“They are so moved because we are seeing them as human beings.”

Fighting for Freedom from Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation

Jason Rivers
Special to Spur Ottawa

It’s dark out, as a small group of women gather in the parking lot and head toward one of Ottawa’s strip clubs. They are familiar faces at the door, but these women are not dancers—they are members of Fight 4 Freedom and they changing lives among Ottawa’s most vulnerable women.

Fight 4 Freedom is a Canadian ministry with a vision to see the end of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. In the Ottawa area, they have operated for five years, reaching out to women working in strip clubs.

They send teams of women into clubs, bringing gifts with a scripture and word of encouragement for the women who work there. While there are several clubs in Ottawa, the teams frequent the same clubs each time to build rapport and relationships with the women and bouncers.

“You see them as if this could be your best friend, this could be your sister. So it gives you a completely different perspective of who these women are.”

“They are just so moved because we are seeing them as human beings and not looking at them as though they are the worst of the worst,” explains Sheila Denise, director of Fight 4 Freedom Ottawa. “We are just going in there and showing them God’s love. We pray that when they see us, and we have conversations with them, that they only see God’s love. We pray they will see they have purpose and worth, and that there are people out there who truly care for them.”

Fiona Elliott is a volunteer with Fight 4 Freedom. She has gone into clubs with a team since 2016. Understandably, she was initially very nervous about the idea, but team members have a thorough training process before they are actually sent out.

“The nerves I felt, when I thought that I’d have to go in on my first day, were completely gone,” Elliott shares. “There are these girls in the clubs who have no idea how loved they are; have no idea how much God loves them. You go in and it’s almost as if God gives you eyes to see the girls in a different way. You see them as if this could be your best friend, this could be your sister. So it gives you a completely different perspective of who these women are.”

“To see her countenance after the prayer, it was very powerful.”

While the team members going into the clubs are all women, they also have a few men parked nearby, covering the teams in prayer. The men also help prepare the gifts and write some of the scripture and notes to go with the gifts.

The goal of each trip is to make a connection in the club and then arrange to meet with the women outside the club at another point. Denise shares how a gift they brought built a connection with one woman and helped change her life—it reminded her about her father who had passed away. The team arranged to connect later, they met in a coffee shop, and the woman shared with how she was being watched and feared for her safety. After they prayed together the team was able to help her and the ministry connected her with financial assistance so she was able to stay out of the clubs.

“To see her countenance after the prayer, it was very powerful,” Denise says. “It was just like a complete and total change.”

At a recent fundraising dinner, one young woman named Melissa shared, “Fight 4 Freedom has been an incredible pillar of support in my recent successes and helping me out of the club. For all of us there is a gap between pain and the promise. In that gap we have to make a choice between faith or fear. Luckily, in the midst of my valley, Fight 4 Freedom was right there.”