generates awareness and funds through recycling efforts to help the survivors of sexual trafficking, slavery, and abuse. We provide time and resources to established charities with proven track records in fighting this battle.
About the Founder
Before Barb Murphy heard about the epidemic of sexual trafficking and before she ever thought about recycling cans to help end it, she heard the cries for help of young women who struggled with eating disorders and "cutting." After struggling with bulimia for decades herself, Barb remembers, "All the sudden I realized I needed help. I was a mess." Then she heard about an eating disorder support group at a local church. "I went there on a Friday night, and that's when I got to start hanging out with people who were going through what I was going through."
"That's where the passion for Cans for Hope really started," Barb says. "Seeing the young girls, the hurt, watching a young girl try to find a treatment facility that would take her with her insurance. It was harder for her to get help than for me to find someone to help with my cancer."
"I would see young girls covered in scars from cutting. For five years, every Friday night, I saw them. A big percentage of women today that struggle with eating disorders and cutting, it's due to sexual abuse."
As a survivor of sexual abuse, Barb now lives and breathes passion for raising awareness about sexual abuse and trafficking in the United States and around the world, and for drastically changing the way victims and survivors of sex trafficking are perceived and treated. She expresses her passion by donating the funds she raises through her recycling efforts to proven organizations that provide hope and healing to survivors in desperate need. Barb also shares her story and raises funds to build safe homes through talks at churches, women's groups, support groups and businesses, locally in Colorado and around the country.
To meet Barb and listen to her talk is to encounter hope and to hear a prophetic voice calling us to right a situation that is very wrong. As she has said, "There are kids right know who are being kidnapped and trafficked [in the United States]…They deserve a lot better than what we're willing to do for them right now."
Read more about Barb and her story.
Listen to Barb unpack the need surrounding sexual trafficking in her own words.
The Hard Truth
So much focus is being put on international trafficking—which is needed—but, very little is being done in the U.S. for the American victims. The FBI reported that only 49 beds are available in the USA. When these victims are rescued, if all the beds are full, the victims are put into the juvenile system.
The Epidemic
* Every 2 minutes a child is being trafficked—more than 1.2 million a year— with an estimated 79% of all trafficking being sexually motivated (UNICEF, Chief of Child Protection).
* One in 12 children experience sexual victimization (Crimes Against Children Research Center).
* Since 2003, 308 pimps and hookers have been convicted in the U.S. of forcing youngsters into prostitution, but only 433 child victims have been rescued (FBI, Director).
* An average of 58,000 children are being reported missing each year—for which the primary motive is sexual exploitation (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).