Selah Freedom awarded $750,000 for fight against human trafficking

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, announced Thursday that Selah Freedom, with operations in Sarasota and Manatee counties, will receive $750,000 to help continue the organization’s fight against human trafficking.

“Human trafficking is a vile and monstrous crime against women and children,” Buchanan said in a prepared statement. “This funding will be especially impactful in a state like Florida, a hub for human trafficking. I will continue to work with organizations like Selah Freedom to end this vile form of modern day slavery.”

The funding comes from the Department of Justice and was awarded to the Selah Freedom, considered to be a leading national anti-sex trafficking organization, “with the mission to end sex trafficking and bring freedom to the exploited.”

Elizabeth Fisher, founder of Selah Freedom, has long said the Suncoast is a “hotbed” for trafficking and that her organization sees the number of young women being rescued from trafficking triple each year.

Buchanan and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., recently introduced The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act, which would create a grant program within the Office of Trafficking in Persons to provide training for students, teachers and other school personnel on the warning signs of human trafficking.