The risks to youth are real. The need for prevention education is critical.

Two weeks ago, the FBI in Houston busted an alleged sex trafficking ring. Federal prosecutors claim the ring operated out of several Houston bars and brothels and the suspects charged "premium prices" for sex with underage girls.

The girls were kept locked in a second-story room above a bar. According to investigators, clients were told which girls "had been used more and which ones were 'fresh meat.'"

In 18 months, their traffickers earned more than a million dollars from selling them. Some of the survivors were as young as 14 years old.

When news broke, the Love146 Texas team was in a school classroom less than four miles away providing prevention education to youth. Some of the students were as young as 14 years old.

After hearing what happened, students reflected with our prevention educator, Carolina Fuentes, about the raid operations that happened in their neighborhood. There was a sense of urgency in the questions they asked. The risks felt real to them. Prevention education was more relevant than ever in their lives.

The risks to youth are real. The need for prevention education is critical.

Love146 provides prevention education in high schools, group homes and residential care facilities in Connecticut, Maryland and Texas.

Starting in Connecticut in 2010, Love146 has worked directly with children in classrooms and been eagerly received by teachers and students—whose perspectives on the realities of child trafficking and exploitation are changing right before our eyes. Typically, we work with a classroom of high school students four times over the course of one month. These sessions equip students to understand the realities of human trafficking, better protect themselves and their peers from risk, and get help. At the same time they are being challenged to rebel against those who groom them to be buyers and sellers of sex and rethink a culture where the word “pimp” is a compliment and “ho” is a joke.

In 2013, Love146 opened additional offices in Maryland and Texas to begin offering prevention education to thousands more children across the United States.

Love146 conducts more intensive prevention education sessions in group foster homes for girls, typically meeting with a group of girls ten times. These sessions provide information about sexual health, make girls aware of how pimps recruit, expose the link between substance abuse and exploitation (how drugs can pull you in and keep you there), and help girls see a path out “The Life”.

Find out more at the Love146 website: www.Love146.org

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Via: BCN Breaking Christian News