KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new non-profit in the Kansas City metro is making its mark helping victims and survivors of human trafficking.
Rise Up KC has collected thousands of items that will go straight to in people in need, but the organization didn’t do it alone.
They solicited help from nearly a dozen small businesses from Missouri to Kansas.
Through the bejeweled bags, purses, and stylish clothes at Tyler Kingston Mercantile is a drop box.
Rise Up KC is collecting hygiene products for human trafficking victims and survivors.
“They are running away from their predator, they are running away from their pimp, they’re running away from captivity and when you run away from that, you don’t have anything,” Founder of Rise Up KC Aubrey Eitland said. “You have to take the bare the bare minimum, and that’s literally the clothes on their back.”
Rise Up KC links arms with established organizations working closely with women and children escaping human trafficking.
These ‘Hope Kits’ are meant to rise them in the right direction — up.
The goal is to make 400 Hope Kits in October. To do that though, they need to collect more than 6,000 items, like shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste.
“When these survivors and victims are going through such a hard time and something so simple can make such a difference in their lives, then I think it’s just really important,” Owner of Tyler Kingston Mercantile Jessica Mead said.
Another drop box at the Overland Park Church of Christ has been filled and picked up three times already. They are hoping to donate even more items by the end of September.
“Life is hard, life comes with a lot of hard days, but what I would love to say to them is just hold on,” Community Liaison of Overland Park Church of Christ Taylor Penrod said, “There is a God that loves you, there is a city that loves you and wants to rally around for your hope and for your healing.”
You can write a “Hope Note” to a survivor that will be put inside the “Hope Kit’.
Eitland said the community support is overwhelming.
“The community has come together to really, and I’m going to cry, sorry, to really help these people that are in trouble, the survivors, the victims like the community has really rallied together,” Eitland said.
Rise Up KC is hosting a ‘Hope Kit’ assembly event October 23rd at The Bowery in Spring Hill, Kan. The community is invited to lend a helping hand from 5p.m.-7p.m.
Eitland said there is a cap on how many people will be allowed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
If you want to mail a ‘Hope Note’ here is the address:
Rise Up KC
PO Box 451 Spring Hill, KS
66083
