Graduation in May close at hand, most seniors spent winter break frantically applying for jobs, practicing for interviews, or getting into grad schools. For senior Hannah Osborne, however, her break consisted of raising thousands of dollars to attend summer school.
Osborne is enrolled in The Justice School, a summer intensive anti-human trafficking program through a faith-based organization called Thrive Rescue. This is the second summer for the program in Thailand, and there are 25 people enrolled for six weeks of classes on all different facets of the anti-human trafficking movement.
In addition to week-long courses on prevention, intervention, restoration, release and response, Osborne and her classmates will have the chance to put what they are learning into practice. The founders of Thrive Rescue have had a presence in Thailand for the past four years, establishing safe homes and ministries around the city of Pattaya, known as the unofficial world capital of the commercial sex industry. Students will get to invest in one or two of these ministries during their time studying in the city.
Osborne’s main ministries of interest are in the prevention field. “Prevention is about reaching people before they are caught in human trafficking, by teaching them and building their knowledge of the dangers and warning signs,” Osborne said.
Through The Justice School, the prevention ministries include a slum ministry where students have the chance to play with the children there as well as visit with parents, spending time with them and sharing the love of Christ. Another ministry is called Tons of Rice, where families are given enough rice to feed them for a week and again there is time for students to mingle and share the gospel.”The main goal of these ministries is to build relationships with the goal of helping diminish violence and create more awareness of human trafficking so that children might not get caught in a situation,” Osborne said.
Osborne’s passion for social justice issues and the anti-human trafficking movement in particular, began when she was in 8th grade.
“I had learned in history class that slavery had ended in the Civil War, but then I started reading and found out that there are 27 million slaves today, more than there were during the Trans-Atlantic slave period,” Osborne said. “My heart broke when I started reading that back in the eighth grade, and I think that it was a different type of brokenness than I ever felt before. Looking back I think it was the Lord beginning then to fill my heart with this passion and to start this fire in my life.”
Osborne is a sociology major with a Christian studies minor, using her time at Ouachita to equip her for this work. “Classes like Dr. Franklin’s Missions in Justice course, as well as research classes for sociology have shown me more about God’s heart for justice, and really helped me see how I can meld together my passion for social justice and the work of the Kingdom,” Osborne said.
Outside of class, Osborne played a key role in founding Ouachita’s chapter of the International Justice Mission, which meets on campus to discuss ways to be involved in trafficking prevention, even as college students. She said this experience helped show her how her passion could play a central role in her life, not just a volunteer interest on the side. This is where The Justice School training comes in.
Through fundraising and sharing about her trip with churches and individuals, Osborne has loved seeing how the Lord has confirmed her call and provided every step of the way. As people give to her trip and support her, Osborne said it is encouraging to watch as they learn more about the issue and begin to recognize it as something the church should play a part in stopping.
“The church needs to be the one fighting because these people, these victims, these survivors don’t have hope,” Osborne said. “They don’t have the hope that we have or understand spiritual freedom. Freedom for a lifetime is great, but we hold the answer to freedom for eternity. The church is the one that needs to be at the front of the issue because we have the complete, total package answer. After physical freedom is there, we have the opportunity to offer the spiritual redemption that they can then understand.”
By Rachel Wicker
I am so proud of you, Hannah! I will never forget learning about the horrible reality of trafficking, and I still pray that God will free the slaves… Even today at work, I prayed this. We have many children from Burma at our school. I wonder if trafficking is part of the culture there. I will be praying for your safety, and that you will have the joy of knowing that your life is counting for the King of kings!!!