By Kimberly Gasuras
CCN Reporter

BUCYRUS — Former Bucyrus resident and Ashland University graduate Hali Brook recently paid a visit to friends and family in Crawford County, while gathering more support for the orphanage she leads in Bolivia.

Brook became interested in helping children in the area after learning about a little girl named Nhu in Cambodia who had been sold into the sex-slave industry by her grandmother to pay the interest on money that she had borrowed to purchase groceries.

“It has taken four years of hard work, but we recently received our NGO (non-governmental organization) status for Remember Nhu Bolivia,” said Brook, who is in the process of becoming a citizen of Bolivia.

She is part of the Remember Nhu team that is in the process of opening a Remember Nhu home for children there through donations from people around the world.

Remember Nhu operates 80 homes for children in 15 countries, which currently prevent more than 1,500 children from entering the sex trade. To date, and including past graduates, Remember Nhu has prevented more than 1,800 children from sex slavery through prevention homes like the one Brook is opening in Bolivia.

Brook, who is the daughter of former Bucyrus business owner Donna Brook, lives in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, where many young girls live in areas of the city that are dangerous and impoverished.

“Education is not valued because people are focused on simply trying to survive,” Brook said.

In a video Brook created, she said these girls grow up believing the only way to survive is to enter the sex-trade world.

It is Brook’s mission to provide these girls with the education and knowledge they need to be able to choose a different path in their lives, preventing them to be forced into the sex slave industry.

“God has called Remember Nhu here in Bolivia to offer these girls a way to survive without the sex trade,” Brook said.

http://https://vimeo.com/244896442

 

For more information about Remember Nhu, visit its website here.