In the Middle East, both mental illness and rape carry an inescapable stigma. So when Mercury One, with the help of generous donations from supporters, rescued a mother and two of her three daughters from a life of sex slavery with ISIS, caregivers on the ground came up with an ingenious way to offer counseling and recovery care.
"We're working through this other organization . . . these women take off their doctor's clothes, and they just go in regular clothes with yarn and knitting needles. They've got a little van, you know, Knitting Is Us or something, and they go to these houses and say to all the neighbors and everybody, Oh, we're teaching her how to knit.
While the women knit, they also receive counseling on how to deal with the loss of their children, the rapes they endured and anything else needed.
The sweater Glenn held on air Thursday was made during counseling by the mother rescued from ISIS.
"I want you to know how grateful we are, and more importantly, how grateful they are to you, for saving their life and the lives of their children," Glenn said.
To date, donations made to Mercury One's Nazarene Fund have helped save and relocate nearly 4,000 Christians and Yazidis. Visit Mercury One online to learn more about these rescue efforts or to make a donation to The Nazarene Fund.
Enjoy this complimentary clip from The Glenn Beck Program:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:
GLENN: Hello, and welcome to the program. I -- I want to share a story. And especially if you're watching us on TheBlaze TV or on the podcast at GlennBeck.com or however you're watching us, if you happen to be viewing us, I'll describe it here in a second. But this is so much more than a sweater.
I think -- is this not one of the most beautiful children's sweaters you've ever seen?
JEFFY: Yes. And --
STU: It's great.
JEFFY: And the other items in the story that surround this was fascinating.
GLENN: Fascinating.
So this is something Tania and I bought for my grandson. He's never going to get it. This is one of the most beautiful sweaters I've ever seen. In fact, I was talking to my son-in-law about it. He just brought it in. He said, "Where did you get this?"
And I said, "I'll tell you later. Why?" And he said, "This is some of the most beautiful work I've seen." He said, "This would cost 500 bucks."
PAT: Oh, and he knows fashion.
GLENN: He knows fashion. He's like, "This is a 500-dollar sweater easy." And you can tell it's all handmade. And it's just beautiful.
PAT: Was it Bergdorf Goodman he worked at for a long time?
GLENN: Yeah, which is like the Neiman Marcus times ten in New York.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: And so it's a beautiful handmade sweater for a little child. The story behind this sweater is so -- I just don't ever want my grandson to ever wear it. I just want to keep it, you know.
This sweater was made by a woman that Mercury One, through you and the Nazarene Fund, saved.
She was kidnapped, along with her three daughters, by ISIS. And sold into sex slavery. I think she was able to -- wasn't she able to keep two of the children with her. Is that right, Jeffy?
JEFFY: The original story was that she had two of the three with her now. I don't know how they got those two.
GLENN: So part of the thing that the Nazarene Fund is doing, is we're going in and we're trying to find these women and these children that have been captured and been used as sex slaves and bring them out.
But there's a problem in the Middle East with -- mental health problems are looked at in the Middle East kind of like they were looked at maybe in the 1930s. They're shameful. And nobody wants to know about sex slaves. Nobody wants to know about mental health problems.
And so there's -- there's nothing you can do to help rehabilitate these people, if you expect them to come to a hospital and get counseling. It's just not going to happen.
So we found this -- we found all these women. We rescued all these women. We rescued this woman and I believe two of her children. And her 13 is still missing. And we're still looking for the third. And we've moved them way up north into a safe area. And because it's just in this normal community, she can't go to get mental help. Now, imagine being raped six times a day and then standing there while some guy is raping your daughter. Imagine what your life is like.
Well, you can't get anybody to go to a doctor, and you certainly can't -- you can't get them to go to a foreigner. So -- and a man.
So what we have done is we're working through this other organization that has dressed these -- these trucks up as -- you know, these women take off their doctor's clothes, and they just go in regular clothes with yarn and knitting needles. And they've got a little van. You know, Knitting-is-Us or something.
And they go to these houses, and they say to all the neighbors and everybody. "Oh, we're teaching her how to knit."
And so while they knit, so no one knows what they're doing, they're giving her counseling on how to deal with the loss of her children and the rapes that she endured and everything else.
So this was made by a survivor of the ISIS sex slave while she was getting counseling. And we just had a big fundraiser for Mercury One. And a bunch of this stuff was sold.
JEFFY: Yeah. They were -- while that sweater is beautiful. There were other items there that were unbelievable.
GLENN: Unbelievable.
JEFFY: Mittens and socks and -- because we originally walked up, and we were talking about how our grandmothers used to give us these knitted hats and mittens for Christmas when we were little kids.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
JEFFY: And then we found out how these were made, and it was like, "Well, these are a lot better."
GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. It's just -- it was just heart-wrenching and beautiful. And I just wanted to show you today -- I wanted to bring this in and show you the beauty of what you have done.
Out of the horror, the beauty that you have done. Please, don't dismiss what you have been a part of, if you helped free some of these people in Iraq, these Christians and the Yazidi women. Don't dismiss that.
I want you to know how grateful we are, and more importantly, how grateful they are to you, for saving their life and the lives of their children.
Featured Image: Baby sweater hand-knitted by an ISIS sex slave survivor, as featured on The Glenn Beck Program.