Terebinth Refuge Wins Leighton Media’s Gratitude on Repeat Contest, Gaining Vital Exposure for Efforts to Combat Sex Trafficking

(KNSI) – A St. Cloud area nonprofit helping women escape a life of sex trafficking is the winner of this year’s Leighton Media Gratitude on Repeat contest.

Starting in November, nonprofits throughout central Minnesota applied for a free advertising campaign, which included help with the production of up to three radio ads and a 13-week, 21-ad-per-week schedule on Leighton Media stations. Voting ended on December 31st.

Terebinth Refuge Executive Director CeCe Terlouw-Kvistad told KNSI News; she was amazed and shocked they won and discussed how this will help their organization get recognized. “Although I do a lot of speaking and sharing about Terebinth, there’s still people who go ‘Terebinth Refuge. What’s that?’ And so, opportunities like this are just wonderful for us, because this problem of sex trafficking and exploitation is huge. So, the opportunity for people to understand how we’re bringing healing to survivors is critical.”

They’re one of only two groups in the state supporting adults who’ve been forced into sex slavery. Their mission is to offer shelter, a safe home, hope, healing, and freedom to women in need. Terebinth provides a holistic healing model for the women targeting their body, mind, soul and spirit. The goal is to get these survivors into a career and on their own. Terlouw-Kvistad wants to break down the perception of sex-trafficked victim. “People sometimes have misunderstandings of what a trafficked person is or a sexually exploited person is. Sometimes people have a lot of biases about that and don’t understand the barriers and what these people have gone through, and often since childhood.”

She says the many of the women they see have been groomed since they were preteens and start selling themselves as teenagers. One startling stat Terlouw-Kvistad shared is that 46% of trafficking in Minnesota is familial, which means the family, someone in the family, is trafficking the child for either drugs, rent, or other expenses.

Since its founding in 2017, the organization has helped 150 women leave that life.

Gratitude on Repeat isn’t the only donation the organization had received lately. They’ve recently been aided by the Central Minnesota Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund to help with eliminating barriers for access to mental health and Our Rescue, a Texas-based group helping eradicate sex trafficking and child exploitation around the world.

KNSI News is owned and operated by Leighton Media.

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