Bradley Hopp – Liberty and Deliverance

On the surface, Teshuah Tea Company is a small business selling quality tea, coffee, and unique gift items, but there’s something far more serious behind the scenes. Bradley Hopp is the co-founder of Teshuah Tea Company and I recently spoke to him about the reason behind the business on my podcast, Bleeding Daylight.

Teshuah is the Hebrew word for deliverance and together with his business partner, Andrew, Brad works to provide deliverance for girls trapped in sex trafficking.

Andrew and his local team run a rescue house in an Asian country, bringing deliverance to girls as young as 11. The problem of sex trafficking around the world is huge.

Nearly 4 million adults and 1 million children are victims of sex trafficking, and 7 out of 10 of them are exploited in Asia and the Pacific region. It’s a 97 or 99 billion dollar a year industry. – Bradley Hopp

Back in the U.S., Brad sells products made by the rescued girls to fund the rescue work, giving the girls financial security and skills that will empower them and allow them to become independent.

In our discussion, Brad pointed out that the issue of trafficking is not just an issue for people in faraway countries but touches every country around the world.

Men are looking at pornography and they think that the girls are willing, but oftentimes they’re not. I think they said 70% or higher are actually trafficking victims. – Bradley Hopp

You can hear our conversation wherever you listen to podcasts or click the play button on the player below.



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How can you help Girls off the Streets?

I wrote recently about my involvement with Girls Off the Streets. As I said then, I’ll be traveling to Bangladesh and India to see the work SIMaid does to stop trafficking and sex slavery while transforming the lives of young girls rescued. My role will be as a storyteller, communicating the need online, on radio and to churches back here in Australia.

If you want to find out more about how to help the millions of girls, many quite young, who are raped each day to make money for others, there are a couple of events you can attend.

Firstly, you can be at Thornlie Church of Christ in Spencer Road at 6:30 this Sunday evening when, together with SIMaid Education and Development Officer Kieran Johnson, I’ll be talking about our upcoming trip.

The other event is on Saturday evening the 10th of November where you can hear Omar Djoeandy, SIM Australia Executive Director, and catch up with Kieran and me. That evening begins at 7:00 at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Shenton Park. Details are in the poster above. Click on the image for a closer look.



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Raising Hope

Over the coming months I’ll be part of three very different projects. Each project aims to bring hope to different people in very different circumstances.

I need to be completely upfront and say that I need your support to make each of these projects worthwhile. Yes, I’m raising funds but the funds that are raised will help to spread hope into places where it’s desperately needed. Please indulge me long enough to read about each project and then take action in supporting one or more of them.

Whatever you can afford to contribute will help in changing lives.

Morning Cafe Cancer Ride 2012

From the 13th to the 20th of October I’ll once again be taking part in the Morning Cafe Cancer Ride for Cancer Council Western Australia. I’ll be cycling over 500 kilometres from Albany to Perth. The ride follows the success of rides held over the last few years. This will be our fourth ride highlighting the cancer journey of a number of people and raising money to fight cancer. If you’re in Australia your donation is tax deductible. Even if you’re not, the work that Cancer Council WA is doing is making a difference throughout the world through some highly regarded research projects. Just head to the webpage and click donate. My aim is to raise $1000 for Cancer Council WA.

Girls Off the Streets

In December I’ll be traveling to Bangladesh and India to learn more about the Girls Off the Streets initiative through SIMaid. In Bangladesh there are approximately 500 000 children living on the streets due to poverty or abuse. Many girls who live on the streets are sexually exploited. The Indian Government states there are 2.8 million people prostituted in India, but human rights groups claim it is more like 15 million. 200 girls are entering into the sex trade every day with 80% of them doing so against their own free will. I’ll be traveling to both countries with SIMaid to witness the work they do to stop trafficking and sex slavery while transforming the lives of young girls rescued. My role will be as a storyteller, communicating the need online, on radio and to churches back here in Australia. I need to raise money for my travel costs (around $2500 – $3000) and if you’d like to contribute please email me via my Contact Page so that I can let you know where to direct your money.

Great Ocean Road Challenge 2013

In February I’ll be taking part in the Great Ocean Road Challenge for the second time, cycling around 300 kilometres to raise much needed funds for Compassion. Having seen first hand, both in Haiti and Dominican Republic, how effective Compassion’s work is, I am determined to do more to help. That’s why I’ll be riding 290 kilometres in three days and I need your support. By sponsoring my efforts on the challenge you’ll be releasing children from poverty. You’ll be giving children a real chance at life. Please visit my fundraising page and make a contribution. Maybe you can afford to sponsor me for a dollar a kilometre, maybe 50 cents a kilometre, or perhaps you’d just like to donate a set amount. My goal for this ride is to raise $2500.

I’ll write more about each project over the next few months but my strong desire is that one or more of these projects will capture your heart and imagination and you’ll help me in raising hope for others.



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Tim Costello Talks About Child Rescue

Tim CostelloHow do you teach a child to trust again when her own family has sold her into prostitution? How do you give hope to a child who has been forced to kill others, perhaps members of his own family, as a child soldier? How do you rescue a child who has been trafficked into slavery, exploited and abused?

Most of us couldn’t even begin to imagine our own children facing such horrific circumstances but maybe we need to try so that we can get a sense of the urgency and desperation of the situations that millions of children are facing.

Over many years Tim Costello has been the voice of social conscience for many Australians, having led debates on issues such as gambling, urban poverty, homelessness, reconciliation and substance abuse. He’s someone who takes the often talked about Aussie value of ‘giving everyone a fair go’ and gives it a practical expression.

As CEO of World Vision Australia, Tim leads an organisation of almost 600 staff, with an annual income of about $350 million.

Through World Vision, Australians are sponsoring a staggering 400 000 overseas children.

I phoned Tim during my radio program on 98.5 Sonshine FM today to talk about some of the children that regular sponsorship can’t reach. We talked about World Vision Child Rescue and how it is having an amazing effect for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.

Can I urge you to listen to our discussion and let your heart be touched by the need? Just click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Can I also encourage you to click any of the buttons below this post to share the carnival on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon or any of the other sites represented. The need is urgent and it’s important that we get the message out.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR230910_1308.mp3]

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Not For Sale

While we’d like to think that slavery was abolished back in the early 1800s, the truth is there are more slaves in the world at this moment than at any other time in history.

Some conservative estimates suggest that around thirty million people are enslaved today.

It’s a shocking statistic but even more shocking is that slavery exists in countries such as the USA and Australia. Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal activity in the world.

How can you be sure that the products and services you buy aren’t contributing to slavery in our world?

Not for Sale began when organization president, David Batstone, discovered that one of his favourite Indian restaurants in the US was using trafficked women from India as part of its labour force. The restaurant’s trafficking business was exposed when one of the women was killed in a gas leak.

A professor of Ethics at the University of San Francisco, David Batstone is also founder and president of Right Reality, an international social venture firm. He’s authored seven books, the two most recent being Not for Sale
and Saving the Corporate Soul.

David created Not For Sale as part of his all-consuming passion to stop modern day slavery.

Not For Sale is a Campaign of students, artists, entrepreneurs, people of faith, athletes, law enforcement officers, politicians, social workers, skilled professionals, and all justice seekers united to fight the global slave trade and end human trafficking.

The Campaign aims to recruit, educate, and mobilize an international grassroots social movement that effectively combats human trafficking and slavery through “Smart Activism”. It deploys innovative solutions for every individual to re-abolish slavery — in their own backyards and across the globe.

Not For Sale believes that everyone has a skill to contribute that can free an individual living in bondage, and together we can stop human trafficking and end slavery in our lifetime.

Do you want to make a difference? I recently spoke to David Batstone and singer/songwriter/social activist Brant Christopher about the Not For Sale campaign for my radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM. Click on the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post to hear David and Brant talk about how you can be part of the solution.



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