Founder of non-profit that saves children from sex trafficking speaks to locals
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REXBURG — Tim Ballard, founder of a non-profit organization that saves children from sex trafficking, spoke in Rexburg this weekend.
Around 1,000 people came to listen to Ballard speak about sex trafficking, as well as defining moments from his line of work.
Ballard started Operation Underground Railroad in Jan. 2014 to combat the growing industry of human trafficking and sex slavery. He began his address speaking about his life prior to O.U.R. where he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for more than 10 years.
“I went from the most stable job in the world working as a U.S. government agent, to the most unstable job in the world, starting up a nonprofit organization,” Ballard joked.
While working for the government, Ballard began rescuing children from sex slavery in 2001, a job he said he never wanted to do. The more he realized how deep the problem of sex trafficking was, the more passionate he became about saving children from their abusers.
In his job, Ballard was restricted to missions within the boundaries of U.S. jurisdiction. One of the reasons he started Operation Underground Railroad was because it could have a wider reach around the world.
“Because we have children, we know what innocence looks like, what childhood is supposed to be,” Ballard said. “I went into this world (of human trafficking), and whatever I thought it was, it was a thousand times worse.”
Some 27 million people are being sold and traded as merchandise in the trafficking industry as a whole, Ballard said. Two million of them are children being sold for sex.
“The demand must be enormous to justify that number,” Ballard said. “How many sex addicts are out there that want to engage in this and why? It’s because they’re addicted to pornography.”
Ballard said he doesn’t know of a bigger problem that’s plaguing the earth than children being sold for sex. He tells EastIdahoNews.com that a lot of these crimes do take place overseas, and that some take place here domestically.
“When you’re talking about kids, who cares where it’s happening?” Ballard said.
As members of the community asked how they could help, he turned questions back on them so they could determine where they would best fit in this cause.
“We need to come to places of light, places of action because it’s the responsibility of people like those who live here in Rexburg to rise up and do something,” Ballard said. “This is the type of community that will do something. And what that is depends on them.”
He said people can combat this problem through events, awareness, education and rehabilitation.
Ballard said what he and his team do is very hard and emotionally scarring, but it’s the results of what they do and who they can save that pushes them to continue on.
“What keeps us going is knowing that every trafficker that goes to jail represents 100, maybe more, kids who are no longer in the path of a predator,” Ballard said.
Local groups such as Prosperity Project, Citizens for Decency, and the Anti Human Trafficking Community Club are forging efforts now to fight 21st century slavery.
The Abolitionists, a documentary featuring Ballard’s undercover sting operations and rescues will premiere May 16.
All of the ticket sales at Megaplex theaters will go to O.U.R. to fund missions and rehabilitation efforts for sex-trafficking victims.
To find out more on Operation Underground Railroad go to OURrescue.org.