How a lighthouse is trying to combat sex trafficking in South Carolina • SC Daily Gazette

COLUMBIA — It all started ten years ago, with the story of a young girl from Richland County. According to police, she was intelligent and wise, from a stable home.

But then she went to a party. Things went wrong.

Some people took embarrassing photos and used them to blackmail her, threatening to distribute them to her school. Unbeknownst to her family, she was exploited and became a victim of sex trafficking.

One day she ran away from home and her family didn't know why until they found a strange number in their phone records. When police dialed her, she was connected to an escort service.

Her story, told from a church pulpit in 2014 by a Richland County Sheriff's Department school resource officer invited by the pastor to speak, is what inspired Andrea Wind, a teacher and mother.

It opened her eyes to the fact that sex trafficking is happening in South Carolina, in her own community in the Midlands, and she decided to fight back.

Wind founded the nonprofit Lighthouse for Life to help other victims of sex trafficking who, like this young girl, often remain hidden.

“Her parents had no idea,” said Lisa Kejr, director of the nonprofit. “She had to sneak out at night and go do what they asked her to do, then come back, take a shower, and go to school the next day…Her whole world was shattered because of one bad decision during a party. »

Now, after 10 years in business, Lighthouse for Life plans to bring something the Columbia area has never had before: a shelter for sex-trafficked girls looking to escape.

South Carolina has four other emergency shelters in the state, but only one of them, located in Aiken, houses minors. In late June, Kejr said Lighthouse would seek certification from the state Department of Human Services to open a second one, hopefully by the end of 2024.

Last year, 342 cases involving sex trafficking were opened in South Carolina, according to an annual report from the state attorney general's office. The vast majority of trafficking victims were minors and women.

The state lacks safe places where victims of these crimes can go, the report said. That prompted Attorney General Alan Wilson to request $10 million from the state Legislature for shelters.

South Carolina attorney general wants $10 million to open shelters for human trafficking survivors

The Senate approved $5 million while the House approved $1 million. Budget writers in both chambers continue to negotiate.

If approved to open, the Lighthouse shelter will be able to house up to five women and girls at a time, ages 12 to 21, Kejr said.

While five may not seem like a big number, Kejr said smaller groups generally get better results.

“If you get too many in one space at once, the success rate goes down,” she said. “It’s starting to feel more like a facility than care.” So we're trying to get the numbers down.

“It’s more of a family atmosphere,” she continued. “There’s all the attention they specifically need.”

In addition to giving women and girls a place to live, the shelter will also be an approved private secondary school suitable for residents.

“When someone is a victim, we don’t know at what age that trauma started and what impact it may have had on their upbringing,” Kejr said. “You can have someone who is (numerically) in 10th grade, but is functioning at a third or fourth grade level.”

A possible safe house isn't Lighthouse's only milestone. Last week, he celebrated the opening of what he calls a women's drop-in service center.