, choked out. And that's one client. And that happens 25 to 40 times a day.
Speaker 1:It's so disturbing. I can't believe people. I mean, you don't want to talk about this, but it's. It's so pervasive and I want to talk about, like, the reality of human trafficking. George's ranked the seventh highest trafficking seventh highest in the US for trafficking. Right, it might be old data, I think that's 2017. So one thing that we've learned is it's gotten more rampant since then. For sure, this is also. This podcast is coming on the heels of the Sound of Freedom movie. That's kind of what inspired me to find organizations such as yours to have this conversation, because I think the one thing that that movie left me with was okay, what's next? I know about this, but what's next? So, if you could kind of like in your own words, summarize what is the reality of human trafficking today?
Speaker 2:So you said like 25 to 40 times there would be so little bit, and it happens here like all the time.
Speaker 2:You know people. I haven't seen the movie just because I work with enough trauma on a daily basis that I don't need to go sit to know what goes on. But people need to understand that it happens not just in your own backyard but in your own home. Okay, when, again, when your child or whomever is online, right, and it's happening in your own home, you don't even, you don't even know that it's happening, right? People think, oh well, that happens in Mexico or that happens you know somewhere else, or in the bigger cities or whatever. No, it happens right here in your own house. It happens every single place, every single day, everywhere. All right, so it is rampant. And in Augusta, georgia is number one for child pornography. We outrank Atlanta. How about that?
Speaker 1:Really, really. That's so crazy, the one thing I've heard. I don't know if this is true but the Masters tournament. They have no affiliation with producing it or promoting trafficking, but for some reason it brings large amounts of trafficking during those couple of weeks. You know why is that?
Speaker 2:Well, there's a couple of things. First of all, it highlights the trafficking. But what so? The number one buyer of sex on the planet is the white American male traffickers follow the money. All right, masters brings in lots of white American males, so does the Super Bowl. It could also be a computer geek convention in Vegas. They're following the money Interesting, you know, but it happens every day. It's just highlighted more during big sporting events and things like that. You know, because there's lots of media and stuff like that. Right, you don't have media just hanging out on a street corner in Augusta, georgia, looking for trafficking.
Speaker 1:Now that we know that it's going on like the movies kind of brought it to light and it's being talked about a little bit more like what are the next steps?
Speaker 2:So I mean you can always donate my gosh. It takes a lot of money.
Speaker 1:I'm sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, we're currently working with 24 adults and 40 children here. Okay, so wherever you are in your own backyard, you know, look for local organizations, all right, because we always need financial help. Always Find out if you can volunteer Most of the boots on the ground stuff. Now I'll go do boots on the ground. I have someone I work with and we'll go get them. But we also work with other organizations so that if we are doing a rescue right, we're already set up to where, either taking this person to a hospital, depending on their condition, detox or to a safe home, right, so all of that has already been set up before we go get somebody, right, because most of the time they have to be the ones to call in, right, they have to ask for help. Right.
Speaker 2:You can't. Just you can have somebody killed and get yourself killed if you see someone and think I'm just going to go help them because they are always being watched, you know. But that's why we have, you know, especially in Georgia. I mean, we have our own human trafficking hotline, like the Georgia Coalition Against Human Trafficking. We have that hotline, which is fantastic, you know. We have GBI here, which is amazing, you know, and Governor Kemp and First Lady Kemp, you know they changed some laws, put some laws into place that make it easier for trafficking survivors to change their names, also to be able to get, you know, a restitution from their abusers as well, monetary restitution.
Speaker 2:So, you know. So there are things that are already happening, there are things that are in play, but, like I said, you know most people, they, you know they go see this movie and then they're going ho, and it's like, well, just because you have a big heart, right, my first thing is educate yourself right, it's like let's go help.
Speaker 2:Okay, you want to help, you want to volunteer, all right. So what do you do if you're transporting somebody and you play a song on the radio and it's a trigger and they bust out the glass in your car? Are you prepared for that? You know what I'm saying Because people want to help how they know how to help right. But you have to understand these survivors. They don't. They're not going to think like you, they're not going to act like you, they don't look like you.
Speaker 2:They don't smell like you. They don't talk like you, right? So if you're going to volunteer, you actually have to volunteer. How, um, how, the organization needs you to volunteer so that you're not putting yourself at risk ever and uh, and that you're also doing, you know, best interest, best practice for the survivor.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I guess along that line, like what are some things that, um, you could teach us to like, to look forward to, to maybe be like, oh, like, if you see it happening, what are you supposed to do?
Speaker 2:Call local law enforcement, call national human trafficking hotline, call, uh, the Georgia coalition you know hotline as well. Um, and I'll give you guys some business cards as well. We have hotline numbers on the back of them, Um and uh, and I have lots of resources on our website and stuff too, Cause our website isn't just about GLM too. I like having resources where people can, you know, look up stuff and educate themselves on things, because education is a huge thing, right? So, cause, what happens is this um, people are on social media and they you know, my gosh, the, the white van, has, you know, become the target. What if I'm a caterer?
Speaker 1:I'm not trafficking, I'm just delivering food you know, I just got a Ford transit. Yeah, exactly Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly Right, but everybody goes oh. I saw a white van parking here Okay, that's great, you know. Or there's a cable tie on, you know, your side view mirror, or those kinds of things. Okay, please understand that people want to sensationalize things. That's not trafficking. Okay, kidnapping, molestation, rape, that's not trafficking.
Speaker 2:I'm not discounting those things, please don't think that, okay, but trafficking, you have to be it. Someone has to be caused to commit a commercial sex act through force, fraud or coercion. Okay, and that's commercial sex act could be, you know, pornography, it could be um, stripping, it could be you know your regular sex acts. But it's an exchange of any item of value, okay, whether that's shelter, whether that's food, clothing, new iPhone, money, those kinds of things. It's in exchange for that, right. And please understand the survivors, the victims, are not getting that, it's the pimp, you know. So, basically, right, if you're the, if you're the buyer, you're basically paying this person, a pimp, to rape somebody else. That's what's happening. You know, it's economics 101. You have a demand, you have a supply, you have a buyer, right, and we have to end that demand Right. We have to end the demand to be able to stop trafficking.
Speaker 2:Right, because if you're in business for yourself, right, let's say if you have a lawnmower business, right, and people stop buying lawnmowers, you go out of business, right. But with trafficking it's just, it's really, really a hard thing. And people don't look at things like pornography. You know pornography and people think, well, I'm not hurting anybody. I'm like, look, you don't know what's going on on the other side of that picture, right, okay, you have no idea. And pornography strip clubs this is where, um, this is where, um, this is where the uh victims get groomed, right, they push boundaries. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because most of the time you know and people think about the. You know, trafficking in this country is not the movie taken, it's not the movie pretty woman. Okay, that type of kidnapping is 1% in this country. All right, Travellers, get to know you. They'll spend five, six months getting to know you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's all about leverage.
Speaker 2:Right Before they flip the switch. Right, that's exact. That's the perfect word for it is leverage. Right, you know, and? And one of the one of the things that we talk about a lot of times is you know, romeo pimps, right, so they'll send a guy in that's maybe a couple of years older. Right, start talking to a 15, 16 year old girl. Right, and every little girl wants to be accepted and loved and, oh my God, this guy's so cute and you know all this stuff. And so, you know, your heart's going pitter-patter and you can't think straight. Right, and then he starts building trust. So let's say, dad says I'm going to pick you up at basketball practice every day at five o'clock, and every day dad shows up at 530 and quarter six. Well, this new boyfriend says don't worry about dad, I'll pick you up, and he shows up at you know, 430. Right.
Speaker 2:Watching you play, waiting on you, and you're like, oh so now, who's she going to trust? Right Now she starts trusting the boyfriend. Makes a comment on social media. I'm mad at mom. She won't get me that new iPhone, I'll get it for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't need them, right, so it. They literally start alienating you from your friends and family, right so? And what happens is the the dis. The biggest deception is that you know, when people talk about sex trafficking or human trafficking, you know they. They flash pictures of people in ropes and chains and you know third world country little children and shackles, and you know. So, if this is what's happening to me, right, that I've just met this guy, that's going to be, you know, the guy of my dreams, right, and he loves me because he's doing all these things for me, it just it all, you know, it all just kind of crumbles very quickly. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know? So they'll say, hey, let's go away for the weekend, right? No way, for the weekend Nothing happens, right? So I'm trusting, I'm building more trust. I'm building more trust than eventually they push more boundaries.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then they go, you know what, why don't you just move in, why don't you do this? And then they or maybe move away, right. And then at that point they say you know what, babe, I've been taking care of you for like the last six months and I'm, you know, I'm having I'm embarrassed, I hate to say it, but I'm having some financial problems. Can you just go to this club and dance? It's okay, it's just topless, right? And then you're constantly just pushing the barriers, pushing the barriers, pushing the barriers. So in their mind they're thinking, they're not thinking I'm being trafficked because they're like, I left on my own free will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, meanwhile, it's obviously manipulation, right?
Speaker 2:But it's like I don't look like the, the child in Jackals I left on my own free will, so there's a dissociation Right they don't they don't recognize it. Yeah, so my workers. You know they go after the vulnerable, so I'm going to talk just a couple of minutes about the frontal lobe. Okay, when you're front, your frontal lobe doesn't develop until you're about 25, 26 years old.
Speaker 1:All right, Just made it, just made it, just made it.
Speaker 2:You know I have a lot of wives sometimes who go um. When is my husband's frontal?
Speaker 1:lobe. They've been married for 40 years.
Speaker 2:When is my husband's frontal lobe going to get developed? And, like, I have an essay, so in that right, yeah, but the frontal lobe doesn't. So one of the one of the the functions of the frontal lobe is understanding that there are, there are there are future consequences for what you do right now. Okay.
Speaker 2:And this is a reason why a 16 year old boy will jump in a you know souped up pickup truck, go 90 miles an hour flying through traffic and not even think I could kill somebody, right, not even think they can't see me in my side view mirror, you know, or in their side view mirror and I could clip them and kill somebody instantly, right? So there's, there's no, you know that, that cause and effect. There's no that consequence. They're not thinking of the consequence. Right, that's a frontal lobe thing.
Speaker 2:And when I go talk to churches and Girl Scouts and stuff like that, I always use an example. I always try to get one of the kids in in the audience or whatever, to let me use them as an example, right, and I say you know, if you saw a baby right crawling off the stage, you're the only one in the room. And if you saw a baby crawling off the stage, like right at the edge, getting ready to fall, what would you do? And they're like, well, I would go get it. Like, why? Well, I don't want it to get hurt, it's not your kid, yeah, but I don't want a baby to get hurt. I'm like, okay, now I need you to understand. Now we're going to switch roles. Now I need you to understand that you're that baby and I'm the person right now pulling you off that ledge, and your mom and dad, when they say, no, you can't go out with this person because they don't know you, or know you can't talk to them online because you don't know them. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're the ones keeping you from falling off, and I said it's because your frontal lobe's not developed.
Speaker 1:It's not your fault. Yeah, you don't know what you don't know it's not your fault.
Speaker 2:And I said would you put a three-year-old behind the wheel of a car to drive, you know? And they're like, well, no, I'm like okay, why? Because they're not developed. This is how God made us, right. Every year we have a birthday. Every year we realize we've grown, we've learned that kind of thing. But you don't put a three-year-old in front of a, you know, behind the wheel of a car because they're not developed yet and it's not their fault. I mean, they don't go, you know, have go home and feel ashamed because they're three years old and can't drive a car. Right, but this is why you know. And that's the other thing is, you know trafficker, and this is why traffickers go after the vulnerable, right, because this isn't developed. They know they can pull information, they know they can manipulate you, they know they can do all of these things and get away with it, like, really get away with it. So it's just you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one aspect I want to go back to I think it's a really interesting point is you basically said it's economics 101. There's a demand for it. Why do you think it's gotten so bad? Like, what bugs me is like and this is just part of it, I'm sure, but like the language has changed the way we view some of these things. We don't call them pedophiles anymore, we call them minor, minor attracted people, like that. You know, it's just like bizarre language that you're like no, no, no, no, it's never been minor attracted person, it's always been pedophilia. It's a bad thing, it's not moral, that's it so like. How do we, how do we change the demand of this? Or why do you think it's gotten so bad in the first place?
Speaker 2:It's gotten bad so it used to be. When you saw a, you know it was called prostitution, right? Somebody thought maybe she doesn't want to be doing this. I mean no one's ever thought of that. I've never met a little boy or a little girl who said you know what, when I grow up, I want to be a stripper, I want to be a prostitute.
Speaker 2:I've never talked to a child who said I want to do that. But the thing is, is that so you know back in the day you would see prostitutes on street corners, right? So it was kind of in your face and you just didn't drive by that part of town right you ignored it right and now, because of technology, it's everywhere and please understand that. The internet we use it for 4% of what it was created for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely gotten so pervasive and now it's almost like idolized. I mean you look at something like OnlyFans. I mean it's now. You say like, oh, they don't want to grow up and be a prostitute. But now, like some of those women and men are idolized because you know they're making a million bucks a month Exactly Sell them explicit photos.
Speaker 2:And that's what they do. So when they can desensitize you right. That's what, like we just talked about the name, you know changing from pedophilia, right, that when they can desensitize you, then all of a sudden it's like, oh well, that's not so bad, right, it's not so bad. And if you look at topics and things that are on, just you know, television these days or whatever that you know, when I was a kid, those topics weren't talked about, but all of a sudden, as you know, you start desensitizing, desensitizing, desensitizing, and all of a sudden it's like, oh well, that's just normal, right, that's just normal.
Speaker 2:And it's like, no, there's a lot of things that aren't just normal. You know, trafficking should never be normal, ever Mm-hmm, you know, and but in other countries it's, sometimes it's a way of life. Yeah. Right, you go to places like Moldova and the men don't work. They sit around and smoke and drink and gamble all day long and they pray they have a little girl so that they can. You know, they'll go put their kids in school, pull them out to be trafficked and then put them back in.
Speaker 1:It's just bizarre, Like I don't know the words for that they have, I mean, and places like Prague they have um. The big red light districts and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, it's like if you went downtown Augusta, right, and you just like window shopping downtown Augusta, they have, you know, kids for sale in the windows and cages and stuff. They have a platform that they stand out every day and sell newborn babies to American pedophiles. The youngest I've had come across my path is 18 months.
Speaker 1:That's. It's just sad, I mean.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean pure evil is what it is.
Speaker 1:Definitely, I mean it really is.
Speaker 2:It's just evil, it's I don't have any other words for it. You know, I don't want to call it a sickness, or I mean it's evil. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So do you think it's an interesting? I've talked about this before on different episodes, but like I remember growing up it was okay for me to just, you know, walk a mile or two to a corner store, get some stuff like that. But it doesn't happen anymore. Do you think that we've gotten more evil as a society or more immoral, or do you think we're just more aware of it?
Speaker 2:I think a little of both. You know, I do think a little of both because the now, because of of technology, technology's made us more aware of everything. Oh yeah. Right. I mean, there's nothing you can't find in technology, right, but so I think a lot of it has always been there. Technology has now opened the platform for everybody to have access to it, but I do think because of that, it's almost hit like the fast forward button on it, like okay then let's all do it right and it's like no, no, no, let's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. It's interesting because I think social media is also. It's allowed people to feel like their every opinion they have is like a good opinion or whatever. Do you know what I'm saying when?
Speaker 2:it's like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, some opinions are just bad. And that would be one of them like oh, the whole minor track of people Like no that's just. That's not good Period.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but one of the things I do want to talk about as well with GLM2 is that we actually do get to see life transformation. Yes. We've been talking about the dark side. I'd like to talk a little bit about the lighter side of things.
Speaker 2:And so, again, like I said, we come alongside of them for a minimum of two years, maximum of five, and you know we don't have a facility. Eventually we'll we'll be building, you know, on horse farms and things like that Right now, what we do we, we know, like for the first six months to a year, it takes them that long just to exhale, just to trust us, right, because they don't trust people on the streets. They don't, you know, they don't trust anybody, right. So just just to build that trust, and sometimes I'll get pushed back just to see, you know, are you leaving, are you going away? You know, no, we're still here, right, we're still here, right, and we know that we're going to have to help them find a place to live, right, we know that we're going to have to help them find a job, you know, and we have a lot of community partners, which you know is just wonderful, that help us do so many different things, right, and you just had Mike from peak employment, right, you know, and Mike's awesome, mike and Ashley, they are fantastic and and they've helped several of my survivors, you know, be able to find jobs.
Speaker 2:That you know, people give people second chances Right, and they get their foot in the door and then it starts building self-esteem and then they can, you know, move up and things like that. Then they're, they're absolutely awesome. You know, as far as places to live, we can't go to your average apartment complex, right, because they're already going to have the strikes against them, right. And your housing law says what you do for one, you have to do for all, right, so they can't make an exception unless the laws change. They can't make an exception to say, hey, can I cosine, or that kind of thing. They can't do that.
Speaker 2:So we have to find people who have, like you know, duplexes for rent or you know cottages or whatever for rent and we know we're going to coming in, we're going to be paying the bills Right For at least the first year. Right.
Speaker 2:And you know, let's say, if we're in the middle of the line, you know, we know that they're going to be behind us, you know and after a while it evens out and then they go past us. You know, that's the purpose is for them to go past us where they no longer need us anymore. Right, you know. But the longterm plan, especially after we built facilities, is that the first year they came in, all they would do is heal Work, save money.
Speaker 2:We put them in an escrow program. Second year they're going to take budgeting skills that we've taught them, pay for rent, power, all of that. They get to practice real life in a safe environment, right, and then find out what they really want to be, you know. Let them dream again. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But by the time they graduate, they they would have enough money saved up from that first year in the escrow program that we're actually able to help they're going to be able to help them. We're actually able to help them buy their own home. So we're expunging records, we're building credit.
Speaker 2:You can't do that in a 30, 60, 90 day program Right it does. It takes a long time but it is a success plan, right? So when we've helped somebody buy their own home, right. When we do that, then now you're breaking cycles of poverty, you're breaking generational curses. You know kids are going to mirror what you do. It's a success plan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. You know, you're healing them along the way, but you're also giving them a platform to succeed, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And we, you know it's it's to set them up for success and not failure. Not just that, but you know, we also want to do some, um, what I call preventative medicine, right? Which is, you know, teaching them proactive actions before they happen, right? So let's say, let's say I have a power bill, okay, and all of a sudden I make a mistake in my checkbook and I don't have enough money to pay the whole bill, right? Well, I know I can send the power company $50, let's save the bill. And you know, I can call them and say hey, I made a mistake, um, I'm going to pay $50. Don't turn my power off. Next month I'll pay the fees, et cetera. I'll get caught back up, right? So I know I can do that. They don't have that skill set. Right.
Speaker 2:So I can teach them that skill set. Then, if that ever happens, instead of having a meltdown Right, the last thing we want them to do is to think, if I just turn one trick, I could pay this bill. We don't ever want them looking backwards, because if they do and they go back into that life, not only are they gone, they'll be dead, they'll kill them Right. A pimp will kill them for leaving Right. So we want to always keep them moving forward and always make sure that we have a safe place right that they can talk about anything, no matter what Right and the kids especially, right, the kids that have been through all this trauma.
Speaker 2:You know, trauma it's an interesting beast, right, I mean it really is. And years ago, when I was first getting into this and I was diving into everything knowledge, right, I went to a seminar and an urologist was speaking and I asked him afterwards. I said okay, you talked about all the medical stuff which is way above my pay grade. Like I don't know all the synapses that are in it.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm sorry, that's not me. I said so. I need trauma for dummies. Can you help me out? Just give me kind of a baseline of what I'm doing so that I'm helping people, right, and so anyway, he basically explained this and it was kind of cool, okay, because this is like layman's terms, trauma for dummies for me. Right, he said you know there's two hemispheres of the brain right side, left side. Right side is your communication skills. I mean, excuse me, right side is creative side. Sorry, right side is creative side, left side is communication skills. You know, analytical, but it also holds communication skills. Right, he said when trauma hits the brain and it doesn't matter what kind of trauma it is, it could be a divorce, it could be your dog just died.
Speaker 2:You know any kind of trauma. Now, understand, recovery from trauma takes different amounts of time, but when trauma hits the brain, it all hits that right side, which is your creative side, but at the same, time it completely shuts down the left. So if I've been traumatized and people want to put a person in front of a counselor, like immediately, it's like, oh, we'll get them out of here, we got to get them into counseling. Well, if this is happening, if the left side of the brain is shut down, which is your communication skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not even going to know how to process and explain what just happened. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it would be like me, you know, saying, hey, I'm going to cut off your wrist, mike, and if you would just hand me that, can't, you can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so here's what happens. So I know, let's say, if you're my therapist and I'm sitting in front of you, now, okay, and I know, I know how to talk, but I can't talk about this, and I don't know why I can't talk about this, but now I'm sitting in front of you and I know that you expect something from me. I can't give it to you. Therefore, I'm retraumatized, okay, so what we do, what we found is that nonverbal therapies, okay, music arts, you know, it could be guarding, it could be building Legos, it doesn't matter if they're, you know, cooking creative stuff, right, the creative side of things. Also. Equine therapy, animal therapy, those kinds of things as well. Those help to heal that right side of the brain and, as the right side of the brain starts to heal, you know.
Speaker 2:Then the left side starts to heal. The hemispheres reconnect, then you can see a trauma informed counselor Okay, that can take years. Right. And so we again. We have community partners like Hope for Hoops in North Augusta. Right, it's a rescue animal form and you've never seen anything like it. When you see an abused animal and abused human connect and they heal each other, it's the most amazing thing ever. I've been working with them for several years, right, michelle Derrick who was a friend and just a fabulous person who owns this animal farm.
Speaker 2:But the first time we ever met, you know, and I brought she had gotten two severely abused meals had them in the pasture. Nobody could get near them. She couldn't get near them to feed them nothing. I bring a 14 year old little boy who had been trafficked up to the horse gate. They came clear across the pasture to him. She was like I've never seen anything like this. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's cool, though, because then, all of a sudden, these abused animals become less skittish, and then they let other people pet. You know, because her, her deal is to, you know, to rescue, rehab, restore, re-home, so then she can keep doing that right.
Speaker 2:And so it's. It's really interesting for us to see how, you know, our participants grow right and become more verbal and make more eye contact and start to live again, open up again. Before you know, they go to a counselor. Now, you know, we all another community partner here in town, we partner with Family Counseling Center of the CSRA right and they handle trauma counseling right Because you have to realize, you know, we're dealing with compound, complex trauma. So there's multiple abuse, says multiple abusers multiple times. It's a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we're very fortunate, like I said, that we have. We have so many community partners that we can you know work with to help people you know to heal and work through what they're going through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, One thing I want to I want to touch on. I know that you are currently you're taking on sponsors, or that might have ended for a 5K that you put on in October. I'd love for you to kind of talk about that yeah, absolutely. You know what people could expect if they went and joined the race.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, um, we have uh, this is our fifth annual courage to rise fun, run, walk. So you don't have to run it, you can walk it. Um, but yes, we would love to have, uh, sponsors. We're still taking sponsors up until August 15th.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:And um also, um, we, there's two parts to this fun run walk, right, so we have an in person portion which takes place on October the 7th, and that's downtown at, uh, the Augusta market at the river Riverwalk. Um, we start and end there. We believe in supporting local, so we like to end there so people can actually shop the vendors and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:When that's cool when everything's done. Uh, it's a family friendly event. You can bring your dogs. We give away free dog callers while supplies last GLM to go up and dog. Uh, dog callers, Um. But the other part of this is we uh allow um people to do it virtually as well, which starts September 23rd. So September 23rd through October 7th is the virtual portion, all right. And people like how do you do a virtual run? Well, that means you pick your own 5k. You can be anywhere on the planet and do it, right? We asked them to post pictures. We have a most creative video contest. You know. I had a guy ask me one time so how many steps is a 5k? And I said, well, it depends on your stride, right? And I said but you know, close to three, 3000, you know he said so in the next two weeks, if I can get from my recliner to my refrigerator and back and get 3000 steps, and does that count? And I went, yes, and I want a video of it, right?
Speaker 1:So we asked people to get creative you know.
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, have a good time with it. Um, you know, we've had people from Tel Aviv doing it, I mean literally everywhere you know Michigan, boston, I mean we just we've had them everywhere doing it. You know which is awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. But but if you register, you know, the key is right now, If you register by August 15th okay, these are participant registrations. If you register by August 15th, then you qualify to have your name put in the drawings. We do two, two weeks worth of drawings during that virtual time. We have daily drawings every single day from September 23rd to October 7th, and we're kicking things off by giving away a $500 Amazon gift card. So when you get in there early, right, get your registration in early, and it also guarantees you're going to get a swag bag and a T shirt as well. But, yeah, but we want people to get in there early because after August 15th you can still register all the way up to October 7th. But this timeframe of now through August 15th is what puts your name in those drawings.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Is there a certain place that they should go to register for this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can go to either our Facebook page, which is GLM2 Foundation Inc. Or our website, which is wwwglm2.life.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, I'll put the tags or the links for those in the show notes for this, so people can just click and go directly there. Yeah, that would be perfect.
Speaker 1:That would be awesome. This was awesome. This is a. It was a heavy conversation, but I think it's extremely important to talk about something like this and educate people and know that it is happening, and it's happening at alarming rates. We need to talk about it and we need to fix it. We need to curb the demand and deal with this. So, thank you. I'm going to leave the floor open for you to plug GLM2 one last time, and then we'll close up shop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I said, we always, always, always need financial donations. It's the biggest thing with 24 adults and 40 kids, it takes a lot of finances to fund people and again you're looking at a, you know, a five year span to be able to help transform lives. But that's the beautiful thing that we get to see. We get to see life transformation. We get to see people literally go from death to life and flourish.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, kimberly, thank you so much for doing God's work. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.