WHERE DO YOU TOTE LIFE? Mary Frances Bowley Totes Life through Giving a Voice to Those Who Have None

There are more than 100,000 children trafficked for sex in the United States. And, more than 250,000 at risk of being trafficked.  The average age of a child when they are first used is twelve to fourteen years old.  

Starting in 2001, Mary Frances and Wellspring Living have been working to change these numbers; they have truly been making a difference for the girls and women that they serve. They are reaching out to help young girls and women rebuild their lives, to live and to dream again.

Mary Frances sees these girls with eyes of hope and faith; she is inspired by them as they remain so resilient and strong after having experienced the worst of life. 

Mary Frances and the Wellspring team work to ensure that the girls know that they have someone who believes in them and sees beyond what has happened to them. As they build trust with the girls, the once-hardened hearts experience new life. Wellspring also works to provide the tools to help the girls rebuild their life, including personalized education that allows them to learn in their own style and at their own speed, therapy that helps provide healing from the experienced trauma, and life skills that teach them how to live in the world, healthy and whole.  They are allowed and encouraged just to be girls, to have fun, to enjoy life, and to experience freedom, rediscovering their childhood and all that they may have missed.

Although many of the girls come to Wellspring at a young age, as they find their inner healing, they exhibit an inner strength and compassion for others that should compel and inspire us all to action. As she was completing the program, one precious young lady of fourteen years old asked to speak with Mary Frances.  She confidently stated, “I want to help other girls so that they don’t fall into this.”

Now Mary Frances is helping make this young girl’s wish happen with the writing of Make it Zero: The Movement to Safeguard Every Child.  She is working to help safeguard not only the girls that at fourteen years old are forced into a life of sex trafficking but also the lives of all children who face poverty, hunger, isolation and abuse. 

Thank you, Mary Frances, for being a voice for those who have none and being a #LIFEgiving force in the world.  

LifeTotes is proud to support the Make it Zero Movement at http://makeitzero.squarespace.com! JOIN US!