NightLight International is an organization working towards ending human trafficking. This organization began in 2005 when Annie Dieselberg, NightLight’s CEO and Founder, saw how prevalent human trafficking was in Bangkok, Thailand and the surrounding area. She started this organization to provide intervention and holistic restoration to women who were ready to escape the lifestyle. NightLight’s overall mission is summed up to three R’s: Reach out to, Rescue, and Restore trafficked victims.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Shauna Storey to get a better picture of NightLight International and what they’ve been working on over the past year. With a base of operations in both Missouri and Bangkok, NightLight is touching lives locally and across the world. They work to build relationships with individuals in the sex industry through intervention and assistance. While sharing stories of redemption, Shauna filled me on what their mission statement means.
The 3 R’s of NightLight International
Reach
To go to places where the women are and start building relationships.
Rescue
NightLight comes alongside the women to help them see their worth and change their lifestyles. At its core, the rescue side of NightLight is intervention. NightLight is helping these rehabilitated women get a fresh start by supplying them with jobs. They create and sell items on their website that the women have made. This helps them have a more normal structure to their day, while also giving them a sustainable income.
Restoration
NightLight walks alongside the women during the healing process. It’s important that the women have someone who is willing to do the hard parts of life with them once they’re rescued. Most of these women have not had many people in their life that they can count on, so making sure that they have a strong support system throughout the entire process in crucial.
When asked what NightLight excels at, Shauna shared, “Having a tenacious love that does not give up. Especially when we have difficult cases presented to us.”
Shauna also mentioned that one of the hardest parts of being involved in an organization like NightLight is, “giving the women space to make mistakes and their own choices. Most people are fixers, but letting the woman make mistakes and fall down sometimes helps them learn and heal faster. Or, some of them don’t, and we have to be okay with that too.”
A Breakthrough for NightLight International
NightLight’s major win over the past few months is that they have been able to raise enough funds to have a counselor on staff! This counselor, with a specialty in grief and trauma, comes to their office a few times a week. Shauna told me that having a partnership with this counselor has helped many women who were previously “stuck” to be able to break the chains. What an incredible blessing!
How to Get Involved with NightLight International
If you want to learn more about NightLight and how you can get involved, you can head to their website. Make sure to check out all of the amazing clothing and handmade jewelry they have to offer. Not only are you able to purchase a great product, but you are being a World changer by supporting someone who has worked hard on restoring their life. It would mean the world to someone that you took the time to support their healing process. I know I am getting a few myself.
Simply Earth is proud to support the work NightLight is doing in the US and across the world. And, because of you, we’re able to donate 13% of our profits to NightLight and other organizations that are fighting the injustices of human trafficking.