For years, Michelle Korth admits, she would look at online stories about human trafficking from the safety of her Colorado home and think that it was somebody else’s problem.
“They would always be from somewhere like Thailand or some Third World country. I never thought it was an issue here,” Korth said. “But then I found out that it is our problem, too. And when I did, I knew we had to do something about it.”
For the past five years, Korth and her husband, Jason, have done exactly that. Starting with a series of small gestures, such as providing blankets to victims, the Korths’ project, Restore Innocence, has progressed and grown.
On Wednesday, Restore Innocence received 100 blankets from the FBI’s Citizen Academy Alumni Association as part of Human Trafficking Prevention Month in Colorado. During the ceremony, the Korths announced that they soon would open a home for girls who have escaped and are recovering from the horrors of sex trafficking.
Expected to house as many as eight girls between 13 and 17 years old, Wildflower Ranch will sit on 20 acres at an undisclosed site in the Colorado Springs area. The donated property also includes a barn that will be converted into a school and two horses that will used for equine therapy.
The home is expected to open within two months.
According to Jason Korth, there were approximately 84 cases of teenage girls being involved in human trafficking in Colorado in 2014. Nationally, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, there were more than 72,000 interactions — telephone calls, online tips and e-mails — regarding human trafficking cases between Dec. 7, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2012.
“We see how people prey on and victimize innocent people every day,” said Denver FBI special agent in charge Thomas P. Ravenelle. “The key to stopping it is making sure people are educated about it.”
People such as the Korths.
“We used to see people, say prostitutes, and looked at them and looked upon it as it being their choice. Now we see that it often wasn’t their choice at all,” Michelle Korth said.
“Now we see the trauma and the physical harm they’ve gone through and what it will take for them to recover.”
