The One

If you’ve followed along for any length of time you’ll notice we often refer to ‘the one’ as our motivation and our reason for everything we do. We refer to it, we repeat it, we speak it, we write it, and most importantly - we mean it.

Our heart beats for the one.

It was 10 years ago our co-founders learned of the reality of human trafficking in our world today and decided to do something about it. They took it upon themselves to venture to Southeast Asia, where they knew it was prevalent, in order to assess the landscape and educate themselves on the issues and the solutions. A daunting task to say the least.

How does one come against a global injustice?

You have a dream, sure, but what does that mean for today? For right now?

Their travels led them to Cambodia, and specifically, Phnom Penh. The capital city and a global hub for child sex trafficking due to its tragic history of genocide, leaving much of the nation impoverished, desperate, and vulnerable - all factors greatly lending to the global epidemic of human trafficking across the world today.

Each day as they prepared to head out into the city and face the many scenes of heartache, injustice, extreme poverty, and hopelessness they would pause to do one thing— they’d take a marker, and across their forearms, they’d write:

To succumb to the enormity of the problem is to fail the one.

Through the heat, grime, dirt, and sweat the words would smear and they’d write them again. A bold reminder written across their own personal arms inviting them into the courage and resilience bringing real change would surely demand. A reminder to keep their eyes fixated on what they could do, not to be stopped by an overwhelm of what they could not.

For days they walked the streets, learned of the deep injustice plaguing children, and navigated what on earth they could do until one night everything changed. They were eating pizza in a restaurant when a young girl, sent to the streets to beg and surely properly protected, began speaking to them. Through broken english they conversed with her, and when she realized they were a safe place to cry out, she said the words that changed everything: “My friend, friend - she’s 10. Tonight two men sell. Can you please help?”

In that moment they understood her, they saw the terror in her eyes as she confided in them that her friend had just been sold, and they let the words smeared upon their forearms sink deep into their hearts to the point of action.

Of course they would help.

Of course they would respond.

Was there really a choice with such heartache and injustice placed before their eyes?

Their answer was no, there was no other choice. Our answer remains much the same today.

From that moment they followed that young girl, located her friend, found proper services in order to bring them the safety they needed, and they successfully & radically disrupted a cycle of injustice that nearly robbed the innocence and life of a 10 year old girl.

It was in that moment they made a decision - the words upon their forearms could not merely be a quote, they must be their mission, their reality, and the dream they’d breathe to life: to help the one.

It was just over a year later the doors of our rescue home opened in Phnom Penh, Cambodia— the same city where it all began. The SHE Rescue Home: a safe haven for girls up to 16 years old that have been trafficked, raped, exploited, or are at risk.

What began as a quote upon a forearm and a pizza over dinner has remained our heart cry to this day. The founding words we stand upon and the reason we exist.