Christine and her husband Nick are the founders of The A21 Campaign, an anti-human trafficking organization with the ambition of abolishing slavery in the 21st century. She is the author of “UNDAUNTED,” “A Life Unleashed,” “The Core Issue,” “Run To Win,” and “Can I Have (and do) It All, Please?” but her proudest accomplishment is being Nick’s wife and Catherine and Sophia’s mum
hey there I’m Priscilla and I am so glad
that you are here this is the chat it is
a wonderful opportunity that you and I
get to sit down together and chat about
some stuff that matters to you or should
matter to you things that you should be
interested in and know about and we’re
going to talk to some very interesting
people as always and so I hope you’re
gonna stay tuned because today is gonna
be a great opportunity for you to get to
know about something that you might not
be super familiar with but you will be
by the time we get to the end of our
time together so stay tuned you are not
gonna want to miss this
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27 million
camiseta again cuz you got to get that
number in your heart and in your mind
before we dive into this program 27 not
2700 not 27,000 27 million that is how
many people right now as you and I sit
here talking to each other that is how
many people are enslaved right now held
against their will for deviant purposes
things that you and I could not even
begin to fathom there are people
experiencing right now it is human
trafficking and sometimes I think we
hear that phrase human trafficking and
it’s just this sort of distant problem
that’s happening somewhere else in other
countries and we feel like we can’t put
a name or a face with any of these
people we feel a little disconnected
from it but actually it’s happening in
your country right now it is happening
right here right under our noses and I
don’t think we should let you know let
it happen under our watch I think we
should care and be concerned about it
that’s why I’ve invited two of my most
favorite people on the planet they are
friends of mine wonderful folks who have
an incredible ministry but they also
have an organization that is designed to
help put this to end and so we’re gonna
talk to them today they are Nick and
Christine Kane when you please help me
to welcome them
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alright first of all I have to say I
like your boots
– and those boots are made for walkin
cuz y’all are all over the globe aren’t
you I know you need flat you know other
people want heels but I just can’t
change the world in heels and you guys
are changing the world Nick can you just
tell us a little bit about how a 21
which is the organization that’s the
anti human trafficking organization that
you guys created several years ago how
many years but hadn’t been long five
years ago okay so just five years tell
us how it even started and what you’ve
seen happen in five years well we were
going to a women’s conference in Greece
as we walked through the airport first
in Athens and then in Thessaloniki we
saw all these pictures of missing kids
and as we came out we asked the people
who were meeting this is what what are
the what’s all the missing kids and they
said well they’re the alleged victims of
human trafficking and we said what’s
human trafficking yeah and she said I
don’t know so we so we went and started
to ask questions and then we found out
there was 27 million people enslaved
today and and that though it was a
problem all over the planet so we set
out to try and do it and we started a 21
which is abolishing injustice in the
21st century and we started with a
project office in Thessaloniki Greece
which was designed to lobby the police
and the the local government and the the
government of Greece to be able to
enforce the laws that they had and enact
effective laws against human trafficking
then we went from there to having a
shelter and we’ll been able to help
hundreds of girls through that shelter
and see many many many traffickers
convicted last year we were involved in
95% of all sex trafficking convictions
in Greece over 80% of all labor
trafficking cases across Greece and
we’ve been able to set up transition
facilities across Romania
Bulgaria the Ukraine and we’re starting
in Thailand and South Africa amazing
we’re doing a lot of prevention and
awareness wet work in the US and the UK
and Australia and also we’ve just
developed a whole curriculum for to
teach you 9 and 10 students across the
u.s. what human trafficking is how to
avoid it and how’d it how they can be
involved in stopping it because I
suspect a lot of people would have the
same response that that lady did in the
airport that you’re walking through when
you say what is human trafficking
they’re like I don’t actually know do
you find that a lot of people are kind
of like what’s going on you need to tell
us what’s going on well totally and I
think even if you use the word slavery
which is what it really is whether it’s
forced labor slavery or sex slavery
people don’t actually believe that it
still happens in the 12th century they
think you know that was eradicated you
know we’ve come through that and it just
looks different but it is more prevalent
on the earth today than ever before in
history
than ever before in the height of the
civil rights movement there are more
slaves on the earth today now ok we want
to be able to put some names some faces
some lives with that 27 million we need
to boil it down to one or two or three
stories so that we can really get a
handle on what’s happening because let
me just say that’s before you tell some
stories when it really grabbed me was
when you guys said to me that I don’t
know if it was the number two or three
on the statistical list of the people
that are trafficked the most and you
said to me Priscilla six-year-old voice
or at the top of the list and at the
time my second son was six years old and
that is when it totally grabbed me and
it became my problem it wasn’t just
something out there it was my problem –
tell us what you’ve seen as you’ve gone
to these shelters and met the people
that are coming into your shelters yeah
what do you see that is the most
shocking thing is that they’re normal
everyday people it could be my daughter
I’ve got 11 year old a seven year old
and so because we have a lot of girls
come through I see girls and think this
could be my daughter they’re just
they’re just normal girls that had
dreams and aspirations grew up mostly in
abject poverty in Eastern Europe were
told a lie that they could have a job in
another country now Greece is the
parking lot of trafficking in Europe and
so they’ve come over thinking
legitimately I’m going to work as a
hairdresser as a waitress they’re taken
and this would not be unusual it between
this story Priscilla a girl was brought
over in a shipping container now I
didn’t even believe this at first it put
on a ship in a container with sixty
other girls thinking they were coming to
get a job the container was opened in
Istanbul in Turkey and these girls were
taken they were put in apartments and
then kept there with very minimal water
barely any food for two weeks raped four
or five times a day every day for two
weeks because what they try to do is
break your defenses down and they’ve
taken young passports
they’ve taken any of your legitimate
papers so you’re in a foreign country
you don’t have the language skills you
have no documentation you don’t even
know what’s happening what they often do
is the traffickers will dress up as
police officers so that you will not
trust any law enforcement so now you
have got five times a day what you think
are police officers in this foreign
country beating you and raping you
and then what they took these girls
thirty of those girls had died on the
trip over because the oxygen tank in the
shipping container broke so when they
open that container there are only 30 of
the 60 girls that were alive those 30
were taken beaten then they put them all
on these little boats to take them from
Istanbul Turkey to Athens Greece you can
just take them across the Mediterranean
the coastguard was coming through so the
traffickers so that they would not get
caught with these girls threw them
overboard just like excess baggage now
you’ve got to remember these girls are
from villages where they’ve not even
seen water you know let alone how to
swim
and I’m 25 of those girls drowned five
girls ended up in a brothel in Greece
now you’ve got to think every one of
these girls was between 18 and 21 and
those girls then ended up in our
transition home I remember sitting there
this girl’s telling me this story she’s
having a post-traumatic episode as she’s
telling me so she’s screaming she’s
reliving the container because her best
friend Anna died in the container so
she’s screaming to me as in reliving the
moment when she went to Anna trying to
bring Anna back to life I’m thinking if
I was not seeing this with my own eyes
I’m a little bit like Thomas I would
have been I need to see the the scar so
I’m likeable I’m listening to this guy
you couldn’t make this up if you tried
yeah
and with her were 14 other girls from 14
different nations all of them were
between 15 and 24 and I’m looking at
these beautiful Eastern European girls
because the demand is so high because
they are stunning stunning girls and one
of the girls that have been rescued just
one day before so this girl’s just
finished telling me this story the girl
jumps in Nadia from Russia and she’s got
very broken Greek Greek is my first
language and so in very broken Greek she
looks at me she was very scared because
when they have been helped and rescued
one day before they don’t know if I’m a
trafficker or arrogant they don’t know
to try you’re setting me up to take me
to another place and so she yells at me
and very broken Greek she goes why did
you come here and I said I began to tell
her my own story my own journey and and
then I ended up with you know there’s a
God in heaven that loves you he’s got a
plan for your life there’s a company of
women around the world that want to help
you and they’ve helped me to come here
to rescue you and I’m telling you about
God’s love I’m telling her about God’s
mercy God’s grace and I will never
forget this if you’re wondering what
still fuels me um she yelled at me
mid-sentence she goes stop stop stop she
goes if what you are telling me about
your God is true if this is true if he
loves me if he has a plan for me then
why didn’t you not come sooner and just
that phrase why did you not come if this
is true about your God why didn’t you
come sooner that fuels me pretty much
every day I guess it does yeah and why
haven’t we come sooner what do you find
is holding people back from being
involved in this issue this is so many
things that the biggest one is
complacency where we live in a
narcissistic world everybody is fully
absorbed in their own life in their own
problems I got stuck in traffic this
morning
my my outfit didn’t look right all those
really important my favorite girlfriend
joke jokingly says those are rich people
problems yeah those are you know rich
meaning we just live in a first world
country we have modern conveniences yeah
and we just think everything is a
disaster
you know our heritage
right this morning there’s a little
traffic on the freeway but then there’s
someone fighting for their life so
people are just completely absorbed in
their own lives so they don’t they don’t
they don’t think about the poverty of
others and when they do they become
overwhelmed that well the problem is so
big there’s nothing I can do about it so
all I’m going to do is just get caught
up in my own little world I think that’s
the biggest thing is actually people
have got very sincere hearts um but when
you start sprouting off numbers like 27
million yeah it’s extremely overwhelming
and just the enormity and the magnitude
of the problem you get paralyzed and
think I can’t what can I do I can’t do
everything so oftentimes we think
because I can’t do everything we end up
doing nothing instead of the one thing
that could activate something and so I
think when I saw it of course I was as
overwhelmed as anyone else but but I
think Priscilla if I take a little bit
more personally you know when I was born
I was left in a hospital unnamed
and unwanted my birth certificate
actually does not have a name on it it’s
just child’s name and typed in next to
that category is the word unnamed number
two 5:08 of 1966 and when you look at me
I mean we’re friends we’ve got a life
together kids family heard on if I said
to someone if I just put up a birth
certificate photo here and we all just
looked at something that said to 5:08 of
1966 you almost you don’t really know
what to do with it so you kind of just
go put it in the and just yeah Vaughn
but as soon as you go that’s Christine
Caine all of a sudden there’s a name and
a face to that number it changes
everything because numbers in and of
themselves they’re dehumanizing they’re
desensitizing and I think that’s what I
love about the Lord because to God
nobody’s just a number everybody is
created in His image and filled with his
purpose so he doesn’t see 27 million as
a number he sees individuals that bear
His image yeah and so we have a
responsibility we who have been rescued
to rescue them and I think when I look
at it I’m Greek born in Australia I
happened to be left in a hospital that
had a rule of law that had a legal
representation so someone couldn’t just
take me right and traffic me out because
I had to be adopted and there was proper
documentation there was a system to go
through like the situation
here in Bulgaria in Albania in Greece I
mean they could have if I was born there
47 years ago I could have easily been
one of those children that we often see
in television that are chained to beds
because that’s where we get kids from
because there’s no records of their
existence
so anybody walks in and says oh that’s
my niece I’ll take that child just take
them and then what they often do
Priscilla is they’ll take them they’ll
get they’ll take the girls they’ll sell
them into brothels then they’ll get the
girls pregnant in those brothels
intentionally then they’ll take the
girls across the border we’ve worked on
some legal cases in Bulgaria where they
take the pregnant girls into these
things that are literally called infant
farms and so they give birth to children
on those infant farms and then they sell
those newborn infants into pedophile
rings and then you don’t even want to
begin to know what they do with those
children and all they sell them for
their organs organ transplanting is a
huge thing and we sit here and are not
even aware that this it is the fastest
growing crime worldwide is the buying
and selling of human beings faster than
the growing of armaments and sorry the
selling of armaments and faster than the
selling of drugs is the selling of human
beings and if we don’t care I don’t know
who will because we actually are the
people that believe every human being is
created in the image of God with purpose
so if we do not value the sanctity of
human beings I mean I just think on my
watch I’m not going to let a whale or a
tree have more value than yeah if we’re
going to save the planet let’s say
absolutely okay so I was sitting I took
my my oldest son on a date he’s 10 years
old took him on a date the other day we
went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican food
place right around the corner from her
house because y’all know that’s the best
kind of Mexican food the
hole-in-the-wall kind of Mexican food
and so we were sitting there in this
restaurant enjoying our quesadillas and
Jackson took a bite of his quesadilla
and said yum yum this is so good and as
soon as he said yum yum I had a not drop
down from my throat into my stomach
because of something you all had told me
just the day before would you share that
in we’ve just signed a memorandum of
understanding with the Royal Thai police
which is allowing us to
you work in investigation in unison with
the Royal Thai police we’ve actually got
our own investigative unit which reports
to the head of the crime suppression
division of the the Royal Thai police
and they they’ll be going after that the
traffickers particularly of young
children because in Thailand it is a
really it’s just a really common problem
and where you can you have a lot of
Western men going over and looking for
sex from all sorts of all sorts of the
most perverted things that you could
possibly think of and one of them is
that they can’t teach the little kids
some of the complex terms but they will
just go and offer the the men yum-yum
and you’ll have little little boys and
little girls as young as four and five
years old coming up two men in the
red-light districts offering yum-yum
and basically them there Bobby yes yes
oh yeah oh yeah our oh six in particular
and we’ve got video footage of of these
young kids just offering our guys you
want young man we offering your team
yeah don’t know that you’re an investor
cover investigation with cameras and so
and just to to reveal that this is the
issue and this is what’s happening and
you know you’ve got little kids I’ve got
a seven-year-old daughter you know I
can’t watch I have to just turn it off
because it is so sobering and what is
even more tragic Priscilla is the
greatest demand comes from Western men
North America and Australia and you know
in our cut they’ll fly over under the
guise of a business trip and it’s almost
incomprehensible almost in confidence I
love how you put it to me earlier you
said this is really all about economics
it’s supply and demand if there was no
demand there wouldn’t need to be such a
great supply absolutely talk to us a
little bit about that how you’re seeing
that the men really are continuing to be
a foundation for the problem absolutely
if men weren’t demanding sex if men
weren’t demanding porn then there
wouldn’t be a business about it in in
Greece
for example prostitution is absolutely
legal it is socially acceptable 60% of
Greek men use a prostitute once a month
or more often and while it’s normal and
socially acceptable the Greek girls
don’t want to supply the service so over
95% of sex workers in Greece foreign and
according to some of our police contacts
not 99 percent of those foreign sex
workers are trafficked so you have a
massive demand that someone wants to
meet according to the CIA an average
girl is worth 250 thousand dollars a
year to a trafficker in net profit so if
you have the girl if you have you have
the demand and all you need to do is get
a girl if you remove the the value of a
person as a god created thing they
simply become an item of stock and so it
doesn’t matter whether I need to use
that girl for porn to generate the
desire to get men into a brothel or if I
just I’m going to put them out into
brothels but if we can get the men to
not demand the sex then the the business
won’t be there for the trafficker and
not only not demanding the sex but not
watching porn absolutely and I think
that’s the major issue because point is
what drives human trafficking and so you
know a lot of guys and and I’m showing
you ain’t even watching this it’s like
awesome if I said you know people see
the movie taken and it’s a great movie a
little bit of a Hollywood thing but I’m
so glad it’s raised the the awareness of
trafficking but if I say to guys you
know I’m gonna fill a 747 who wants to
come and get a trafficker now every man
is like I’ve got a particular set of
skills and I wanna use I never yeah and
and we want to be Liam Neeson and I say
okay well the best way you can do that
is to not press the button on your
computer and not to go and buy the
magazine we could stop the demand
overnight overnight if the guys just
because see what happens is we so
objectify the woman we think the image
I’m looking at on the computer or the
magazine that I’m flicking through we’ve
so objectified those women we don’t
actually really
think of them as human beings so as our
dog that’s right our sisters so we can’t
so a guilt trip isn’t gonna do it
because you could still just kind of go
well it’s just an image or many men and
this is no doubt I hear it all the time
you know Christine she just wants it I
think you know I’ve got an 11 year old
daughter and a 7 year old daughter they
often tell me their aspirations for
their lives
neither of them have ever said to me I
want to grow up and be a prostitute or a
porn star yeah so I just never been in
the list yes so and if I say to them is
that what your daughter wants or what
your wife wants it’s like so somehow
there’s a disconnect that what I am
doing is actually fueling this industry
we make the trafficker be a mafia man
and he’s really bad and me flicking
through this playboy or me kind of guy
computer it’s not really big deal which
you go no no no that human being on the
other side of that screen somebody had
to start oh I’m telling you how many
cases have we been involved in with this
cameras in the room and that’s how that
porn movie that someone’s just thinking
is no big deal that’s where it’s come
from she never was compliant in that
making of that movie never we’ve got a
little Hollywood glamour porn industry
movie but seriously you take away the
ones that some people say Christine you
cannot take away someone’s right to be a
prostitute and I’m like I’m not trying
to end prostitution I’m trying to fight
for the ones that don’t want to be in
there which actually about 99 percent of
them
that’s who I’m fighting for absolutely I
want to ask you we’ve talked a lot about
what’s happening in other countries what
have you seen happening here in the
States in the United States of America
and it’s a deal here you know we’ve just
opened our first 15 bed facility right
here in North America for aftercare
we’ve been involved in prevention and
awareness and with schools programming
America’s a very big focus the
trafficking looks different to how it
looks in Eastern Europe but it’s um
prevalent here as well most of the
trafficking here would be a lot of it is
domestic – oh right in Europe we’re
dealing with girls who are transported
from one country to another or forced
into prostitution or forced labor even
in their own country
here in the US it’s not it’s a largely
domestic minors who are come from poor
socio-economic homes and in most cases
have been abused before they’re ever
even trafficked so which is endemic of a
whole bunch of social issues
beforehand but one girl who we were
recently talking with authorities about
she she was trafficked across the
country when she was 16 she escaped and
went home and when she got home at 19
her trafficker knew where to find her so
they simply went back to home and rather
than grabbing her to start with they
grabbed one of her friends they
dismembered her friend in front of her
and then said now we’re not going to
hold you but just if you don’t do
exactly as you’re told from now on when
your mom your dad and every other person
that you know disappears
then you know that you did it to them so
that is that is a horrific story but
it’s not yeah actually that aren’t
common and I don’t think it’s in the
states where random Bible Belt news yeah
yeah absolutely I think that you know
after hearing stories like this people
want to know what they can do and we
can’t all be Liam Neeson we cannot all
be mick and christine and go out into
you know thailand and everywhere else
but we can partner with people who are
doing it you know and by the way i think
it’s so important to recognize that
these are just regular people who saw
some signs and went huh let’s ask a
question about that and then they took
the next step they were willing to not
just hear something and then go on about
their lives they wanted to go on and do
the next thing and we can all do that as
well and it might not look the exact
same way of setting up an organization
but it might mean partnering with this
organization or it might just mean the
next time you see something that bothers
you the next time something that’s on
your heart bothers you and you see a
poster or a sign about something that
you might be starting your heart to take
the next step i mean imagine what how
many people would have not been rescued
had there not been a couple of regular
people that happened to pass some
posters and go you know what i’m gonna
do the next thing so we’re so grateful
that you did but we need to know how to
partner with you and one of the main
ways that you can I want to tell you
right off the bat I know that Nick and
Chris are going to echo this one of the
most powerful ways you can help is to
pray
for these girls like when you see or
girls and boys when you see a milk
carton and it’s got the pictures on the
back of the milk carton I don’t even
know if they still do that anymore
but they have a billboard sometimes on
the on the street when you’re driving by
or I’ve been thinking about this little
girl named Madeleine I saw her posters
six or seven years ago her parents have
been on Oprah Winfrey you know it’s been
kind of on the cover of some magazines
and I remember at the time thinking
about this girl cause I was walking
through the London Airport and I saw the
posters of Madeleine I kept asking who
is this little girl named Madeleine of
course we kind of most of us know the
story now little Madeleine that’s been
gone for six years now and it never
occurred to me until I encountered you
guys that she probably was traffic that
it wasn’t just a kidnapping case yeah
and there are so many kids that are
missing now and we just say it’s
kidnapping and many of them it’s is
trafficking they’ve been taken for the
purposes we’ve been talking about today
so listen the main thing you can do is
be in prayer about these little faces
that you see when you see these faces
don’t just let it pass you by say God
bring these people back home a prayer
that Chris and Nick prayed recently in
their organization prayed because they
were in a specific country where the
government the police forces weren’t
doing anything to help them they were
saying we can’t help you anymore and you
know what they prayed I love this
they prayed that the clients the men
that were going into these brothels that
their hearts would be so convicted that
they would actually want to rescue some
of these girls and guess what it
happened a man went into a brothel he
told a young lady you know what I’m
gonna come back and I’m gonna get you
and he did she jumped out of the window
to him he took her to the police station
and so what if we can just pray that
God’s have changed the hearts of the
people that are going to victimize these
young people and some not so young
people and that God will change so you
can pray that’s one thing you can do but
where can we find a 21 online what can
we do
tangibly to help support what you were
doing and rescuing now that question is
something if I think if you go to the
a21 campaign org on there has got we’ve
got 21 things you could do today whether
you’re a stay-at-home mom with six kids
that you’re homeschooling or whether
you’re a corporate executive and
everything in between
there are 21 things that you go you know
what I can do that one right now because
I think if you don’t empower
we caused frustration and paralysis and
what we want to do is put tools in
people’s hands and say here’s one thing
you can do absolutely so a21 campaign
org I want you to go there right now
because there are 21 things listed there
and if you’ll do one thing if I’ll do
one thing together we can help them to
abolish slavery in the 21st century
would you please help me by thanking
them for being here
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