Global Connections

Fierce Faith

BY DR. JENNIE CERULLO AND DR. MARCIA BALL

It was more than 20 years ago that an insidious enemy called HIV/AIDS swept the globe. It ravaged communities and left an entire generation of frightened, vulnerable children in its wake. God allowed us, two professors safe in the walls of academia, to hear their battered, desperate voices. We answered the orphans’ cries and, responding to God’s call, packed our bags and embarked fearlessly on a passionate mission that would come to be known as Kerus Global Education.

We charged into the fray, a team of two partnering with churches, schools, and organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse, CRU, World Vision, and many others, determined to bring God’s love and healing in the form of educational loaves and fishes. Experienced educators, we dove into local communities, identified influential faith and secular leaders, and planted the seeds of what grew into our It Takes Courage! (ITC!) initiative. Combining our expertise in public health, education, and a veritable lifetime of mission work, we embraced those traumatized communities and sys- tematically trained those incredibly dedicated leaders, leaders who themselves had been brought to their knees by the pandemic. We empowered community leaders and gave them a way forward to not only heal but protect those in their care. Time was not on our side; people were dying and children were being orphaned, but we forged ahead, spreading the gospel alongside prevention, disease management, and trauma care.

When summoned a few years into our journey to South Africa, we answered the call without hesitation. Beckoned by a pastor and a primary school educator, their vision immediately captured our hearts. They had a keen eye and a deep sense of service. They watched as poverty-stricken, elderly grandmothers in their community stepped up to care for their or- phaned grandchildren who lost not one but both parents to HIV/AIDS. These grandmothers, themselves in need of care and reassurance, were raising the next generation.

But there was a piece missing. There had to be some respite for these grannies and some practical support for them as well. And, without question, the trauma the orphans were enduring had to be addressed. Being beckoned to South Africa was not in vain. Far from it! In 2005, we opened the Kerus Care Center. Enveloping 100 orphans in care, concern, and God’s love, we continue to this day to provide a space, a safe haven if you will, where these precious, young children go after school for a nutritious, hot meal, help with homework, mentorship, and a sense of community. It is, in effect, surrogate parenting with the added benefit of supporting the courageous yet exhausted grannies. It all started with one brick building. It has grown into a compound of several buildings that the entire community sees as a beacon of hope and safety.

Who could have imagined that another specter loomed on the horizon? As we worked tirelessly to spread It Takes Courage! (ITC!) around the world and to not only support but enhance the services provided by the Kerus Care Center, danger was at the door. Yet another ugly reality: human trafficking. Just like in the early onset of HIV/AIDS, there is no cure. There is only education, prevention, and rescue. How do you fight a crime as hideous, as violent, and as depraved as human trafficking, abuse, and sexual exploitation of children as young as four years old with education? We were desperate; the very orphans we had watched grow and heal, their eyes going from the darkness of despair to the light of hope, were at risk of being kidnapped, sold for financial gain, and tortured for their lifetime.

As a society, we avert our eyes, like many the world over were inclined to do with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Sexual exploitation of children—tiny, precious, helpless children—is big business. Actually, it’s not big business; it is huge business. Literally billions of dollars annually—representing tens of thousands of children— change hands in exchange for access to human life that they can abuse, exploit, and torture. It is a pandemic, a disease that threatens communities worldwide, weaving its way into communities of both poverty and privilege. Children are not safe, not safe from criminals, who often wear the guise of business leaders, politicians, and those we thought were otherwise respectable members of society. We mustn’t fool ourselves: it takes money to buy a child sex slave… and even more money to buy several.

It is prophetic that we were summoned to South Africa and that South Africa is home to the Kerus Care Center, for South Africa is the major hub internationally for human trafficking. Our loaves and fishes were needed for a new purpose. The Courage to Care initiative is Kerus Global Education’s weapon globally against human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. Having gained the confidence of community leaders internationally through our ITC! initiative, the network we had forged became the natural and necessary conduit to equip communities with the antidote to save their children.

Courage to Care (CTC) is a two-day interactive training that equips community leaders and caregivers with the education and skills to recognize would-be abusers and exploiters in action and, equally as importantly, to spot the signs of trauma in children. Leaders in communities—be they government officials, law enforcement officers, pastors, teachers, parents, or grandmothers—are given expert and effective guidance in helping children who need to escape the clutches of abuse and heal from that trauma. Spaces need to be created in communities where children feel safe physically and emotionally. Courage to Care provides the roadmap. It is life-saving. It is life-giving. It is the antidote.

Through Kerus Global Education, opportunities to share this necessary, life-saving, and cutting-edge training are opening up around the world. God has thrown the gates wide open and is beckoning us forward on an unprecedented level. Kerus has already reached more than 6 million people in 65 nations. But we are not stopping. Far from it. This year, Kerus is poised to launch Courage to Care trainings in Kenya, Zambia, and the Caribbean. The breadth and scope of trainings already underway in the USA and South Africa will be expanded. The billion-dollar industry of child sex trafficking grows and spreads as we sleep, so we won’t sleep. We will train as if our lives depend on it. And lives do depend on it. Children’s lives.

Precious lives have been saved. Children are rescued from years of abuse, exploitation, and trauma. Abductions are prevented. We know the Kerus training is working. After attending the Courage to Care training, one pastor came to recognize the signs of human trafficking in his very own community, signs that had heretofore gone unnoticed. Equipped with the CTC skill set, he took action and alerted authorities. Not just one, but 29 children had been abducted and were being prepared to be smuggled out of the country and into a life of sexual abuse and exploitation. That CTC-trained pastor saved them, each and every one. He was then able to lead his community to support those emotionally injured children in their recovery from trauma. And this is only one of thousands of individuals who have attended our training.

We truly believe that those who do recover are then better equipped to help save an even younger generation from bearing the same scars, from enduring a lifetime of pain and suffering. Indeed, over the years, we have linked hearts with so many incredible people of courage and commitment. It has been such a joy to be able to offer them hope and a path towards life. We are even seeing some survivors attend our training and then go on to be trainers themselves. The enthusiasm and passion that characterizes each training speaks to its relevance in the lives of our participants and those they seek to serve. The message of Courage to Care mirrors the heartbeat of the world. And IT IS TIME!

If you are interested in joining us to help save precious children from exploitation and abuse, please reach out to us through our website www.kerusglobal.org .

With love,Jennie and Marcia