Change Takes Time

Pua

Healing from trauma - takes time.

Building trust again - takes time.

Learning new behaviors - takes time.

Building self-confidence and self-worth back again - takes time.

In the world of restoring survivors of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking - baby steps, one at a time, are to be celebrated. For those of us who work alongside these survivors, it takes a bucket load of patience, love, forgiveness, and hope.

Please take a brief moment to read about *Pua. Her story is all too common. It took a lot of people with a lot of effort and love to walk alongside Pua's baby steps into a hopeful future.

When Pua’s father died, her mother moved in with another man. He pushed Pua out of the house, and she ended up living with her grandmother, feeling deep rejection. At the age 15, Pua began following her friends and making bad decisions. She started skipping school and turned to the streets to make money from sex.

One day, while waiting for someone at a bus stop, Pua was approached by a Homes of Hope staff member, who invited her to an awareness camp in the community. The first time she refused. The second time Pua agreed to come to a weeklong camp. She enjoyed the camp and all the training she received, but after a week she went home and returned to her same way of living. Still, the HoH team kept visiting and encouraging her. She received counseling and began meeting with some of the HoH staff. At last, Pua decided to go back to school. She is now attending a technical college and wants to become an ECE teacher.

Because of a whole team of people who were committed to seeing Pua's life restored - people who stuck by her even when she pushed away; people who believed in her even when she didn't believe in herself - Pua was able to break free from the past shackles of exploitation into a promising future.

I think that if we each were honest with ourselves, we all have a "Pua" in our lives. Who could you encourage to take another step in the right direction? Who could you walk alongside while they learn to heal and hope again?

Helping girls like Pua takes a team effort. Are you willing to join our team?

After all, we are...

Please visit our website, Homes of Hope Fiji, to join our team through prayer, giving, educating others, visiting, or volunteering.