As Susan Peters traveled the world, she came across human trafficking — usually forced labor or marriage onto unwilling adults or children.
According to Naomi Rijpstra, the director of programs for Unbound Now, it is a $150 billion industry annually. She also stated that Houston is the No. 1 hub for trafficking, and the state of Texas holds the No. 2 spot after California.
Peters, along with members of her church, began praying and wondering what they could do to solve this problem. Eventually, Peters helped her first survivor after she got a call that someone needed help in her community of McLennan County. In 2012, Unbound Now opened up its first office in Waco. There are now 11 offices across the world.
The Bryan-College Station office opened six years ago, serving 195 survivors in the past five years. The director of survivor advocacy for Unbound Now, Amaris Estep, has pride in the accomplishments of the office.
“It has been a true honor to work with so many survivors on their path to healing,” Estep said. “Since the trauma of trafficking is relational, Unbound Now understands that it’s difficult for survivors to trust new people, and we are so proud of our client’s perseverance.”
Unbound Now collaborates with local law enforcement and churches to identify and respond to human trafficking in the community. It has three efforts to help support human trafficking survivors.
The first effort is professional training and outreach where the organization provides “Human Trafficking 101” sessions with anyone interested in the community. It also provides specific training for medical professionals and law enforcement.
The staff also goes to the closest juvenile detention center every week and teaches kids about human trafficking, healthy relationships and vulnerability.
The third effort is the survivor advocacy program. It’s the biggest program where trained advocates build relationships with survivors. The advocate’s role is to introduce victims to resources and be a shoulder to lean on in their time of need.
“Our advocates help the survivors connect to the resources that they need so that they can achieve the goals that they are wanting to achieve,” Rijpstra said.
There are a number of ways the Bryan-College Station community can support Unbound Now. Groups can request training to learn more about human trafficking or volunteer at outreach events. Financially supporting Unbound Now through donation or fundraisers is an option as well. They also offer internships to students in the area. English senior Kristen Salinas spent a year as an intern for the organization.
“I worked in marketing and communications for Unbound Now as an intern for a year, and they do incredible work to meet survivors [and] victims where they are in order to support them and guide them towards safety and security,” Salinas said.
While Salinas was interning, she participated in an outreach event called “Not In My Hotel,” where the organization traveled around to different Bryan-College Station hotels and gave them human trafficking prevention training and resources to guide them.
“The resources we provided included posters with pull off tabs at the bottom,” Salinas said. “The tabs provided a list of signs for human trafficking to help people who are victims identify themselves.”
If someone needs help in a human trafficking situation in the Bryan-College Station area, they can call Unbound Now’s 24/7 crisis referral line at 979-985-2430.
