Minutes – July 16 2015
President Robby called the meeting to order and John Smith led the invocation. Gordon Korb led the singing accompanied by Les Greer. President Robby noted that six new members joined last week, a record for this club.
Les Greer introduced David Richey as our newest member.
We were encouraged to bring children’s books to our meeting to be used in our lending libraries now being set in several new schools.
John Dukes then introduced Dr. Joe Savage, Exec. Dean at the University of Mobile who spoke about “Millennials and Human Trafficking”.
Dr. Savage advised millennials can be best worked with by being direct in communicating with them, i.e. not coddling, building a caring relationship and by putting a challenge to them. These three factors are key to successful business and working relationships.
He then spoke about the student ministries at the University of Mobile, including volunteers working in the area of human trafficking. He noted thirty million people today are trafficked largely in sex trafficking and labor exploitation.
In the course of volunteering in the Ukraine, Dr. Savage learned of the problem of young girls at 16 years of age, being released from orphanages who were unprepared to live independently who then became victims of sex trafficking. Dr. Savage and the University of Mobile worked with a couple who had opened their home to three girls in what is now called “Emmanuel House”. The couple care for these young women as their own with no governmental support. Dr. Savage has worked to raise funds to upgrade this home to be more suitable for this purpose and they now have eight girls in residence at this transitional home.
He went on to described selected girls’ circumstances and their success at Emmanuel House and then surprised the club by asking a back table of young women to stand and come forward. We then met the girls he had recently been describing and heard from their house mother of her gratitude for all that had been done for them.
Respectfully submitted,
Rose M Johnson
7.18.15