Survivors in Naomi’s House Embrace New Future
It took Cami* several attempts to get onto a road toward healing and recovery. Many factors led to her exploitation and eventual trafficking: childhood abuse, homelessness, and an early introduction to drugs. The cycle of her specific vulnerabilities spun so fast that it was difficult to identify which factor led to which obstacle. Addiction became her coping mechanism to escape the pain of a lifetime of abuse. That led to people exploiting her vulnerabilities, taking advantage of Cami, and then convincing her that she deserved the abuse.
She survived years of trafficking before she finally walked through the doors of Naomi’s House. There she found freedom and a road back to wholeness.
“This is not my first rodeo through a program,” Cami explains. “I’ve been through more detours and rehabs than I can count, but this is the only faith-based program I’ve done. I have never given my counselor or case manager my whole self, but this time I did.” With God’s powerful love working through the Reside programming at Naomi’s House, as well as intense individual and group therapy, Cami found healing and hope from the cycle of pain.
Equine therapy helped her discover a passion for horses and embrace a new future. Cami says her two years of sobriety is her biggest accomplishment. She is an inspiration for other survivors at Naomi’s House. She has reconnected with her kids and has been intentional about healing those relationships after years of loss. Now she is working full-time, plugged into a local church, and continues to work with horses. Others describe Cami as driven, thoughtful, smart, and protective of those she loves. But Cami says it best: “Coming to Naomi’s House was the first time I embraced God, and that is what is keeping me sober. God was the piece that had been missing.”
In the past year, two Naomi’s House residents have graduated from the Reside program, six completed a job training program, three enrolled in job coaching, and four graduated from college. Two were baptized and six have renewed their relationship with God.
FREE, the anti-sex trafficking initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church, collaborates with partners like Naomi’s House both domestically and globally to help break the cycles of injustice in our own neighborhoods and around the world. Our partners are engaged in the holistic and transformative work of anti-sex trafficking through prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation that seeks to support survivors like Cami and break the supply-and-demand cycle.
Through FREE we engage and address the issue of sex trafficking locally and globally that reduces the dignity and value of human life. Your gift to the FREE initiative provides services for intervention, prevention, and rehabilitation, which reduces the negative repercussions of trafficking for survivors and contributes to their comprehensive social reintegration.
This Advent season consider making a gift in support of survivors like Cami and our partners to resource them for a brighter future, full of freedom, restoration, and hope.
*Name changed to protect survivor’s identity.
