Okay, so it happened. I got on a plane and left for Bolivia. I am officially two weeks into this crazy journey we call the World Race. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was in the states. We landed in Bolivia at 5:00 AM on Friday, July 4! Right away I fell in love with our ministry contacts. We met two of the amazing ladies who work at Word Made Flesh, our ministry contact this month. This ministry works among women who are exploited in commercial sex trade and their children.
In El Alto alone, there are 1,500 registered Sex Workers. When you include minors and illegals, there are easily over 3,000 women who are prostituting. After doing brothel visits, WMF has found that 98% of women who are prostituted say that they want to leave prostitution immediately. Word Made Flesh gives them this opportunity. They have a workshop called sutisana in which women who are or who have prostituted can have an opportunity to earn a living in ways other than prostitution. Sutisana is such a blessing because it teaches these women great occupational skills. In El Alto, 78% of sex workers have not attended school and do not know how to read or write. In sutisana the women come and learn how to sew purses, handbags, beach bags, and coin purses. Each week they have lessons in different topics including: cosmetology, financial basics, aerobics, dancing, among others. They also make granola that will soon be sold in the US (hopefully)! They are giving these women a chance at a fresh start all while living a godly life and being an example of the love of Christ.
Our involvement with this ministry has been very different than I expected this month. We have each been given a different project to complete this month that assists the ministry. For example, two of the girls are painting a mural in the sutisana workshop based off of a passage in Hosea. Some other girls are doing quality checks on the purses the women make. This month, my task is to research FDA regulations on the granola the women produce so that it can hopefully be exported to the U.S soon. How amazing of an opportunity would it be for the women to be able to sell it all the way in the U.S! Trust me, this granola is amazing! We had some the first day here. In addition to that, I am on the Photo Resource Team that is helping them better organize their photos for advocacy purposes (Side note: Wifi in Bolivia is equivalent to the speed of dial up in the states…not as easy as it seems, ha). At first, realizing that we wouldn’t be working directly with the women was really hard, but The Lord is really using this month to show me what it looks like to sew into something I might never see the fruit from. We are sewing into the lives of broken and forgotten women; women who are used and discarded like a piece of cattle to be bought and sold. We are sewing into the hope of their identity revealed; their hearts known. As I see these women and do these projects, I can’t help but think of the thousands of women just like these back home in the states. Sex trafficking is a real thing, and it isn’t just something that happens overseas. It happens in our own backyards while we look the other direction. It has become so engrained in our culture with strip clubs, pornography, and so many other “fun” activities. How do we transform a culture that promotes sex tourism? How do we fight for these women? It won’t happen overnight. It takes each person taking a stand for what is right. Will you take a stand even if you might never see the fruit? Even if you’re seen as a prude or someone who “just doesn’t get it”? It will take world changers who believe in these women and these men. World changers like me, and world changers like you!
To learn more about Word Made Flesh, visit their website at wordmadeflesh.org. To support the women of sutisana, you can shop their selection of purses and bags at sutisana.com. Below is a picture of the sutisana workshop where all the magic happens.
