Vision to succeed.

In 2007, Slave-traders made more money than Google, Starbucks and Nike combined. How do you respond to a statistic like that? Truth is, it's difficult to take in and often times you have to look within yourself and see how you can help on a personal level. We encourage everyone to use what you know and what you are good at, to combat the issue of human / sex trafficking.

That said, we have members on our team that are trying to use their individual skills to fight this injustice. And a way to fight it is to help with the rehabilitation and restoration of rescued victims. One particular member of our team happens to be a Thai-American optometrist. As a New Yorker, she spends time giving eye exams to public school students and home-bound patients around the city. She thought Southeast Asia could be a great opportunity for her to give eye exams and help those halfway across the world. Plus, she can speak to the locals in their native language.

We put this idea into action and within two weeks prior to leaving for our trip we received over 1,000 free eye glasses from Helen Keller International and we also received some funding for the actual lenses from a company donor. A handful of organizations throughout Southeast Asia have expressed interest in receiving eye exams. So the doors have opened and everything is set: we will be giving free eye exams and free eye glasses. Many of these safe-houses and orphanages offer rehabilitation and education to young women and children... so it's critical that their vision is checked and eye-care is provided for.

This will also be a great opportunity for the team to help one another and also learn how to give eye exams. And that's a checkbox marked for "Things I Never Thought I Would Do, But Glad I Did".