On radio this morning, viewers were introduced to Tim Ballard, a best selling author who has also dedicated himself to liberating children sex trafficking though his group Operation Underground Railroad. But on TV tonight he went even further, explaining some of the group's methods and how they hope to document the efforts in order to raise awareness for this enormous and often ignored issue.
Before bringing Ballard onto the show, Glenn played a first look of "The Abolitionist", a project that will document the work being done by Operation Underground Railroad.
Much of the work done by Operation Underground Railroad was made by possible donations from TheBlaze audience, who gave an average of $108 per donation after Glenn discussed the group on radio back in November. Over $300,000 was raised that day.
Glenn has been a big advocate for the group and has worked to raise awareness of what they are trying to accomplish. He believes that working with them and helping rescue children from sex slavery will be some of the most important work he does in his life.
Glenn isn't alone in his support for the group. A member of Glenn's team, Mark Mabry, heard about the work being done by Operation Underground Railroad and volunteered to go and help the group and document their actions during a mission to Haiti. You can read Mark's story on the group's website.
The Glenn Beck audience has also played a huge role in the group's success. Because of the donations, close to 40 children have already been rescued.
“In the first two months of our operation, we were able to save 35 children,” Ballard said told Glenn. “There’s 40 more children on deck that we’ve already seen that we’re about to pull out. These are children that would not have been saved if it were not for your audience.”
In fact, Ballard had the family of the first child his group rescued record a special message for Glenn.
“The little girl, the 6-year-old girl, she was being trafficked,” Ballard said. “We got her out. The mom had been trafficked as a child, so it was this vicious cycle. We ended the cycle. It’s over for them.”
Watch the message below:
During the interview, Ballard explained how this group uses cutting edge software to show in real-time where people are sharing child pornography. Their website explains that they have teamed up with a data mini company to use the Child Protection System (CPS), "a law enforcement tool that locates child pornographers who trade in child rape videos online."
The site continues:
CPS has been utilized by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and has been responsible for tens of thousands of arrests in the United States and for the rescue of countless child victims.Operation Underground Railroad is licensed to deliver this powerful tool to nations of the world who currently do not posses it. O.U.R. Jump Team members conduct extensive training to government officials on the software, allowing them to utilize it to rescue children in their own countries and to apprehend the perpetrators.
