Pictured are Optimist Club President David Kafitz, Paul Cumbers, and speaker host Roger Johansson.
By Rick Abercrombie
In a third visit to St. Andrews Optimists over the past three years, Paul Cumbers, Executive Director of Lighthouse for Life, provided the Club with a review of Lighthouse’s mission and services and updated the group on the current situation.
Lighthouse’s goal is to root out human trafficking and to provide shelter, rehabilitation, and restoration to trafficking survivors. Cumbers pointed out trafficking exists literally everywhere. The seeming influence of trafficking has no socioeconomic limitations. It can be a neighbor in anyone’s neighborhood. Cumbers recommended a video titled “The Slave in Your Backyard,” which was produced in Charleston by a trafficking survivor.
Further, because North Carolina treats trafficking as a felony, potential abusers in some cases have relocated to South Carolina where trafficking is considered a misdemeanor. It is more prolific than drug trafficking.
There is a very typical progression that allows an abuser to gain control of a victim. In law enforcement circles, it is referred to as “grooming.” As Cumbers described it, the steps are:
• Targeting a victim. Identifying someone who has a need to be filled. That need can range anywhere from loneliness to drug issues to perceiving themselves as love-starved.
- Gaining trust and information. Traffickers try to learn as much personal information about their targets as possible. This can happen through social media, face-so-face conversation, or sometimes hearsay.
- Filling a need. Once the victim’s vulnerabilities are known to the trafficker, then some sort of action begins in order to fill one or more needs. Seemingly innocuous gifts, verbal compliments, or “siding with” the victim would be examples.
- Isolation. Next, the trafficker begins to steer the victim away from outside influences. This step would almost certainly involve separating the target from family, either physically, mentally, or emotionally. The object is for the trafficker to become the target’s only source of comfort. Having accomplished this step, the darker side of the relationship follows. This is the inevitable tipping point. Cumbers cited one extreme example of a victim whose situation lasted from ages 13 to 16 and whose location had been changed more than 160 times.
• Abuse begins. The trafficker informs the target that all the benefits of the relationship now come at a cost, and that some form of repayment is mandatory. Sex is by far the most common avenue for this so-called “repayment.”
- Maintaining control. Via the potential for violence, blackmail, guilt feelings, or any other leverage, the trafficker now is “calling all the shots” and intends to eliminate any way out of the situation. The relationship of control becomes the victim’s new normal.
• Loss of any equilibrium. The victim loses hope and perspective and is just a tool to provide income for the trafficker.
It is at this point that when Lighthouse for Life becomes aware of the situation, it can intervene to liberate the victim and begin the long process to restoration. Cumbers introduced the Club to “Karis Home,” a local group home for trafficking survivors. Lighthouse’s slogan for the home is: “Hope Has an Address.” It is DSS licensed for long-term residency, if needed.
Upcoming community awareness events that are available to the public:
July 11, 10 am to 2 pm, East Lake Community Church; community training event
September 17, 6:30-8:30 pm; “Fund the Fight” at Riverland Hills Baptist Church, a gala fundraiser.
November 14, 10 am to 2 pm, again at East Lake Community Church.
Lighthouse is a Christ-centered organization whose understanding is that all are made in the image of God and that every individual is priceless and deserving of a normal life.
