Poiema’s 10th Birthday

Don’t miss our 10 Year Celebration:

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Accomplishments So Far This Year

God has exceptionally blessed Poiema in 2023!

Education 

• We started the year strong presenting human trafficking education to dozens of churches, schools, businesses, and healthcare providers all over the state of Texas! And the training has not stopped…
• Poiema’s calendar has consistently stayed busy with many invitations for speaking engagements. Since January of this year, we have educated nearly 2,000 people on human trafficking! This means more and more people are learning about human trafficking and choosing to join the fight against it!
• Our human trafficking curriculum was approved by the Health and Human Services Commission and adopted by the University of Houston’s School of Optometry for their Continuing Education requirements. We were also invited to various cities throughout Texas to present this course to more than sixteen different healthcare groups!
• Just this month, we gained CLEET certification which means our human trafficking training is now certified to be presented to law enforcement throughout the state of Oklahoma!

Engagement

• We have launched FIVE NEW OUTREACH CAMPUSES throughout the DFW metroplex including Frisco, Dallas, Mesquite, Commerce, and Southlake. This is only possible because of our partnerships with the following locations: Frisco First Baptist Church, Grace Bible Church in Dallas, Church on the Hill, the Commerce Human Trafficking Rotary Club, and White’s Chapel Church. We cannot express how grateful we are for each of these campuses and the incredible volunteers that lead them!
• 121 outreach routes have been covered so far this year. This means that almost 2,000 locations have received missing kids posters!
• Since the start of the year, 86 kids were on the posters and 43 have been safely recovered!

Empowerment

• The safe house expansion project is COMPLETE! This included an entire home makeover incorporating new furniture and décor put in place by six professional interior designers that offered their services completely pro bono! Seeing these amazing women use their God-given talents to serve the women of the safe house was beautiful.
• Two residents successfully transitioned out of our safe house and one new resident moved in.
• We have been blessed logistically with a brand-new security system for the home and a driveway expansion that will help accommodate more cars.

The last update we are eager to share is the launch of our Truck Stop Ministry! One of our faithful volunteers, Steve Glass, along with the prayerful support of his wife, Kristi, felt a call from the Lord to launch this ministry at the beginning of this year. Steve shared the following:

I continue to be amazed as I meet hard-working men away from home trying to make a better life for their families. I’ve met men from Russia, Ukraine, Africa, the Middle East, and more. I receive a lot of support for Poiema and its fight against Human Trafficking…The goal of passing out the posters and gospels of John is to:

1. Raise awareness of Human Trafficking and ask the truck drivers to report suspicious activity while keeping an eye out for minors that appear to be in trouble.
2. Share the love of God with these men and serve as a voice of encouragement as they travel…I have never walked away without being thankful for the opportunity to cross paths with these gentlemen from faraway places.

Steve and his team have had the opportunity to pass out over 500 NCMEC posters and Human Trafficking rack cards as well as over 400 copies of the Gospel of John!

Thank you for taking the time to read through these updates. Hopefully, they touched your heart as much as they did ours.

We are grateful for your heart to join in this fight against human trafficking!

Natalie Pirrone
Education and Outreach Director