Child rescue founder combats child sex trafficking
A special guest is visiting Eastern Idaho Friday and Saturday to talk about child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Tim Ballard is the founder of Operation Underground Railroad. He spent 12 years as a speical agent with the U.S. government, working child sex cases.
In 2013, he started O.U.R. Rescue to work with foreign governments to rescue kids who have basically been stolen and sold for awfully dark purposes. He spoke with Eyewitness News anchor Todd Kunz and said because of the heavy subject matter, people don’t like to talk about it, but he said society needs to talk because the problem is much bigger than people realize.
“I wouldn’t have believed how huge this problem is except I saw it. And I had several experiences early on that just transformed me completely in the government and recognized that this is what I have to do. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have that knowledge and sometimes I wish I hadn’t been exposed like I was. I mean, there are millions of children, millions who are forced into sexual exploitation,” said Ballard.
Ballard spoke in Rexburg Friday evening at a special event.
Saturday, he will be one of the many speakers at the “Timeout For Women” conference at the Civic Auditorium in Idaho Falls. The daylong event is sold out.
Ballard does have a movie that shows exactly what his special ops team does. It is called “The Abolitionists.” It will be released in 600 theaters nationwide May 16. Oscar-winning producer Gerald R. Molen, behind Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park, follows Ballard and his special ops team as they go undercover to rescue children in third-world countries from child sex trafficking.
