From now until Aug. 30, the WAR Chest Boutique invites the community to shop with purpose at their annual summer Tent Sale that features a wide variety of items at greatly reduced prices (Courtesy, Deborah Reed WKTV)
The WAR Chest Boutique in Wyoming invites the community to shop with purpose at their annualsummer Tent Sale.
From June through Aug. 30, a wide variety of items will be available under the gondolas in the boutique’s front lawn, including new and pre-owned products as well as imperfect merchandise at greatly reduced prices.
#ShopWithPurpose
Sale items are hand-crafted by at-risk women (Courtesy, Deborah Reed WKTV)
The retail arm of non-profit organization, Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l), the WAR Chest Boutique includes retail stores, an online boutique, and product parties held in homes, businesses and churches throughout the United States.
Specializing in hand-crafted items by at-risk women in WAR, Int’l partnering programs, each product in the online boutique and in the retail stores comes with a story card detailing personal stories of men, women, and children who have passed through WAR, Int’l programs.
WAR, Int’l seeks to help women at risk. Using culturally sensitive, value-added intervention projects and partnerships, WAR, Int’l provides safe places to heal from abuse, trafficking, exploitation and more.
“Our mission is two-fold,” states the WAR Chest Boutique website. “We seek to market and sell handcrafted items made by at-risk and rescued men and women from around the world, supporting culturally sensitive, value-added intervention projects, while educating our shoppers about the risks the vulnerable face in our world.”
Tent sale details
Tent Sale items include jewelry, scarves, keychains, books, bookmarks, toys, ornaments, fabric, home decor, craft supplies, jewelry-making supplies and more.
The summer months include indoor monthly specials as well (Courtesy, Deborah Reed WKTV)
Also featured during the summer months are indoor monthly specials. During June, customers can enjoy 30% off all orange-tag clearance items.
WAR Chest Boutique hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Boutique staff begin bringing Tent Sale items inside a half-hour before closing time, but customers are welcome to continue shopping indoors and outdoors until 5 p.m. During potentially stormy days, extreme heat conditions, or Mondays before the lawn service mows the grass, customers may shop Tent Sale items inside the boutique.
Shopping options are available online as well (Courtesy, Deborah Reed WKTV)
Summer exceptions to regular WAR Chest Boutique hours are June 26-27 (closed for inventory) and July 4 (closed for Independence Day).
Can’t make it to the tent sale? #ShopWithPurpose online here.
Purchases help free and empower survivors (Courtesy, Deborah Reed WKTV)
All purchases from the WAR Chest Boutique help set women and children free from exploitation and slavery, and empower survivors to live and work with dignity and hope.
To learn more about the WAR Chest Boutique, click here. To learn more about WAR Int’l, click here.
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains sensitive information about violence and rape that may be distressing or traumatic for some individuals.
Liz Midkiff, human trafficking survivor and ambassador for Women at Risk, International (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)
WAR Ambassador and human trafficking survivor Liz Midkiff has spent half a decade educating youth and adults on the hard truths – and misconceptions – of human trafficking.
“A lot of people want to fight trafficking, but they don’t know how because information is so vague,” says Midkiff.
Midkiff’s own journey began at 15-years-old when she went on a mission trip to Thailand. Part of that trip involved visiting the red light district and understanding what human trafficking truly meant. Midkiff left Thailand believing God had called her to fight against trafficking.
However, three years later, Midkiff found herself a victim of sex trafficking – and it looked nothing like what she had seen in Thailand.
“People are just given vague information. They have no idea – what does it actually look like in America?”
Kidnapping vs. Grooming
In America, 3% of trafficking victims are kidnapped, but 90-95% are groomed by someone the victim knows. WAR S.T.A.N.D. classes, formulated by Midkiff and WAR founder Rebecca McDonald, focus on both aspects.
Liz Midkiff with her two sons. Due to the physical damage inflicted during her time of captivity, she believed she would never be able to have children. (Courtesy, Midkiff)
“In the classes…we talk about what is safe. What does safe feel like, what does safe look like?
“We talk about stranger danger, but we also talk about danger with people we know. What happens when family and friends are not safe? You’ve got to give the kids options, but you also have to give them what is safe and what’s not safe.”
According to the Children’s Advocacy Project, grooming is defined as “when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.”
Grooming is a deliberate process and can take place over minutes, weeks or years, and can happen in person and online. Many groomers also build relationships with family and friends of their target so they appear trustworthy or authoritative.
Midkiff says this is confusing to adults and is often asked to explain what grooming looks like.
“A lot of people have a lot of basic knowledge of what trafficking is, but they don’t know what it looks like or what to even do if they see it,” said Midkiff. “That’s where I feel I can help.”
Taking a S.T.A.N.D.
“I created the S.T.A.N.D. classes because that was something that was really important to me as a mom [and] because I can teach them real-life experience.”
(Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)
Midkiff’s S.T.A.N.D. classes begin at 5-years-old because kids understand the concepts of safety and right vs. wrong. However, Midkiff has noticed that many parents avoid talking to their children about trafficking because they believe it will scare them.
“I think adults are more scared than the kids are,” said Midkiff.
Knowledge and preparation help combat that fear.
Prevention: Discretion
Social media discretion – such as abstaining from posting naked pictures of children, or where they go to school – is a preventative measure that can be taken immediately after birth.
Another discretionary action that Midkiff personally implements is having children wear full clothing when in public.
Prevention: Knowledge
Liz Midkiff with her oldest son (Courtesy, Midkiff)
While at a playground with her 5-year-old son, a man sat down and began talking to Midkiff. She had noticed him around the playground and assumed he worked there. He did not.
At one point, the man lifted his shirt, without Midkiff’s consent, to show off his tattoos. Midkiff’s son noticed and ran over, inserting himself between the two adults and refusing to leave, stating it was not safe for his mother.
“He’s five,” said Midkiff. “He was not scared. He was empowered, and he knew exactly what to do. He knew the signs, and he knew what that looked like…because of the class he took one time.”
Midkiff believes educating children when they are young is an excellent form of prevention. Numerous women have approached Midkiff saying, I’ve lived with being molested as a child for 60 years because I didn’t know that didn’t happen to everybody else. I didn’t know what to do.
“If we can get the kids when they’re kids, they don’t have to wait till they’re 60 to have the realization there was something they could have done,” said Midkiff.
Prevention: Recognition
Not only will children be able to help themselves, they will be able to recognize signs of grooming and/or trafficking of others around them.
“If [my son is] doing this stuff at five, when he’s [older] he’s going to know if his 15-year-old friend has a bad boyfriend or a trafficker,” said Midkiff. “And he’s going to know what to do.
Knowing the difference is important, because those situations can look very similar. Midkiff cites sextortion as an example.
Fraud and coercion
While sending naked pictures of yourself to someone you are in a relationship with is not smart, it is not illegal. However, if that relationship ends and the other person sells those pictures to friends, or uses those pictures against you – threatening to show them to others unless you do certain things – it creates a completely different situation.
“Now he’s manipulating you, he’s coercing you,” said Midkiff, adding that it’s confusing to many people because the entire situation began as a consensual relationship. “When I do my class, I talk about force fraud and coercion; that is what makes something trafficking.”
Kids grooming kids
Rebecca McDonald (left), thanks Midkiff’s five-year-old son for raising $300 to provide one month in a safehouse for a trafficking survivor (Courtesy, WAR, Int’l)
Midkiff’s five-year-old son was recently groomed at a mall by another boy.
The 12-year-old boy approached Midkiff’s son and repeatedly asked if he wanted to come outside to the playground. Despite moving to other areas of the store, the boy persisted, even inserting himself between Midkiff and her son.
“He was trying to separate me from my son,” said Midkiff. “He was grooming him: ‘I like your car, do you like to play on the playground?’ It was innocent kid talk, but did it make sense? No, it didn’t. He didn’t have his mother [with him], and young boys don’t follow other women to the underwear department.”
As Midkiff left with her son, she noticed two older men waiting for that 12-year-old boy at the front doors.
If Midkiff had not been paying attention, she may not have noticed the boy’s grooming tactics. And her young son might have gone with him.
“That’s how it happens,” said Midkiff. “It’s not just snatching them from the store. You can lure him anywhere with a toy. Those are things to look for. And those are the kind of situations I teach.”
Prevention: Be observant, ask questions
Many victims want to ask for help but are afraid of putting someone else in danger (Courtesy photo)
Midkiff says simply being observant can prevent trafficking.
Despite going to a doctor several times while being trafficked, not one nurse or doctor questioned her about obvious evidence of violence.
One friend commented on bruises on Midkiff’s arms. Midkiff sarcastically said that she fell down the stairs – while desperately hoping the girl would ask more questions, offer a place to stay or a phone number to call if Midkiff needed anything.
“She knew there was something else there, and she chose not to ask more questions because she thought I was being standoffish. Why was I being standoffish? Because I didn’t want to put her in danger.”
Many people, however, don’t even know what to look for.
“People say, look for someone who looks malnourished. Well, 70% of the people you see might look malnourished. Maybe their parents don’t feed them, or they have an eating disorder, or they’re struggling artists.”
Midkiff has developed a three-strike rule.
Simply being observant could save someone’s life (Courtesy photo)
“If three things look out of place then I will make the call to the human trafficking hotline number,” said Midkiff, citing an instance when she saw a woman enter an urgent care with a girl who bore a barcode tattoo on the back of her neck.
That tattoo was an automatic red flag for Midkiff. And since 60% of traffickers are women, there was no guarantee the woman was the girl’s mother.
That was enough for Midkiff; she called WAR.
“There were 20 people in that urgent care. Do you think anybody else thought of that? I doubt it. Because nobody even knew that’s what to look for. To me, it was literally sitting right in front of me.”
Traffickers move victims around often to confuse them and prevent them from being able to tell anyone where they are. If someone doesn’t know where they are going or where they are coming from, it is a red flag.
“Even my five-year-old knows where he lives. But some of these girls, they’re being transported every six days, and possibly to different states.”
Comply vs. Consent
To freeze is a normal response to trauma and does not mean the victim did something wrong (Courtesy photo)
Midkiff also teaches the difference between comply and consent.
Teaching a child to say no is important. However, our bodies have at least three different responses to trauma: fight, flight and freeze.
If a child does not say no when faced with a traumatic situation, it is not because they did something wrong, it is because their body shut down – which is a normal reaction, said WAR founder Rebecca McDonald.
“To freeze is a normal, actually healthy, response to trauma. You’re trying to be quiet and not bring attention to yourself.”
That does not, McDonald continued, mean you were consenting.
“We’re taught to comply. Not consent, but to comply,” said McDonald. “Trafficking survivors have complied a lot. It just means that they did what it took to stay alive and survive.”
Set aside fear
Midkiff urges parents to set aside uncertainty regarding conversation about trafficking – before it’s too late.
“Trafficking is happening.”
*Read Liz Midkiff’s full survivor story in WKTV’s Voices of Freedom series.
Resources
Women at Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) is knowledgable and has access to resources such as Homeland Security and the FBI. WAR also provides wraparound services which provide survivors with additional needed help and life skills.
– If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline. It is a free, 24/7 service that offers confidential and multilingual support, information and local resources for victims, survivors, and witnesses of human trafficking.
For many, human trafficking seems like something that takes place in a faraway land when in reality it could be happening right next door.
“There was a mother who was human trafficking her own daughter,” said Women At Risk Youth Ambassador Jenn Amo, who is the featured guest of the Community Awareness’s upcoming show on Women at Risk, International show set to air this month.
Amo tells Community Awareness host Donna Kidner-Smith that there is a lot of misconceptions about human trafficking in that those involved in the trade will target just about anyone: age, race, income and gender really don’t matter.
“In West Michigan, at any given time, about 2,400 minors are for sale,” Amo said, adding that while most of these are online, the number is appalling.
The goal of Women at Risk, International (WAR), a non-profit headquartered in Wyoming, is to provide protection around at-risk women and children. The organization hosts a number of programs designed to help those in need along with educating the public on a variety of issues such as human trafficking.
Amo visits schools and other organizations talking to students and parents about the signs of and how to prevent becoming a victim of human trafficking.
“We call it our wheel of risk because everybody, no matter who you are, faces multiple things in a lifetime,” Amo said. “Sometimes you can handle it on your own and at other times you don’t know where to turn.”
Through the Community Awareness program, Amo discusses the signs of human trafficking, safety steps people can take to avoid or prevent it, and the importance that the entire community must stay vigilant in reporting questionable activities.
“The traffickers have always been there,” Amo said during the program. “As marijuana was legalized, people thought it would just eliminated what the traffickers do. Instead, we saw an increase in human trafficking. They basically just changed what they were trafficking.”
Amo also discusses what WAR is about, volunteer opportunities and the WAR Chest Boutiques located at 2790 44th St. SW, Wyoming, and 25 Squires St. Square NE, Rockford. These stores are the retail arm of the non-profit featuring hand-crafted items created by at-risk-women (and some at-risk-men) in WAR’s partnering programs that are in more than 40 countries including the United States.
For more about WAR, visit www.warintertnational.org. The Community Awareness program featuring Women At Risk runs Monday, March 7, at 9 p.m. , Wednesday, March 9, at 11 a.m. and Friday March 11, at 10 a.m.
The WAR Chest Boutique is a non-profit store-front operated by Women At Risk, International giving people a permanent location to shop a variety of unique gifts made by the precious rescued and at-risk women who flow through our programs in over 40 countries around the world, including the United States.
Come in and be an active participant in our mission statement of creating circles of protection around women and SHOP WITH A PURPOSE!
The store is also open upon request for PRIVATE PARTIES where you and your family/friends/co-workers can come in and learn more about the programs of Women At Risk, International and support our cause!
2790 44th St
Wyoming, MI 49519 WAR Chest Boutique Rockford
(616) 863-0100 info@warinternational.org
25 Squires St. Square NE
Rockford, MI 49341
Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) is a U.S.-based, non-profit organization. We currently work in over 31 countries creating havens of safety and healing for at-risk women and children. Our purpose and passion is to give voice to the silenced cries of the oppressed, wrap arms of love around them, and whisper messages of purpose and dignity into their brokenness.
Through culturally sensitive, value-added intervention projects and programs, WAR, Int’l offers these women and children an opportunity to live life with dignity. Although specifically known for our fight against human trafficking and rehabilitating work with trafficking victims, WAR, Int’l addresses 14 different risk issues facing women and children today.
This is what we would like to tell you about how your shopping helps us:
Dear Precious Fellow Soldier (really shopper):
Each time you buy a gift (for another or yourself) made by a rescued or at-risk woman or even a WAR, Int’l book where the sales go to helping a woman, you are a fellow soldier. You just jumped in the trenches with me and grabbed a baby, a woman, a child who is hiding there waiting for us to sneak with them to a safe place.
I have been at this battle long enough to know that if we do not give a woman a way to make a living, she will crawl out of the trench looking for food for her family. If she doesn’t, her family or some trafficker will come find her, pull her out, and demand she make them a living. Rescue is not enough. Please hear this clearly. Those who rescue and do no more, do nothing. Ninety percent of those rescued in a police raid in Cambodia and sent home without job training get resold. Rescue is ONLY the start.
So every time you buy a piece of jewelry, know with certainty that you just made the process work! You just helped not only rescue but restore and empower a woman or child to survive with dignity. It is that simple. One safe house grew 500% when we started carrying their jewelry and product.
Buying the work of their hands gives life and freedom and dignity. They are not asking for a handout, only that you enjoy the beautiful works of art they are making. There is dignity for you. You did not give them something for nothing. There is greater dignity for them. They earned the fruit of that beautiful necklace around your neck. This brings two women together in a very powerful, primal way. I have seen women stand and cry as they try on our jewelry. It is not because the jewelry is high end, excellent quality, and low priced. It is because of the woman who made it and what the purchase will mean in her life.
When you buy a WAR, Int’l product, you are truly a fellow soldier in the battle of a lifetime to set women and children free from the chains of bondage and slavery. This Christmas when you buy a gift, you just gave the gift of freedom. Imagine that you are handing back to God one of his own who is crying for dignity and worth that he created them to enjoy.
We are giving the gift of life, hope, and dignity to wounded women with the promise of a future that we will walk beside them in their journey to recovery. Thank you for being that army! Shop with joy and purpose!
