CR spoke with Courage Worldwide

Emily: Do you have a minimum or maximum number of girls that you have in these houses at one time?

Jenny: Our model is a home model, so we build every Courage House for six girls. Depending on where we are: we have land in Tanzania, we have land in the United States, so we can put multiple cottages on property so that we can have 10 cottages, but there will only be six girls maximum in each cottage to be able to maintain that family feel.

It makes them feel that they're not just one of a hundred: that you can really feel like people have a shared experience and they know what you've been through and that creates a bond with the girls. Then there's a house mum or house parents that are there that can provide that continuous love and support and we have the professionals: psychotherapists and their teachers. But at the end of the day when they come back at night it's to sleep in their own bed, to be safe and to feel that you are in a family environment.

Emily: What makes you different to other organisations who are trying to eradicate human trafficking?

Jenny: The difference is the whole idea that you make life plans: it's the focus on their individual needs and their individual dreams. I think as time goes on and people have more awareness, I hope that we will be prototyping and building Courage Houses all over the world. That is our dream - because we look at the world, with Africa and the United States, and we would love to bring homes to Europe. That difference is concentrating on their uniqueness and their dreams and desires and not just teaching them a vocation, something that maybe they hate for all their lives. I always laugh and say in Africa people are always like: "Let's teach them to become a tailor or sew" and I'm like: "Well what if I hate to sew, what if my dream is to become a nurse?" The focus is not on the evil and their past: the focus is on hope and their future and that they still can achieve their dreams. It comes from my heart and it's from my background of being a life coach and helping people find their purpose.

We have girls that are on university campuses now; we have girls that are in vocational schools; we have girls that have been reunited with their families. We have only been open for two years and to see the life change that is happening is why we keep doing it. Because the heartbreak of their stories - you can get stuck in their pain and if there isn't hope then there's no reason for what we do. So to have that hope be tangible, to see life change, makes us all very proud, so we'll keep doing it.

Emily: Tell us about the album Come Back Home.

Jenny: Yes, it's so exciting. When people hear about this issue and their hearts are broken for it, the first question people ask is: What can I do? Tell me what I can do. In the States we have a group of musicians and song writers that asked that question: What can we do? And I told them: Do what you already do but do it for our kids - and they did. They wrote songs for our girls, to give them hope and encouragement. A group of the musicians travelled to the Courage House. They spent the day with the girls listening to their stories, listening to the pain of their past, listening to their hopes and their dreams for the future and they wrote the songs on Come Back Home. When you hear it it's like the anthem for us: it's the cry of what's in our heart, to offer these kids to come back home. The songs talk about how we've never really had a home: they don't even know what to come back to. These artists are amazing.

One of the songs is "Fears Are Wolves Without Teeth". The girls would tell the musicians and the artists how scared they were out on the streets, how scared they were when they were being sold and how scary it is to come to Courage House when you don't know anybody and you don't know what's going to happen. So one of the artists wrote this song "Fears Are Wolves Without Teeth" inviting them to fly and that they'll never know if they don't try. It is a beautiful compilation of songs and artists because every song was written for kids who are being sold and the songs are of hope not of pain and inviting them to come back home.

Emily: How can people get hold of the CD?

Jenny: You can go to iTunes and download it or purchase the actual CD from our website which is courageworldwide.org.

Emily: What are your hopes for the future?

Jenny: A home in every city that needs one and that this evil is eradicated from the planet before I die.

Emily: That is a mission and half and I'm sure you'll do it. Thank you very much for speaking to me today, Jenny. Just one last thing, can you give us an e-mail address for those that want to find a little bit more about Courage and also about the CD?

Jenny: Absolutely. Our e-mail address for more information and ways to get involved is info@courageworldwide.org and if you want to go to our website its courageworldwide.org. There are sections on getting involved; there's a donate cart where you can buy things for the girls and we give them to them; there's the new CD Come Back Home and we have coffee products. All the proceeds go to building homes for children rescued out of trafficking.