Elijah Rising extends efforts to help sex trafficking victims in Houston, nationwide

Elijah Rising organization helps women leave sex trade

FOX 26 in Focus is dedicated to raising awareness about human trafficking in our city. Elijah Rising reaches hundreds of adult victims of human trafficking each year through outreach and they're continuing to extend their efforts to help. Anchor Sally MacDonald reports on how the organization is helping adult women leave the sex trade.

HOUSTON - What started as a simple prayer group a decade ago is now one of the most well-known anti-human trafficking organizations in Houston and nationwide. Elijah Rising reaches hundreds of adult victims each year through outreach.

"We’ve got to just show people the reality of sex trafficking in our city," said Micah Gamboa, executive director of Elijah Rising.

That’s what she thought when Elijah Rising began hosting van tours to inform the public about the harsh, but often hidden reality.

"It’s not that a woman is tied or chained to a cage. Not that it doesn’t happen, but often you see manipulation and coercion in the mind," said Melody Jacobs, Restorative Care Program Director for Elijah Rising.

Housing is a major obstacle in getting women to leave their traffickers.

"Over 75% say they would leave the life, their exploiter or abuser, but they don’t have anywhere to go," said Gamboa.

In 2019, Elijah Rising opened an 84-acre restoration campus, or safe house, in the Houston area for adult survivors of sex trafficking.

Houston ranks second in the US in trafficking cases

As we continue our FOX 26 in Focus series, "People for Sale," we look at the Texas-Mexico border and the problems it creates in the fight against human smuggling and trafficking.

"We see a lot of complex PTSD. We see documents have been taken from them so there’s a case management piece," said Jacobs.

Getting help for minors is even harder. A recent University of Texas study found at any given time there are more than 300,000 victims of human trafficking in Texas. Of those, about 79,000 are Texas children being sex trafficked. When you add up all the money spent on caring for survivors and prosecution, it’s costing the state billions of dollars the study found.

"The state of Texas also only has less than five safe homes designated for minors so you can see there’s a huge gap, and we’re not even talking about adults here," said Gamboa.

Safe homes can be hard to staff and hard to fund.

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"Really what we need are well-equipped, well-staffed, and well-funded safe homes to pop up across the country, not just for minors but also adults," said Gamboa.

Elijah Rising estimates its housed 50 women in the past five years, just a small fraction of the number in need of help to reintegrate into society in a healthy way.

The program offers the following:

mental health treatment
addiction recovery
Workforce development
Case management
Educational curriculum

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For more information on the program visit, click here.

The organization has many volunteer opportunities which you can learn about here.

Elijah Rising is in the process of rebuilding its van tour content which includes filmed portions of interviews with survivors, community leaders, and other experts in the field. Visit their van tours page to ask about booking a tour.

Elijah Rising also provides speakers for local events. To request a speaker, click here.

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