EL Skills Training – A Program by Extreme Love Ministries
Trapped in the Cycle of Exploitation
Exploitation is not an isolated event for women growing up in the extreme poverty of Cambodia’s urban slums. It’s normal. And it often takes the form of prostitution and trafficking. That’s because exploitation began when they were children. It’s all they’ve known. No one ever helped them break free of that cycle. Hopelessness is a part of life.
Extreme Love Ministries exists to break such unjust cycles. We seek to transform broken individuals, families and communities through education, skill training, life mentoring, and discipleship. But breaking cycles requires time, resources and a commitment to relationship.
Empowering Victims Through Skill Training and Social Business
Poverty traps many in Cambodia, especially women, because they lack job skills and an education. With so few options, they can easily fall prey to exploitation, trafficking and prostitution. Without help, there is no way out.
Everlasting Love (EL) is a social enterprise and training program of Extreme Love Ministries (ELM) that provides hope—and a way out. Those accepted into the program (our main criteria is that they were once trafficked or prostituted) learn job and sewing skills in their first year of training. We also mentor them in life skills and disciple them to understand their value in God’s eyes. After training, they become paid employees handcrafting EL products, thus empowering them economically. Ongoing holistic transformation and healing frees these women from bondage, enabling them to become agents of change in their communities, as well as break cycles of poverty and exploitation for others. (Click here to sponsor one person’s journey to empowerment and freedom.)
If a woman in training has children, we provide safe, onsite daycare to keep them close to mom while she learns. Kids older than 6 are eligible to enroll in our Education Empowerment Program, which provides the support they need to attend school. Education provides another way to break cycles of poverty that lead to exploitation. (Click here to learn more about our education sponsorship program.)
EL products are sold internationally through events, wholesalers, and our online store. All proceeds help support vulnerable individuals and their families.
Every Person has Destiny and Purpose
God said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you with loving kindness” (Jer 31:3). EL is an expression of God’s heart that seeks to draw broken and desperate individuals into relationship with Jesus, where their hearts can find healing and restoration.
Our Products
Every EL product is handcrafted with great skill and inspected with care. Each emphasizes the great worth and value of the woman that produces it. Artisans also pray over each item during the creation process! Our store and wholesale inventory includes:
- Handbags
- Wallets and clutches
- Scarves and accessories
- Coasters and placemats
- Shirts and other in-season fashion items
Each item sold helps set women free, because all proceeds go toward program costs. Handbag styles receive names like Joy, Restoration, Peace and Hope to reflect the blessings women have received in the program.
Empower a New Life
Escaping the bonds of poverty and exploitation is not easy. But caring people like you can come alongside victimized individuals to help set them free. And the greatest freedom of all comes when they choose to enter a close, personal relationship with Jesus. You can be a part of releasing God’s everlasting love into their lives!
You can do that through financially sponsoring a trainee, purchasing products in our EL Store, or hosting a product party on behalf of many.
Sponsorships
Sponsor someone monthly, the most helpful way to help a former victim learn marketable skills and start a new life. A full monthly sponsorship for an individual in this program is $300 USD, which includes a salary for basic living expenses, training, discipleship, childcare, and other program costs. Partial sponsorships are also available—just tell us how much you’d like to give! (Please make sure to specify your donation as for “EL Sponsorship / Cambodia”.)
Consider becoming a partner with Operation Love Global, a non profit in Ramona, CA championing to end human trafficking. Funds donated will help meet immediate needs such as food and sponsoring children’s education for the at-risk in slum communities, missionary support & so much more. To donate, click the button that says make it a monthly donation using this link http://ow.ly/ewSs50Ka3FG.