MEDWAY, Massachusetts —Tim Tebow is currently fighting for an NFL roster spot on the Jacksonville Jaguars as a converted Tight End. The former Florida and NFL quarterback is much more than a gifted athlete though. He transformed his Tim Tebow Foundation into a platform to end human trafficking.
The Goals of the Foundation
Human trafficking traps over 40 million people globally and the industry as a whole produces more than $150 billion dollars annually. Tim Tebow’s foundation has a three-step plan to help mitigate human trafficking. The three steps include helping to create support programs that keep families together, responding with physical rescue missions and teams, and is committing to survivors’ long-term recovery through comprehensive care and healing. The foundation works in eight foreign countries that have been hit the hardest by human trafficking. Additionally, it works in the United States to prevent the transfer of victims to other nations.
How Tim Tebow Started Fighting Against Global Human Trafficking
Tebow believes that it is important to live with a “sense of urgency” in order to rescue as many people as possible. Tebow started to fight against human trafficking after his father had a life-changing experience while preaching in a remote country in 2012. He recounts that his father saw human traffickers selling four girls right next to him. So, he pulled all the money that was in his wallet and bought all four of them. Tebow’s father called him afterward, told Tebow what happened and said he needed help with what to do next. Tebow responded by transforming his foundation to help victims of human trafficking. Since that phone call, Tebow has not stopped!
The Okoa Philippi Campus in Uganda
The Tim Tebow Okoa Philippi Campus in Uganda serves as a joint rescue operation between the Tim Tebow Foundation and Okoa Refuge. The campus is a safe place for trafficked and abused women to receive the love and rehabilitation care “they deserve”. Tim Tebow, an outspoken Christian, uses his gifts and resources as both an athlete and changemaker to help those in their greatest times of need.
Updates and Good News About Tim Tebow’s Foundation
In May of 2021, the State of Tennessee awarded The Tim Tebow Foundation a $1.2 million dollar grant for human trafficking survival care around the globe. The money will primarily go to a new facility to fight human trafficking in Uganda. It will also go to ending the sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines. During the pandemic, sexual exploitation in the Philippines grew significantly. For example, there has been a 264% increase in online sexual exploitation of children in the past year alone.
To end this type of widespread abuse, the Tim Tebow Foundation funded world-class trauma-informed-care training for counselors in the nation. This will help to ensure each child gets proper attention and help. In addition, the foundation seeks to improve international law enforcement, rescue trafficking victims, and connect them with recovery programs.
Looking Forward
According to human trafficking research, every two minutes someone is bought and sold as a modern-day slave. Ending human trafficking for good is an enormous endeavor. However, Tim Tebow never gives up even as the underdog. The Tim Tebow Foundation will do whatever it can to rescue as many people as possible from the horrors of human trafficking.
– Curtis McGonigle
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