TRI-CITIES, WA – With summer right around the corner, hotels all over the area are preparing for an influx of guests… and a rise in sex trafficking.
The idea of human trafficking going on around you can make your stomach turn. Unfortunately, this happens almost anywhere and at any time, with one in three of those victims being lured into prostitution within 48 hours.
Since 2012, Mirror Ministries has worked directly with hotels all over the Tri-Cities to give them the tools they need to stop sex trafficking in its tracks.
Through their work with BEST (Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking), they give all hoteliers updated posters of missing kids, brochures, and laminated cards with sex trafficking information for all hotel staff and brochures for their guests.
While incredibly taxing, seeing the effect this work has on the victims makes it all worthwhile.
“To see someone who’s so hurt and broken light up with hope and realize that somebody cares, it does really do a lot for your heart also, but it also reminds you that there’s so many more people out there that need to know that there’s hope and that there’s someone that cares,” said Tricia MacFarlan, executive director at Mirror Ministries.
Mirror Ministries goes one step further with the “Suds” project, where free soap labeled with the local and national hotline numbers are given to all hotel guests during Water Follies weekend.
There’s even a way where you can do your part to fight sex trafficking. Check out the Traffickcam app, which allows you to add photos of your hotel room to the national database to help locate victims.