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Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 43 • No. 12
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Human trafficking hits home
Church alliance forms to combat the crime 832-532-0040 Proageinstitute.com
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The Rev. David Sincere talks with teachers and staff at Blue Ridge Elementary School about how to handle disruptive students. (Photo by Theresa D. McClellan)
Passionate pastor helps troubled children
By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
On most any given Wednesday evening, Rick Nixon can be found walking with others along Bissonnet Street in some of the roughest parts of Houston. “Bissonnet’s like a microcosm of Houston,” Nixon said. The parts he walks are notorious for drugs and prostitution. He and others like him aren’t there for illicit purposes. They walk and they pray and they try to help those caught up in the sex trade to escape. It’s just one small way the Sugar Land man can help make a difference for those tangled in the web of human trafficking. “An enormous amount of revenue is generated by human trafficking,” he said. According to experts, Houston is a major hotbed of human trafficking in the United States and one of the most prominent areas is just north of the intersection of Highway 59 and Beltway 8. The proximity of the problem isn’t lost on Charles Jessup, the mayor of Meadows Place, a one-square-mile community bordering the troubled area. “We know it’s expanding down into Fort Bend County,” Jessup said. Like most middle class suburbanites in Fort Bend County, Jessup was unaware of the darkness and human suffering encroaching on his community. He recently learned about the Freedom Church Alliance and its efforts to combat human trafficking. The alliance formed in 2013 and currently has 15 churches and 20 nonprofit organizations collaborating in an effort to rescue victims and bring an end to human trafficking in Houston. Nixon is a member of one of two Sugar Land churches that are part of the alliance. He is a member of Sugar Creek Baptist Church. The other is Sugar Land First United Methodist Church. Recently, representatives from both churches met at Meadows Place City Hall to talk about their efforts to fight back against human trafficking. Along with Nixon were Jeremy Scott and Dawn Rigsby of Sugar Creek Baptist and Jimmy Fenwick of Sugar Land FUMC. “This leverages all of those organizations,” Fenwick said. “We’re all in this together. As a collective, we all have to do this together.” One of their goals is to help average citizens get involved in the effort to stop human trafficking.
Pictured are members of local churches that are involved in the Freedom Church Alliance, a ministry aimed at stopping human trafficking in and around Houston. From the left are Dawn Rigsby, Jeremy Scott, Jimmy Fenwick, and Rick Nixon. (Photo by Joe Southern)
ing.” Their primary tool is a GoOne of the complexities Box, a small box filled with Human trafinformation, a video, a music ficking in our of the issue is age. At 18, CD, a GoBag, and numerous area affects women can be charged with other items that people can all of us. See prostitution even though page 4A many women over the age use to help victims escape of 18 are victims of sex trafslavery. “It’s a toolkit we use to help mo- ficking. “These girls shouldn’t be busted bilize people to be a part of the for prostitution, they need to be taksolution,” Scott said. en in and moved to victimization and handed off not into the legal What is human trafficking? In order to be a part of the solu- system but into the health system,” tion, people first need to know what Jessup said. It was estimated in 2015 that lahuman trafficking is. According to the U.S. Department of Health and bor trafficking alone generated $150 Human Services: “Human traf- billion worldwide. That doesn’t inficking is a modern-day form of clude sex trafficking. “More money is made on this slavery. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or than all the sports teams make,” coercion, for the purpose of sexual Rigsby said. She said it’s highly profitable for exploitation or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, the pimps and slave owners. “Drug dealers are going from men and women.” Although a high percentage of drugs to girls because they can use human trafficking slaves serve them over and over,” Rigsby said. in the sex trade, not all do. Many How to help are forced into labor in various inLike any industry, human trafdustries, especially in restaurant, manufacturing, mining, and con- ficking follows the laws of supply struction industries. The Freedom and demand. The Freedom Church Church Alliance website explains Alliance strives to attack the probthat not all prostitutes are victims lem at both ends. One of the primary of sex trafficking, but many are. concerns for those in the alliance is The victims are usually young girls for the safety of all involved. According to the Department of under the age of 18. “The common age is 14 to 16,” Homeland Security, “The safety of Jessup said. “That to me is terrify- the public as well as the victim is
Rick Nixon, left, of Sugar Land visits with a resident along Bissonnet Street during one of his nights walking the street in an effort to help curb human trafficking. (Submitted photo)
paramount. Do not attempt to confront a suspected trafficker directly or alert a victim to any suspicions. It is up to law enforcement to investigate suspected cases of human trafficking.” “I can’t go in and rescue those girls,” Fenwick said.
SEE TRAFFICKING, Page 6B
DeWalt Heritage Center honors Armistice centennial
By Theresa D. McClellan THERESA@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The Rev. David Sincere knows firsthand the difference a caring adult can make in the chaos-filled life of a child. He was only 7 years old when the man who financially took care of his family, but also beat his mother and trafficked drugs, was killed. The dichotomy of emotions that situation brought is difficult enough for an adult to handle, let alone a child. So little David shut down as he watched his family and home situation deteriorate even more. He stopped speaking in school and when he did speak he was disruptive. He became one of those students that would make some say, “something’s wrong with that boy.”
SEE SINCERE, PAGE 7B
From staff reports FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
Governor rallies in Fort Bend County State Sen. Joan Huffman hugs Gov. Greg Abbott after introducing him Oct. 30 at a Republican election rally in Sugar Land at Classic Chevrolet. Pictured behind them are U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, left, and state Rep. Rick Miller. Results of the Nov. 6 election can be found at www.FortBendStar.com and in next week’s edition of the paper. (Photo by Joe Southern)
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