In RCFC's first-ever live video presentation given via cell phone from the speaker's car, on October 30, Megan Lundstrom, Executive Director of Free Our Girls, told us about her experience of becoming a sex-trafficking victim, of working her way out of that situation, and ultimately forming her non-profit organization, Free Our Girls, dedicated to helping individuals in similar situations to work their way back to healthier lives. Ms. Lundstrom came from a more-or-less typical two-parent middle-class home in northern Colorado. After becoming pregnant by her boyfriend and, subsequently, marrying him, she discovered that he was an abusive, alcoholic husband. Living with him normalized violence as well as financial turmoil and uncertainty. After divorcing him, she moved to Denver, but with no employable experience and two children to support, she fell in with an “instant partner” who said he could offer solutions to her problems. Like all traffickers, he was a chameleon who adjusted his approach to her situation, ultimately leading to prostitution with him as her pimp.
After discovering a book, “How to Pimp”, and realizing how she was being manipulated, she left her pimp and moved back to northern Colorado. However, still with no employable experience, kids to support, and now with a record of 11 arrests, she had a hard time and asked her family for support. Ultimately, having been trafficked in an oil-field's of the Dakotas, she realized the same behavior was happening in Greeley and Weld County and founded her non-profit, "Free Our Girls".
Free Our Girls (freeourgirls.org) is a Greeley-based non-profit started in 2014. The organization offers training in Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention & Response to Colorado agencies, organizations, and community groups statewide. It also offers direct services to at-risk and exploited women and girls in northern Colorado and across the country. Services include care packages to support women who are in the process of escaping from sex-trafficking; women who receive the care packages are more likely to reach out for assistance. Much of the support is directed at helping women break free of the brain-washed, cult-like feeling that “this is what you are good for and this is the way it will be”. A part of their philosophy is intentional re-integration into society, including job training. Survivors are encouraged to participate in her organization helping other women in the same situation. Their main communication medium is social media; there are now some 1600 actively trafficked women across the US and Canada with whom the organization communicates. Rotary has provided support to the intervention support group program, My Life My Choice, and a $2700 Community Grant to Free Our Girls earlier this year.