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Members of the Christian Medical Association (CMA) are preparing for a trip to Nicaragua to help victims of human trafficking.
Dr. Jeff Barrows (CMA)The team will work with a Christian outreach to help prostitutes find shelter and provide an alternative to prostitution for women in Managua. Dr. Jeff Barrows, who will lead the team, tells more about the upcoming trip.
"A medical team that is going to come in in approximately a week and work with the local group, they're called the House of Hope," he explains. "It was started by a woman who was the wife of a pastor down there.... She started it about five years ago because she became aware of a lot of young girls [and] young women who were trapped in prostitution and trafficking, and they needed a place to live in order to get out."
Dr. Barrows also reports that the women often do not have basic medical care. "So we're going to take a team in. We're going to be screening them for various sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, and render any kind of medical care to them and to their families they need," he says, noting that there needs to be a more concerted effort to recognize and eliminate human trafficking both internationally and nationally.
President Barack Obama has proclaimed January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In that proclamation, the president notes that victims of human trafficking find it hard "to imagine that there might be a place of refuge" for them from their suffering and abuse.
Christian doctors to work with House of Hope (OneNewsNow.com)
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