November 24, 2021 • 25 mins
Today we talk to Amy Higham about Operation Underground Railroad and the efforts of Tim Ballard and his team to help save kids from trafficking.
You can learn more and how to donate or volunteer at OURRescue.org.
Also you can watch on U Tube by searching for Operation Toussaint
https://youtu.be/7q8dYM90PJA
http://OURRescue.org
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast
(00:02):
with your host Mary Mouritsenand the team at Barefoot
Bungalow Realty
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning and welcome to Live Your Best Life
Barefoot podcast.
Today I'm here with Mary and I'm
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Ruth.
How are you?
I'm great.
How are you doing?
Doing really good.
I'm excited about our marketupdate this week.
I know we actually have a firsttime buyer who is under
contract.
In this market that is aunicorn.
These first-time home buyers arereally having a challenge with
(00:35):
winning all the bidding wars.
So we had some tricks up oursleeve and we use those and we
were able to win the biddingwar.
So we're very, very excited forour client and, cute home.
Perfect for him.
It had it fit everything that heneeds.
So if that's our market update,if you are looking and you're
(00:58):
feeling discouraged, don'tsomethings out there.
Yeah, we can make it happen.
The perfect house is out there,so we're excited and, we are
also excited this morning forour guests.
We have Amy Higham with us andshe is from Operation
Underground.
(01:19):
Welcome Amy.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Hello.
Good morning.
How are you guys.
Really
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Good?
How are you?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I'm good.
Good.
Glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Tell us a little bit about what you do with Operation
Underground.
I know you do a lot of things.
I know you personally, and Iknow she does a lot of things,
but today, what tell us aboutwhat you do for Operation
Underground.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
All right.
Well, to start off, I want to beclear that I am just a volunteer
with Operation UndergroundRailroad.
I don't work for them.
I am not affiliated with them,so I don't want people to
misinterpret misinterpret that.
But so, so basically what I amis an abolitionist, for
(02:08):
Operation Underground Railroadand an abolitionist for slavery.
And that's how, OperationUnderground refers to the people
who volunteer with them.
And so I am all I'm doing iswhat I can to end modern day
slavery.
(02:30):
And that is basically kind ofwhere the name came from, is
from the idea of being coming ina bolition, t his f orced
slavery and the slavery is humantrafficking.
And so I can kind of give you alittle bit of background of how
Operation Underground Railroadstarted.
(02:50):
If you'd like,
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I would love, uh, I you've talked to me about this.
And that's part of what I thinkis so important is we're pretty
blind to how, drastic this is inour in our world still today.
I, I was naive to it.
So I think it's huge what you'redoing and your willingness to
(03:13):
bring light to it.
So, yes.
Please tell us a little bitabout operation under.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it is, it's a little, wekind of feel like we live in a
little bit of a bubble orfiguring out good and, you know,
sex, slavery, human traffickingis, you know, just really the
dark corners.
And in places that, you know,aren't the modern day world or
(03:41):
it's just by choice.
And those kinds of things.
And it really isn't, I would sayseveral years ago, I think I
remember my brother, supportingthis, this organization for this
cause and he just k ind o fmentioned it and I thought, oh y
eah, that's a great cause.
But didn't think a whole lotabout it at the time.
(04:04):
And several years ago here inFlorida, I went to a conference
and, this man, Tim Ballard wasspeaking at this conference and
I was like, and it just, oh yes,I remember hearing about this.
So he started telling the storyof how he got it or how he
started this organization.
(04:25):
And so Tim Ballard was workingfor the CIA and he spent many
years working for the CIA andabout 10 years of the time that
he worked for them, he wasworking in combating sex
trafficking on the Southernborder of us and, doing all that
(04:48):
they could through governmentto, you know, stop sex
trafficking and try to, youknow, help those that they
could.
And, you know, I think hestarted recognizing that there
was so much red tape andbureaucracy and it just made it
difficult to actually rescue andhelp people, if it was outside
(05:10):
their jurisdiction, outside the,our government.
And so his, it just, he decided,well, I guess what it goes back
to a s he was still working forthe CIA and he read an article,
in the newspaper about thislittle boy named G ardy, out of
(05:33):
Haiti and this little boy was inchurch with his family.
He's three years old.
His dad had been holding him,sends him off to go find your
mom.
U h, 10 minutes later, mom comesto the d ad, s ays where's G
ardy and the d ad said he'sgone.
I don't know.
(05:54):
I sent t hem to you, you know,parent's worst nightmare.
This is, this is inPort-au-Prince Haiti.
And I'm not ev en s u re, maybesix to eight years ago, I think
is when this, when this happenedand, you know, they just heart
drop and they look for him, an dt hey can't find him.
(06:15):
Yeah.
So they go to the police and thepolice say, give it two hours.
If he's been kidnapped, we'llprobably get a ransom phone call
and they, and he did, he got aphone call.
And they were, I mean, it's along story, which is a fantastic
story.
So you can go online and, a ndread detail about this, f amily
(06:37):
and what happened.
But, anyway, they wanted aransom, they assumed that this,
this father had money cause heran an orphanage and got a big
donation.
So that in this person whokidnapped this little boy Gardy,
worked for the d ad, it was afamily friend.
And so this little boy knewthat, or t he little boy was
(06:58):
comfortable around this personwho kidnapped him.
And so they were asking for, youknow,$500,000, you know, just a
lot, a lot of money and theycouldn't couldn't get it to him.
I think initially they wereasking for less and they said,
bring the money here.
And we'll give you your boy thatnever happened.
And you know, days turned intoweeks.
(07:18):
And so anyway, somehow this,this article ended up in, t he
ne wspaper and Tim Ballard readit and he said, he ju st, you
know, and he' d be en workingwith sex trafficking.
And so it wasn't new to him, butit just wouldn't leave him.
And he thought, I, you know, Ineed to help this father.
(07:39):
And the father said he wouldjust could never sleep.
So he would just walk thedirtiest, darkest places of the
city, just looking for hislittle boy, hoping he could hear
him call out.
And so, Tim Ballard, excuse me.
He, I think he flew the father,you know, into the U S to talk
(08:02):
to him about it, see how hecould help him.
And then Tim Ballard got a team,went down to Haiti.
And that's where he quicklyfigured out that we had no
jurisdiction i n Haiti.
This, this little boy wasactually born in the u s.
And so he thought that becausehe was dual citizenship, he c
(08:23):
ould help the US.
CIA could help them, but itended up not being the case.
And he quickly quit his CIA joband put together a drop team of
his own and started OperationUnderground Railroad through
that, recognizing that he coulddo more good privately then, you
(08:45):
know, through the government.
So, you know, his ops team, youknow, his professors or their
professionals, he was aprofessional obviously.
So, they go in and they stagesting operations around the
world.
They pose as buyers.
So that's what he did for thisfather.
Originally he, they thoughtthrough, you know, connections
(09:06):
and talking and working, theyfound this, lady who was working
with the guy who kidnapped him,kidnapped the little boy Gardy.
And, they figured out that shehad basically an orphanage
where, she would have childrenand then sell them out the back
(09:26):
door.
And the children are sold forsex trafficking, labor, tr ack,
labor, y ou know, they'd beworking on farms, y ou know,
whatever the case is, what theselittle kids, I mean, an d o
bviously th e v ery little, a ndI think it was within that next
(09:50):
year is when Haiti had thereally big earthquake.
And so there were thousands andthousands of orphan children
just left on the streets.
And so people would bring theselittle children to this
orphanage thinking, oh, thiswonderful lady with a big smile
will help them.
And she'd graciously take themin and just send them right out
the back door, you know?
(10:10):
And so, Tim Ballard and his teamwent into this lady, as a sting,
they met her at a hotel.
They had cash.
They were, you know, pretendingbuyers.
And, you know, they sat down,she said, all right, they're
$10,000 each.
I'll tell you exactly how to getthem out of the country and how
(10:33):
to do it so that the policedon't get involved.
You know, it was just a very,very evil, crooked thing that
happened.
So anyway, they were able torescue 28 children out of this
orphanage and through a lot ofsadness and tears, little Gardy
(10:55):
had already been sold and thefather didn't get his child
back.
And so I think Tim Ballard atthis, this, operation is what
really through working with thisfather who said, you know what,
if I had to lose my son torescue 28 children, it was it's
worth it.
(11:15):
And it just really inspired TimBallard to, you know, look at
the light that can come through,you know, helping other people.
And so I think through that,orphanage, Tim Ballard ended up
adopting two children to an addto his already six children that
he had at home.
And the father of little Gardyadopted eight of those children.
(11:38):
You know, and so Tim Ballardsaid I'll never stop looking for
your son.
So he's still looking for Gardy,you know, eight years later
trying to help him find his son.
But so that is how, and so thename OUR came from Tim Ballard,
just read everything he couldpossibly read about the
(12:00):
Underground Railroad in the U Syou know, that was undergoing,
trying to help people out ofslavery in the U S so many years
ago.
And so he just, you know, heread it with a look of, okay,
with the idea of how did thiswork, how were they able to save
so many people and not getcaught?
(12:23):
And what tactics did they use?
And so he was looking at it avery logical way and reading
every bit of information and hethought, you know, this is what
this still is.
This is us trying to save peopleof every background and, out of
slavery.
So that's where the name camefrom, and he's very passionate.
(12:45):
And so this organization it is anon it's, a total non-for-profit
, organization it's based solelyon donations.
That's how all of the fundinghappens.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
The one thing I really love about this too, is
the attention like it's onething that's fabulous to go in
and rescue these children and,and save them, but he's catching
the vision that that's notenough or else it'll just turn
around and happen again.
(13:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I love that.
There's another aspect to thisof what happens next.
Can you talk a little bit betterabout that?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah.
So, they, it's interesting, youknow, that they have gotten some
criticism, for their workbecause they, the criticism is,
comes from, okay.
Yeah.
You go in and you grab thesekids and get them out of a
situation.
And a lot of them go back intoit or they have nowhere to go.
(14:09):
And though that is true, that, alot, because if you have a child
who is taken from their home andput into, you know, sex
trafficking, and that's all,they know, that's how they
exist, that's how they survive.
They get taken out of thesituation.
They're very likely to be drug,drug addicts, to have, you know,
(14:35):
forced them into that situation.
It is likely, but the aftercareis what they call It, is a
really big component of whatthey do.
And so, you know, their firstgoal is to try to get these
children back into their homes,if they are safe.
(14:56):
because most of the time the sextrafficking happens from family
or friends.
It's not just the, you know,person who randomly gets
kidnapped off the street.
Like you might see in a movie,but, it is a, you know, a
boyfriend, a grandmother, a, afriend of the family and
(15:17):
neighbor who starts this.
And so if they can find a safeplace that they were, you know,
taken from a safe place, thenthey'll get them back.
If not, they, you know, get themin an orphanage, if they can't
find a home.
Cause a lot of kids are takenvery young and they're gone so
long, they don't even rememberwhat their name is or who their
(15:38):
parents are.
So they're put in orphanages.
And another big thing is theyreally are working with adoption
organizations to get thesechildren adopted into safe
homes.
And then they have, yeah, theseaftercare programs that work on
addiction and just helping toreintroduce them to society and
(16:01):
giving them skills that arehelpful.
And, you know, I've just overthe last few months, I've had
some amazing interactions withpeople that have just, I don't
know, it's just been a, youknow, ki nd o f l ittle
blessings that, you know, how did, how di d, how do I keep
running into people like this that h ave connections with, oh,
(16:22):
yo u a r e?
Because it's just something I'm,you know, trying to get into
personally myself and I haven'tdone a ton of it yet, but I, you
know, speaking of the aftercare,the aftercare, s o me friends of
mine, I was at their home for aparty and they had a friend
(16:42):
there that, or a, u h, no t a fr iend, a f a mily member that
looked so familiar to me.
And why does she look sofamiliar?
And so I finally figured outthat this, this family member of
my friend, was a sister of afriend of mine from 15 years
ago.
And they looked so much alikeand I started talking to her and
(17:04):
figure that out.
And then I find out that her andher husband have just moved here
from California.
They sold their home.
He sold his business and havedecided to run an aftercare
orphanage in Haiti for OER.
And so, you know, it was, theyhave six children of their own,
(17:29):
but he's gonna, you know, godown and help get this orphanage
into a better situation becausethe orphanage is, is struggling.
There's, you know, 50,000children in Haiti without,
without parents.
But, so anyway, so I talked tothem and, that was, you know,
really talking to them andhaving that connection.
(17:50):
And then a month later, I tookmy children down to Fort
Lauderdale, to a demonstration.
It was in July, in July of thisyear.
They had, well, I think they tried to do it every, every July,
but OUR does rise up forchildren demonstrations around
the world.
(18:11):
So on that day they just havepeople go out and do, you know,
d emonstration awareness,awareness.
Yeah.
A nd j ust trying to get peopleto, to know what's going on.
So I decided I'm going to havemy children, w e're going to go
do a demonstration, which I'venever done before.
But we go down to FortLauderdale and low and behold,
(18:32):
there's the same couple withtheir family t here, this
demonstration.
And so we spent a couple hoursjust walking up and down the
streets of Fort Lauderdale and,m et some other really great
people, just trying to do somegood and trying to put out
awareness.
(18:52):
And so that's part of it, thePalm beach, Florida team.
So they have different teamsaround us.
And so that team over there inFort or in Palm beach area, is
just another volunteer team andthey have a team lead over
there.
And so that's kind of what I'mworking on is trying to become a
(19:15):
team lead on this side, of thestate, just cause it's a little
bit of a distance to try toparticipate in help over there.
And there's obviously a lot ofgood that can happen on this
side of the state.
So that's kinda something that Iam working on is, application
and becoming a team lead for thewest side of Florida.
(19:35):
But anyway, so I'm also tryingto help.
So as long story, this, thiscouple that wanted to help with
the orphanage, he decided he hadmilitary background.
So he gave the orphanage controlto his brother and sister.
I'm also friends with, sothey're taking lead with that.
And, this guy from California isnow going to be helping with ops
(20:00):
and actual, you know, rescuesituations cause he has, you
know, that kind of background.
So I'm helping with, or startingto try to help this other couple
of friend of mine who areworking on this orphanage down
in Haiti for aftercare, for OUR.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yes, Amy, I could talk to you about this all day.
It's so fascinating to me.
Uh, two things, how can peoplehelp you and help the Operation
Underground work and they go todonate or volunteer or, whatever
would work
Speaker 4 (20:38):
For them.
Yeah.
So the, you know, it's, it's theeasiest thing to do.
And it's the biggest thing thatneed is just donating money.
Cause like I said, it's 100% allfrom donations t o, you know,
fund each mission that they haveor you know, getting out there
(20:58):
and doing it.
So, d epending on where youlive, there are different ways
of helping.
I mean.
OUR recently had a gala in Utah,w h ere they raised a lot of
money there.
But you can go to OURrescue.orgthats OURrescue.org.
(21:21):
And if you just go to theirwebsite, you can donate directly
through the website.
There's lots of links oninformation about what, what
they do, much more details andthen, ho w to volunteer.
So if you want to volunteer andget involved, they've got, in f
ormation on there about how toget involved and you know.
There's for teenagers, they havestudents against trafficking and
(21:47):
you can start a club in schooland OUR will help you directly
and do training and stuff forstudents to get their clubs
started at school, which issomething that my son Jackson
was interested in doing.
He hasn't done it yet, we'llsee.
Because I don't want to m a keit happen, but that's something
(22:08):
that he was kind of interestedin doing, but I say that's
probably your best, your, you rbest way of getting involved
with this.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah.
And then, oh, go ahead.
And then do you have, anyrecommendations for people?
As far as first of all, it'sgood to bring up the awareness,
but is there something, youknow, with your kids with here,
obviously this is g oing t omake us a little bit more aware,
(22:38):
but is there any specific tipsor information that you have
that can help parents that areconcerned about this?
(22:49):
I think, you know, for, at least for my kids, it's one of
those things where it's a littlebit hard to talk about.
And so I think just letting themknow that they need to be
cautious.
They need to talk to you, beopen about things.
(23:12):
I think when you look for sign,you know, if you go onto their
website to, they can talk aboutsigns to look for in sex
trafficking, i f it's someone,you know, but I think just
having open discussions andabout, you know, being cautious
about family members and friendsand, y o u know, those kinds of
things.
(23:33):
And I know, you know, my kidsgot a little nervous when I
started talking to them moreabout it, a n d giving them a
safe space, but also being open,but be ing open about it so that
they know about what's going onand it made my kids want to do
more.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
And, you know, we did a market where it grew a lot
bigger than I was initiallyplanning and were able to raise
money.
And, you know, my kids wereexcited to be involved in that,
knowing that they could do theirpart in, in helping, because
sometimes you feel so separatedfrom the cause, but it's going
(24:12):
on all around us.
There's a quickly, there's aYouTube video that you can
watch.
And there's actually a fulllength film that they've put
together.
It's called Operation Toussaint,you can go o nto YouTube and
Amazon and watch it a nd it'squite eye- opening and it is, y
ou k now, very much, informativealso, but it's, i t's really
(24:35):
great movie to watch.
I think they had it in theatersactually.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Wow.
That is perfect.
Well, I could talk to you allday about this.
Thank you so much for coming onand helping us be more aware and
, getting the word out and forall you're doing truly, the
market was great and all of yourefforts are amazing.
So thank you so much.
And again, you can check it o ut@o urrescue.
(25:01):
org and thank you for being withus a t, Barefoot Bungalow
Realty.
And we look forward to seeingyou next time and as always
remember to live your best life.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Thank you for listening to the Live Your Best
Life Barefoot podcast, sponsoredby Barefoot Bungalow Realty.
To learn more about BarefootBungalow, realy go to
www.barefootbungalowrealty.comor call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.
Welcome to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast
(00:02):
with your host Mary Mouritsenand the team at Barefoot
Bungalow Realty
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning and welcome to Live Your Best Life
Barefoot podcast.
Today I'm here with Mary and I'm
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Ruth.
How are you?
I'm great.
How are you doing?
Doing really good.
I'm excited about our marketupdate this week.
I know we actually have a firsttime buyer who is under
contract.
In this market that is aunicorn.
These first-time home buyers arereally having a challenge with
(00:35):
winning all the bidding wars.
So we had some tricks up oursleeve and we use those and we
were able to win the biddingwar.
So we're very, very excited forour client and, cute home.
Perfect for him.
It had it fit everything that heneeds.
So if that's our market update,if you are looking and you're
(00:58):
feeling discouraged, don'tsomethings out there.
Yeah, we can make it happen.
The perfect house is out there,so we're excited and, we are
also excited this morning forour guests.
We have Amy Higham with us andshe is from Operation
Underground.
(01:19):
Welcome Amy.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Hello.
Good morning.
How are you guys.
Really
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Good?
How are you?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I'm good.
Good.
Glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Tell us a little bit about what you do with Operation
Underground.
I know you do a lot of things.
I know you personally, and Iknow she does a lot of things,
but today, what tell us aboutwhat you do for Operation
Underground.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
All right.
Well, to start off, I want to beclear that I am just a volunteer
with Operation UndergroundRailroad.
I don't work for them.
I am not affiliated with them,so I don't want people to
misinterpret misinterpret that.
But so, so basically what I amis an abolitionist, for
(02:08):
Operation Underground Railroadand an abolitionist for slavery.
And that's how, OperationUnderground refers to the people
who volunteer with them.
And so I am all I'm doing iswhat I can to end modern day
slavery.
(02:30):
And that is basically kind ofwhere the name came from, is
from the idea of being coming ina bolition, t his f orced
slavery and the slavery is humantrafficking.
And so I can kind of give you alittle bit of background of how
Operation Underground Railroadstarted.
(02:50):
If you'd like,
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I would love, uh, I you've talked to me about this.
And that's part of what I thinkis so important is we're pretty
blind to how, drastic this is inour in our world still today.
I, I was naive to it.
So I think it's huge what you'redoing and your willingness to
(03:13):
bring light to it.
So, yes.
Please tell us a little bitabout operation under.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it is, it's a little, wekind of feel like we live in a
little bit of a bubble orfiguring out good and, you know,
sex, slavery, human traffickingis, you know, just really the
dark corners.
And in places that, you know,aren't the modern day world or
(03:41):
it's just by choice.
And those kinds of things.
And it really isn't, I would sayseveral years ago, I think I
remember my brother, supportingthis, this organization for this
cause and he just k ind o fmentioned it and I thought, oh y
eah, that's a great cause.
But didn't think a whole lotabout it at the time.
(04:04):
And several years ago here inFlorida, I went to a conference
and, this man, Tim Ballard wasspeaking at this conference and
I was like, and it just, oh yes,I remember hearing about this.
So he started telling the storyof how he got it or how he
started this organization.
(04:25):
And so Tim Ballard was workingfor the CIA and he spent many
years working for the CIA andabout 10 years of the time that
he worked for them, he wasworking in combating sex
trafficking on the Southernborder of us and, doing all that
(04:48):
they could through governmentto, you know, stop sex
trafficking and try to, youknow, help those that they
could.
And, you know, I think hestarted recognizing that there
was so much red tape andbureaucracy and it just made it
difficult to actually rescue andhelp people, if it was outside
(05:10):
their jurisdiction, outside the,our government.
And so his, it just, he decided,well, I guess what it goes back
to a s he was still working forthe CIA and he read an article,
in the newspaper about thislittle boy named G ardy, out of
(05:33):
Haiti and this little boy was inchurch with his family.
He's three years old.
His dad had been holding him,sends him off to go find your
mom.
U h, 10 minutes later, mom comesto the d ad, s ays where's G
ardy and the d ad said he'sgone.
I don't know.
(05:54):
I sent t hem to you, you know,parent's worst nightmare.
This is, this is inPort-au-Prince Haiti.
And I'm not ev en s u re, maybesix to eight years ago, I think
is when this, when this happenedand, you know, they just heart
drop and they look for him, an dt hey can't find him.
(06:15):
Yeah.
So they go to the police and thepolice say, give it two hours.
If he's been kidnapped, we'llprobably get a ransom phone call
and they, and he did, he got aphone call.
And they were, I mean, it's along story, which is a fantastic
story.
So you can go online and, a ndread detail about this, f amily
(06:37):
and what happened.
But, anyway, they wanted aransom, they assumed that this,
this father had money cause heran an orphanage and got a big
donation.
So that in this person whokidnapped this little boy Gardy,
worked for the d ad, it was afamily friend.
And so this little boy knewthat, or t he little boy was
(06:58):
comfortable around this personwho kidnapped him.
And so they were asking for, youknow,$500,000, you know, just a
lot, a lot of money and theycouldn't couldn't get it to him.
I think initially they wereasking for less and they said,
bring the money here.
And we'll give you your boy thatnever happened.
And you know, days turned intoweeks.
(07:18):
And so anyway, somehow this,this article ended up in, t he
ne wspaper and Tim Ballard readit and he said, he ju st, you
know, and he' d be en workingwith sex trafficking.
And so it wasn't new to him, butit just wouldn't leave him.
And he thought, I, you know, Ineed to help this father.
(07:39):
And the father said he wouldjust could never sleep.
So he would just walk thedirtiest, darkest places of the
city, just looking for hislittle boy, hoping he could hear
him call out.
And so, Tim Ballard, excuse me.
He, I think he flew the father,you know, into the U S to talk
(08:02):
to him about it, see how hecould help him.
And then Tim Ballard got a team,went down to Haiti.
And that's where he quicklyfigured out that we had no
jurisdiction i n Haiti.
This, this little boy wasactually born in the u s.
And so he thought that becausehe was dual citizenship, he c
(08:23):
ould help the US.
CIA could help them, but itended up not being the case.
And he quickly quit his CIA joband put together a drop team of
his own and started OperationUnderground Railroad through
that, recognizing that he coulddo more good privately then, you
(08:45):
know, through the government.
So, you know, his ops team, youknow, his professors or their
professionals, he was aprofessional obviously.
So, they go in and they stagesting operations around the
world.
They pose as buyers.
So that's what he did for thisfather.
Originally he, they thoughtthrough, you know, connections
(09:06):
and talking and working, theyfound this, lady who was working
with the guy who kidnapped him,kidnapped the little boy Gardy.
And, they figured out that shehad basically an orphanage
where, she would have childrenand then sell them out the back
(09:26):
door.
And the children are sold forsex trafficking, labor, tr ack,
labor, y ou know, they'd beworking on farms, y ou know,
whatever the case is, what theselittle kids, I mean, an d o
bviously th e v ery little, a ndI think it was within that next
(09:50):
year is when Haiti had thereally big earthquake.
And so there were thousands andthousands of orphan children
just left on the streets.
And so people would bring theselittle children to this
orphanage thinking, oh, thiswonderful lady with a big smile
will help them.
And she'd graciously take themin and just send them right out
the back door, you know?
(10:10):
And so, Tim Ballard and his teamwent into this lady, as a sting,
they met her at a hotel.
They had cash.
They were, you know, pretendingbuyers.
And, you know, they sat down,she said, all right, they're
$10,000 each.
I'll tell you exactly how to getthem out of the country and how
(10:33):
to do it so that the policedon't get involved.
You know, it was just a very,very evil, crooked thing that
happened.
So anyway, they were able torescue 28 children out of this
orphanage and through a lot ofsadness and tears, little Gardy
(10:55):
had already been sold and thefather didn't get his child
back.
And so I think Tim Ballard atthis, this, operation is what
really through working with thisfather who said, you know what,
if I had to lose my son torescue 28 children, it was it's
worth it.
(11:15):
And it just really inspired TimBallard to, you know, look at
the light that can come through,you know, helping other people.
And so I think through that,orphanage, Tim Ballard ended up
adopting two children to an addto his already six children that
he had at home.
And the father of little Gardyadopted eight of those children.
(11:38):
You know, and so Tim Ballardsaid I'll never stop looking for
your son.
So he's still looking for Gardy,you know, eight years later
trying to help him find his son.
But so that is how, and so thename OUR came from Tim Ballard,
just read everything he couldpossibly read about the
(12:00):
Underground Railroad in the U Syou know, that was undergoing,
trying to help people out ofslavery in the U S so many years
ago.
And so he just, you know, heread it with a look of, okay,
with the idea of how did thiswork, how were they able to save
so many people and not getcaught?
(12:23):
And what tactics did they use?
And so he was looking at it avery logical way and reading
every bit of information and hethought, you know, this is what
this still is.
This is us trying to save peopleof every background and, out of
slavery.
So that's where the name camefrom, and he's very passionate.
(12:45):
And so this organization it is anon it's, a total non-for-profit
, organization it's based solelyon donations.
That's how all of the fundinghappens.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
The one thing I really love about this too, is
the attention like it's onething that's fabulous to go in
and rescue these children and,and save them, but he's catching
the vision that that's notenough or else it'll just turn
around and happen again.
(13:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I love that.
There's another aspect to thisof what happens next.
Can you talk a little bit betterabout that?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah.
So, they, it's interesting, youknow, that they have gotten some
criticism, for their workbecause they, the criticism is,
comes from, okay.
Yeah.
You go in and you grab thesekids and get them out of a
situation.
And a lot of them go back intoit or they have nowhere to go.
(14:09):
And though that is true, that, alot, because if you have a child
who is taken from their home andput into, you know, sex
trafficking, and that's all,they know, that's how they
exist, that's how they survive.
They get taken out of thesituation.
They're very likely to be drug,drug addicts, to have, you know,
(14:35):
forced them into that situation.
It is likely, but the aftercareis what they call It, is a
really big component of whatthey do.
And so, you know, their firstgoal is to try to get these
children back into their homes,if they are safe.
(14:56):
because most of the time the sextrafficking happens from family
or friends.
It's not just the, you know,person who randomly gets
kidnapped off the street.
Like you might see in a movie,but, it is a, you know, a
boyfriend, a grandmother, a, afriend of the family and
(15:17):
neighbor who starts this.
And so if they can find a safeplace that they were, you know,
taken from a safe place, thenthey'll get them back.
If not, they, you know, get themin an orphanage, if they can't
find a home.
Cause a lot of kids are takenvery young and they're gone so
long, they don't even rememberwhat their name is or who their
(15:38):
parents are.
So they're put in orphanages.
And another big thing is theyreally are working with adoption
organizations to get thesechildren adopted into safe
homes.
And then they have, yeah, theseaftercare programs that work on
addiction and just helping toreintroduce them to society and
(16:01):
giving them skills that arehelpful.
And, you know, I've just overthe last few months, I've had
some amazing interactions withpeople that have just, I don't
know, it's just been a, youknow, ki nd o f l ittle
blessings that, you know, how did, how di d, how do I keep
running into people like this that h ave connections with, oh,
(16:22):
yo u a r e?
Because it's just something I'm,you know, trying to get into
personally myself and I haven'tdone a ton of it yet, but I, you
know, speaking of the aftercare,the aftercare, s o me friends of
mine, I was at their home for aparty and they had a friend
(16:42):
there that, or a, u h, no t a fr iend, a f a mily member that
looked so familiar to me.
And why does she look sofamiliar?
And so I finally figured outthat this, this family member of
my friend, was a sister of afriend of mine from 15 years
ago.
And they looked so much alikeand I started talking to her and
(17:04):
figure that out.
And then I find out that her andher husband have just moved here
from California.
They sold their home.
He sold his business and havedecided to run an aftercare
orphanage in Haiti for OER.
And so, you know, it was, theyhave six children of their own,
(17:29):
but he's gonna, you know, godown and help get this orphanage
into a better situation becausethe orphanage is, is struggling.
There's, you know, 50,000children in Haiti without,
without parents.
But, so anyway, so I talked tothem and, that was, you know,
really talking to them andhaving that connection.
(17:50):
And then a month later, I tookmy children down to Fort
Lauderdale, to a demonstration.
It was in July, in July of thisyear.
They had, well, I think they tried to do it every, every July,
but OUR does rise up forchildren demonstrations around
the world.
(18:11):
So on that day they just havepeople go out and do, you know,
d emonstration awareness,awareness.
Yeah.
A nd j ust trying to get peopleto, to know what's going on.
So I decided I'm going to havemy children, w e're going to go
do a demonstration, which I'venever done before.
But we go down to FortLauderdale and low and behold,
(18:32):
there's the same couple withtheir family t here, this
demonstration.
And so we spent a couple hoursjust walking up and down the
streets of Fort Lauderdale and,m et some other really great
people, just trying to do somegood and trying to put out
awareness.
(18:52):
And so that's part of it, thePalm beach, Florida team.
So they have different teamsaround us.
And so that team over there inFort or in Palm beach area, is
just another volunteer team andthey have a team lead over
there.
And so that's kind of what I'mworking on is trying to become a
(19:15):
team lead on this side, of thestate, just cause it's a little
bit of a distance to try toparticipate in help over there.
And there's obviously a lot ofgood that can happen on this
side of the state.
So that's kinda something that Iam working on is, application
and becoming a team lead for thewest side of Florida.
(19:35):
But anyway, so I'm also tryingto help.
So as long story, this, thiscouple that wanted to help with
the orphanage, he decided he hadmilitary background.
So he gave the orphanage controlto his brother and sister.
I'm also friends with, sothey're taking lead with that.
And, this guy from California isnow going to be helping with ops
(20:00):
and actual, you know, rescuesituations cause he has, you
know, that kind of background.
So I'm helping with, or startingto try to help this other couple
of friend of mine who areworking on this orphanage down
in Haiti for aftercare, for OUR.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yes, Amy, I could talk to you about this all day.
It's so fascinating to me.
Uh, two things, how can peoplehelp you and help the Operation
Underground work and they go todonate or volunteer or, whatever
would work
Speaker 4 (20:38):
For them.
Yeah.
So the, you know, it's, it's theeasiest thing to do.
And it's the biggest thing thatneed is just donating money.
Cause like I said, it's 100% allfrom donations t o, you know,
fund each mission that they haveor you know, getting out there
(20:58):
and doing it.
So, d epending on where youlive, there are different ways
of helping.
I mean.
OUR recently had a gala in Utah,w h ere they raised a lot of
money there.
But you can go to OURrescue.orgthats OURrescue.org.
(21:21):
And if you just go to theirwebsite, you can donate directly
through the website.
There's lots of links oninformation about what, what
they do, much more details andthen, ho w to volunteer.
So if you want to volunteer andget involved, they've got, in f
ormation on there about how toget involved and you know.
There's for teenagers, they havestudents against trafficking and
(21:47):
you can start a club in schooland OUR will help you directly
and do training and stuff forstudents to get their clubs
started at school, which issomething that my son Jackson
was interested in doing.
He hasn't done it yet, we'llsee.
Because I don't want to m a keit happen, but that's something
(22:08):
that he was kind of interestedin doing, but I say that's
probably your best, your, you rbest way of getting involved
with this.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah.
And then, oh, go ahead.
And then do you have, anyrecommendations for people?
As far as first of all, it'sgood to bring up the awareness,
but is there something, youknow, with your kids with here,
obviously this is g oing t omake us a little bit more aware,
(22:38):
but is there any specific tipsor information that you have
that can help parents that areconcerned about this?
(22:49):
I think, you know, for, at least for my kids, it's one of
those things where it's a littlebit hard to talk about.
And so I think just letting themknow that they need to be
cautious.
They need to talk to you, beopen about things.
(23:12):
I think when you look for sign,you know, if you go onto their
website to, they can talk aboutsigns to look for in sex
trafficking, i f it's someone,you know, but I think just
having open discussions andabout, you know, being cautious
about family members and friendsand, y o u know, those kinds of
things.
(23:33):
And I know, you know, my kidsgot a little nervous when I
started talking to them moreabout it, a n d giving them a
safe space, but also being open,but be ing open about it so that
they know about what's going onand it made my kids want to do
more.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
And, you know, we did a market where it grew a lot
bigger than I was initiallyplanning and were able to raise
money.
And, you know, my kids wereexcited to be involved in that,
knowing that they could do theirpart in, in helping, because
sometimes you feel so separatedfrom the cause, but it's going
(24:12):
on all around us.
There's a quickly, there's aYouTube video that you can
watch.
And there's actually a fulllength film that they've put
together.
It's called Operation Toussaint,you can go o nto YouTube and
Amazon and watch it a nd it'squite eye- opening and it is, y
ou k now, very much, informativealso, but it's, i t's really
(24:35):
great movie to watch.
I think they had it in theatersactually.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Wow.
That is perfect.
Well, I could talk to you allday about this.
Thank you so much for coming onand helping us be more aware and
, getting the word out and forall you're doing truly, the
market was great and all of yourefforts are amazing.
So thank you so much.
And again, you can check it o ut@o urrescue.
(25:01):
org and thank you for being withus a t, Barefoot Bungalow
Realty.
And we look forward to seeingyou next time and as always
remember to live your best life.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Thank you for listening to the Live Your Best
Life Barefoot podcast, sponsoredby Barefoot Bungalow Realty.
To learn more about BarefootBungalow, realy go to
www.barefootbungalowrealty.comor call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.
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