In this live‑replay, licensed therapist and nonprofit founder Shakeeta Torres delivers a comprehensive overview of human trafficking, blending factual information, personal testimony, and spiritual insight. She begins by sharing how the film “Sound of Freedom” sparked a renewed calling, then defines trafficking and dismantles three prevalent myths: that victims are only women or children, that all trafficking is sexual, and that the total number of victims is known. Torres describes the varied forms of trafficking (labor, gang, sex) and the many settings where it occurs, emphasizing the mental, emotional, and spiritual battles survivors face, including trauma bonding, Stockholm syndrome, and addiction. She recounts prophetic dreams that illustrate the horror of abductions and brain‑washing. The talk moves to concrete survivor needs—legal aid, housing, medical care, mental‑health services—and highlights local North Carolina resources such as Work Corps, Worth Court, and the Polaris hotline. Torres then explains the origin and mission of her nonprofit, Doing It For The Kingdom, its current infant stage, and the urgent need for volunteers, donors, and community partners to support education, outreach, and wrap‑around care. The presentation concludes with practical ways listeners can help, a call to watch the movie, and contact information for further engagement.
Chapters
Hello everyone, welcome, welcome, welcome, uh, welcome back to the replay for those of you who will go back and watch this later. Um, thank you so much for joining in. For those who will be coming in today to, um, hear, um, more about human trafficking and more about doing it for the kingdom, okay, so my name is Shakeeta Torres. I am a licensed therapist, and so many different things. But most importantly, I'm a daughter of God. And so today we're going to discuss human trafficking, all right, and way that you can get involved for you to be able to help. And so as you can see by the title of today's live, it's called Sounds of Freedom. And so about not this past weekend but the weekend before that my husband and I went to go see the movie Sound of Freedom, and I already knew. I said, I told my husband, I said, listen, when we go watch this movie, I already know that I'm gonna be stirred up. I know that, you know, that God want to really put, um, more on my heart to share with you all. Um, and so if you have been following me for a while or following, um, Luna for the Kingdom for a while, you may kind of already see, you know, me posting things about human trafficking, um, here and there. So before I, I start, I do want to say a prayer. I, I'm— I believe in prayer, so we're going to pray and I'll get into, um, today's, um, teaching in a sense. So Father, I just thank you, Lord. I thank you for every single listener. For those who have an ear to hear, let them hear. Holy Spirit, I ask you, God, to help me to explain things in a way that they can understand and be able to digest. Lord, human trafficking is such a huge, huge topic and it has so many different dynamics that is happening with it, Lord. So God, help me, God, to execute what you want me to say to your people today, to encourage them, to inspire them, God, to help them to see that, God, they can be a part of the change. And so, God, I honor you and I trust you in everything that I do. In Christ's name I pray, amen and amen. All righty, so with that being said, first and foremost, what is human trafficking? Okay, human trafficking is the unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service. Typically in the form of forced labor or sexual exploitation. Okay, that's a general definition of what human trafficking is, and it's happening all over the world. And so back to what I was saying before about watching Sounds of Freedom, the movie was done beautifully. I love how they took this, this issue but they also gave hope, okay? And so the movie, you know, was geared more towards how, um, I forgot his name, the guy who actually did all the work, right, to go rescue these babies. It's done primarily out of the USA, right? But it happens here in the USA too as well, all right? I have been studying human trafficking on and off since 2019. So I have a whole blog on our website, doingitforthekingdom.org, where I am, um, sharing with you all how I got into it. All right, it's definitely a call from the Lord. God has given me a burden and a heart for this population. Okay, so back in 2019, um, you know, I was introduced to it through my mentor, Dr. Veronica Hardy. She began telling me, Shakeeta, I think you'll be great. At, you know, really, you know, getting into this area and learning more about it because you have experience in mental health with grief. You understand the faith component. You understand so many different things and trauma to be able to help this population to rehabilitate. Okay. And so during that time, I kept saying, God, like, what do I need to do? Because I end up going to like several workshops and oh my gosh, the information just blew my mind. It really did. It actually made me sick to my stomach for like almost 2 weeks. I was like burdened with so much emotion behind human trafficking. And so like I said before, there's no way I can explain every single detail to you all today. This will be extremely long live, but I wanted to share with you the highlights of, you know, how I got into it. And so first I became an ambassador of Shared Hope. They are an international nonprofit for prevention for child sex trafficking. They offer a variety of information on their website as well. They also have a report card for every single state, letting us know what states are doing good in this area and what states need to be more proactive in helping to educate their areas about human trafficking. Okay, so I'm in North Carolina. When I checked it the other day, we had like a D. Okay, so that's not good at all. And so what's happening is the awareness of human trafficking is increasing. It is. But there's still a lot of people who don't really know. And the theater, you know, it was packed. It was like 2:30 in the afternoon, uh, it was packed. People were crying left and right. You can hear the sobs in the room. And people didn't, didn't really truly understand what human trafficking looks like. And it has many faces to it, you guys. It has many faces to it. And so not only have I learned what it looks like in the natural, but God also giving me lots of dreams and visions about about what really happens as well. He's given me insight both, both ways. And so the number one thing that people don't understand is that human trafficking is also spiritual. It's a spiritual component to it as well for the people who are in it, who are being trafficked, for those who have been rescued, for the survivors. It's a mental battle. It's a mental battle. And so, um, with that being said, um, today I want to go over some myths with you about human trafficking. I want to share with you more about doing for the kingdom, and also, um, let you guys know some ways that you can actually, um, get involved with minimum time, okay, with a little time, all right. And so the number one about human trafficking is this: all victims are either women or children. That's not true. Men are being trafficked, and so are children. Children are too, okay. I mean, uh, men, men and boys are too. And so here is, um, what makes a person more susceptible to human trafficking. Um, one, a prior history of abuse or sexual violence, generational trauma, poverty, unemployment, unstable living situations, and homelessness. Okay. The second one here is all trafficking is sex trafficking. That's not true either. You have labor trafficking, that's one. Um, you have gang trafficking, that's another one. Okay, and so there's different types of trafficking because I have done so many workshops at universities. I've done workshops, um, through Fort Bragg, the military base, virtually as well, in person. Um, we've held, uh, seminars in person over the past— since 2019 now, on and off to 2019— to educate people about human trafficking. And it can happen in nail salons, it can happen in sweatshops, massage parlors, restaurants, hotels, um, domestic service. It's so many faces too, as I was saying before. So many faces to it. The third myth is this: we know the number of slaves in the world. And when we— like, when we say slaves, these are people who are being trafficked, of course, okay? And we don't. There's a nonprofit called, um, Polaris— P-O-L-A-R-I-S, um— Project. If you go to their website, they have like the most accurate up-to-date information about people who are calling into the crisis line, but so many cases, you guys, are being underreported. And for so long, so many, you know, people had no idea they were being trafficked because how it happens— like, for example, I'm gonna give you an example. So, you know, teens can be trafficked through school, okay? They could be groomed, um, by a guy they meet. It can be someone older. And they may buy them nice things and do nice things for them. And then eventually they will start to earn their trust, right? And then they will try to coerce them into doing these things for them. And pretty much they're getting paid, the traffickers getting paid for the victim and what they're doing with other people. And so as I said before, today I'm not going to go into an in-depth teaching. It is a lot to cover. It's a lot to cover, okay? And so I encourage you to join our email list, www.doingitforthekingdom.org, for you to learn more about it. And every month, at least once a month, if not biweekly, you know, I'll be sending out emails to people with information to kind of give you like those bite-sized pieces of information. Um, I remember it's not even about food, this was like before the pandemic. In my area, they have what they called, um, I think it's called Worth Court. So Worth Court is for people who have been trafficked, right? And they will have obtained like all these, uh, criminal, you know, criminal records from doing things they shouldn't be doing. They're illegal, but they were doing it because they was forced to do it from their trafficker. And so Worth Court was created to help them to rehabilitate by giving them a chance to, you know, go to rehab, get therapy, um, help them to get legal aid, um, connected in the community to get, um, what they need as far as food, dental care. They need so much. So it was created, um, to help them to rehabilitate instead of giving them their charges. Okay, so I went to the training they had back in 2019 And it was an all day— it was an 8-hour training, almost 8 hours. And the whole training was all about trafficking, um, for kids and adults. And it was just— it was just a lot. It was mind-boggling, okay? And in my area, it happens a lot, okay? Um, it happens in politics, it happens at these quote-unquote churches, okay? In my area, I know at the mall there used to be this— well, it probably still is— a person going around saying, hey, you want to do Bible study? Or, hey, you want to come and be a part? And they were a cult. They were trying to reel in people for different reasons. Um, not, not only just, you know, sex trafficking, but also for labor. And she like— labor trafficking into like pretty much embezzling money as well. So you guys, once again, it's a lot of information. It's a lot of information. I have so much going on in my head right now that I can barely keep up with it, to be honest. All right, and so those are the 3 myths of human trafficking. And so what I want to do now, I want to kind of go into, um, the dream that God has shown me over the years about human trafficking. So it's been so many, so today I'm going to review just, I think, 2, maybe 3 um, that God told me to highlight to you all, um, during this live today and this teaching. Um, one, I remember this was like— I had to go back and look at my journal— probably last year, earlier last year, I had a dream that me and my little— my youngest daughter, where it was in, um, was in Food Lion, and we was getting ready to check out, but the next thing I knew, she was gone. Like, I couldn't find her. So I ran outside, and when I ran outside, I saw this vehicle, and I saw her in the back seat of the vehicle, like, banging on the window, like, Mommy, help! Mommy, help me! Help me! Help me! Okay, and so I'm trying to run the best I can to get to her, but I collapse, you guys. I collapse on the ground. This is in my dream, okay? And I'm looking to see if I can get the vehicle's license plate number., and it didn't have any. It was gone. And they took my baby, and I was sitting, I was crying, but I could not get up. And so if you're a person that understands the spiritual, spiritual realm, what God was showing me was that, you know, these, these women— there was two women taking my baby, you know— had put like spells and like witchcraft on me so I couldn't have the energy or the stamina to even go run to rescue my baby. Okay, and so it's happening. It's— that's the area where they try to plan and plot. Whatever, you know, you know, you have a mom or a daughter or even a son or small kids and you out and about, they're becoming bolder and bolder and how they try to obtain, um, obtain these children. So we have to be mindful of that too in our surroundings. And not only that, you guys, she had a dream the same exact night that somebody had taken me and she couldn't find me. And so I'm like, wow, God, you were really showing, showing, you know, a different side of, you know, how people are abducted. Okay, okay. The second dream I had was, um, I was in a compound with me and my 3 other siblings. Okay, my mom had 4 children. I'm the oldest of 4, and all 4 of us were there on this compound, and we was like pretty much like almost like it was like we had been brainwashed to be at this place. Okay, now I don't know if you ever seen this show before called, uh, it's home— it's by Tyler Perry called Ruthless. I watch a little bit of it here and there, but I kind of had to pull back from it because it was just so— it was just so demonic. It was— it really is. But it reminded me of that show and how these people were brainwashed to be on this compound and what the leader was doing, the cult, the cult leader was doing, you know, um, he definitely was like raping them and doing all kind of things to them on this show, okay. It's, it was disgusting. And he had brainwashed them to be on a compound, but like if somebody was to leave, okay, he would actually hurt the people who was actually still there. So in my dream, I was there with my siblings And my brother said, you know, I want to leave, but he said, I'm afraid to leave. If I leave, I don't want you guys to get hurt or get killed, okay? And so like, they're really like using different tactics and different ways that they are, um, trying to get people to stay as they have been abducted over time, okay? So once again, this is layered. Like, it's so many layers to this. So many layers. Like, everything I just told you could probably be about 8 workshops all by itself. It could be 8 all by itself. Now I want to go over a little bit about the mental part of human trafficking. And so one of the things that, you know, I hear people say, and it really aggravates me, but I have to realize because people don't understand, you know, mental health, right, is that like, why do these women and these men, they stay in these environment. They stay with the person who was trafficking them. There's so many reasons why they stay, you guys, so many way— reason why they stay. Number one, that said before in my dream, right, they might have, you know, a child or family member that may be with them and they don't want to leave them. They want to protect them and stay to keep them safe. Number two, Stockholm syndrome. Stockholm syndrome is a real thing. You can go to YouTube right now and you can look it up, study about that. And what they do is they brainwash their victims to be like dependent on them. So instead of them like initially being afraid of them, you know, they brainwash them to be so attached to them to the point where they see them as like their— like their savior, or like they can't live without them. Okay, um, also, you know, if they don't have anywhere to go as far as like housing resources, things of that nature, they're not gonna— they're not gonna leave. They'd rather stay in an environment where they know what to expect than to leave and go to a different environment and not know what to expect. If their needs are not being met, they're not able to get food, clothing, housing, and they're going into unfamiliar territory. I can't share specific information I received from the police department in the past, but that is definitely one of the ways they shared with us, the board, during that time with the nonprofit, was how, um, victims that will come out the lifestyle and then it would go back. You have to think that with domestic violence as well, it's a cycle. And the average person, it takes them 7 times before they actually leave completely. They can leave that person 7 times, okay, and they'll keep going back because they're familiar, because of trauma bonding. So trauma bonding is whenever this person, you know, becomes, um, attached, and they become used to chaos. They become used to, um, you know, the things that are traumatic. It's like they become used to that. It changes their brain makeup. It changes how they see relationship. It changes so much. And so when they come out and they're like in a normal environment, to them that's abnormal, okay? If you've been in, you know, somewhere for months or even years in a situation, it's hard to kind of break free from that mentally, mentally and spiritually, you guys. Um, also addictions. Sometimes they are addicted to drugs or alcohol, mainly, mainly, you know mainly drugs, and the trafficker is like their supply. So if they're getting out and they're going into an environment where they can't have access to that, that's an addiction that can cause them to go back to that lifestyle. So there are so many different reasons why they stay. And so people, you know, tend to like not want to help or not want to, you know, be supportive or donate. I'm not talking about just some money, but how about like clothes? I'm talking about different things they need, you guys. They need They need medical care. They need so much, okay? And so whenever they get out, they need like wraparound care. First of all, they need safety. They need to feel safe. They, you know, can I trust this person? They have, they have medical need that, you know, has to be met, okay? It's like a tier. And they begin to get those things, then they need mental health care. They have so much anxiety, trauma, loss of faith. You know, their fear of police because traffickers have like, you know, trained them to think that police officers are the enemy. And I do know that there is history, there's stuff there along with that as well with, you know, government people who you can't trust either. What I'm saying is that they had— they actually trained them to think that the government is just evil. And it's not all— it's not everybody. And so you guys, like, the world is like— I— it breaks my heart. It's just— it's just, it's, it's a lot. It's a lot. All right, and so moving forward to Doing It For The Kingdom. Doing It For The Kingdom is a nonprofit that, um, I founded in 2020. Um, the Lord told me in 2019 that Doing It For The Kingdom was a nonprofit. Um, I got the name before I knew it was a nonprofit. Initially, it was a slogan that Holy Spirit had given me because one of the things that I kept hearing during that time was doing it for the culture, doing it for the culture. And I'm like, okay, now Now I understand, you know, oppression, and I'm African-American, I get that, you know. But what happens, people get so consumed with culture that they forget kingdom, especially the believers. I'm about believers here who believe in Christ Jesus. And you know, I love all people, no matter their race, no matter where they come from. I don't care who they are, I love people. And so God was like, I need my people to be kingdom-minded, not just culturally minded, but kingdom-minded, okay. Kingdom. Kingdom does not have any, um, race or any of that, okay? Kingdom. So I had got a t-shirt made, doing it for the kingdom and all that good stuff. And then God said, doing it for the kingdom, the nonprofit. I'm like, at first I didn't know what— I said, okay God, well what is it? He didn't tell me right away, but as I began to get involved with human trafficking and understanding what was going on with that, then he told me, this is what I want you to build a nonprofit about. Is this. Um, so right now, I'm back from 2020 to about 2022. Um, we had a board, everything was going great. Um, it was me, like, two people that I knew, had secretary and all that. But seasons change, their term was up. And so right after the term was coming to an end, I also went through a lot of my family. We had death in the family, um, different things that were coming up, you know, different dynamics. I had to pull back from it and take a break because I was working and doing nonprofit work as well, okay? And so over the past, like, year or so, you know, the Lord has been giving me so many dreams, like, telling me, okay, pick it back up, I need for you to pick it back up, pick it back up. I'm like, okay, God, I'm trying, I'm trying. And first of all, I've never felt pressure from God to do anything. He asked me, he put the burden on my heart, um, to start this nonprofit. And so I was obedient and I did that. But here's the thing, right now it's me. I still got my people who still support us. Shakita, with anything, we're here, we got your back or whatever. Um, but when it comes to like doing the manual work, the work that it takes to get things up and going again, that's what we need. The vision of doing it for the kingdom is so big. It's bigger than me, okay? It's bigger than me. It's not about Shakita, it's not about, you know, one person. It's about God and him, you know, wanting his children to have what they need. You guys, right now there are so many nonprofits out in the world now when it comes to human trafficking, but each one has a part. No one— nope, no one nonprofit can do it all, okay? It takes years to be able to build something like that, to be able to have like that wraparound care, all right? And so in my area, I know there's one nonprofit here, they actually rescue— they actually go and rescue them, okay? Like, when I say rescue, meaning that once the police department, you know, come across them, they go out to where they are, they interview them, help connect them to different things, and then they kind of go from there. There's another one here that also works with just men, educating men about pornography and how human trafficking and pornography can, you know, goes hand in hand, okay? So educating and the men in the area, even women too, okay? And so my focus right now is education, educating people not just in my area but also, you know, in different states, okay? And so what the Lord put on my heart, he said, I want you to start looking for volunteers again, look for people who are able to, you know, do blogging. This— it's the simple things, do blogging, um, social media marketing, um, connecting to the community. I've been asked so many times, like, are you gonna have another workshop? I'm like, yes, but I need hands and feet. I cannot do it all, okay? I also want to get help with event planning. And I mean, I have a place here in my area where they're very supportive too with us hosting, um, workshops and things of that nature there. So that's the simplest way you can, you know, be able to help in general with anything. Share, share information about human trafficking. Talk to your family and friends about it, right? Let them know, you know, what you're— you know, what you've learned. As far as the nonprofit, if you're interested in volunteering 1 or 2 hours a week, please like reach out to me. Um, you can go to the website www.doingitforthekingdom.org, and there's a form that says apply to become a volunteer. All right, and so what we'll do is Once we get volunteers up and going, we'll start talking about different things we can do in our areas to educate. Okay, that's it right now, it's educating. And then over time we'll see, you know, who will be good candidate to be board members. Okay, it takes money to run the nonprofit. Oftentimes people hear nonprofit and automatically assume that they have all this money, and that's not true. Especially a baby nonprofit. Luna for the Kingdom is still in this infant stage. It is still in this infant stage. I don't have the resources, I don't have the finances, I don't have any of that right now to help anybody. I'm asking for, oh, can you take this client? Can you do this? Can you— I'm asked all the time, like, can I do something? But no one has not been wanting to actually be involved to help build up the nonprofit. And so when I'm asked that, I'm very transparent with people. I'm like, hey, I need help. I saw God, I need help. I need for you to send them because if not, it won't get done because I'm only one person. So as I said before, if you enjoy writing, doing research, um, you know, want to blog, um, things of that nature, reach out to me. Um, everything will be done virtually, you know, we will not be meeting, you know, in person. If you in a different state, that's okay. Um, I had people before who was on the board who was in like different states too, um, that helps out as well. Okay, let me look at my, my notes here to make sure that I have gone over everything for today. And so yeah, so also with Sounds of Freedom, I encourage you— I think they said it's in the theater for 2 months, so it came out July the 4th. And so that means August, September— September 4th, um, it won't be in theaters anymore. And so it is an awesome movie. I encourage anybody to go see it. But keep in mind that it's just only one face of human trafficking. One, you guys. One, one, one, one. Um, in your area, you can, um, look to see if they have, uh, what they call birth court. Every— not every state has this. We are very fortunate in my area to have this. It's in Fayetteville, North Carolina. They have Work Corps. They have trainings from time to time. I haven't seen trainings in a while through them, but they do have court, and court is open to the public. So you can kind of get an idea what it is like. We see it on TV, and we see it so commercialized, and this is real life. This is real life, real life. Um, there's also a hotline you can call. I think if you go to Polaroid— Polaris— you can go to their website, you can get their hotlines there, um, to be able to report if you suspect someone. Even just suspected, you can report that as well. I know in my area, I've been out before, um, me and my family, and we've definitely seen some very shady stuff. I'm like, yeah, it just doesn't look right. Something's not right here. So follow your intuition, um, follow your gut. So, um, that's all I have for you guys on today. Thank y'all for who, um, was able to come on and watch this live. I really appreciate it. If you have any questions, um, you can also email me at Shakeeta Torres at doingitforthekingdom.org, okay? And I will see you guys next time.
