On the weekend of Nov. 16-18, a Christian band called Remedy Drive traveled down the Hutchinson Kansas for the Kansas District Youth Gathering. While their job was to lead the high school kids with song and praise, they left them with a lot more.

David Zach is the lead vocalist in the band. He is from Lincoln, Nebraska but the band is now based in Nashville, Tennessee. While he is the originator of the band, he has many other musicians that rotate through playing with him, singing Christian Rock, Pop Rock, and Indie Rock.

Although Remedy Drive’s music is a huge part of his live, Zach has a very unique side hobby. He travels to all different places in the world about twice a month in a mission to help rescue young foreign girls from trafficking.

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. While most people still believe that slavery ended a long time ago, it is actually at an all time high.

There is an estimated 40.3 million people in modern slavery around the world. This is 10 million children, 24.9 million in forced labor, 15.4 million in forced marriage, and 4.8 million in forced sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is a serious federal crime with penalties up to imprisonment for life.

Because this information is unknown to most, there are not near enough people or organizations working towards creating an end to human trafficking. However, Zach is involved with a mission team called the Exodus Project.

The Exodus Project is a non-profit organization. This means that all of the work they do through is by donations and volunteering. This organization is used as a social media sticker campaign to enhance awareness about domestic human trafficking.

Volunteers such as Zach travel to different countries with their own money and do not receive any pay while being there. There are many different ways to help while over in these different countries.

The first way, which is what Zach does, is going undercover to find these traffickers. Zach goes into bars and has to pretend to be someone interested in buying a young girl for sexual activity.

These girls are forced to stay at bars throughout the night, taking drinks from various men that can be three times their age. 90 pound girls are consuming 20-30 drinks of tequila a night and having to smoke as well, creating tons of damage on their bodies.

All through his time there, hanging out with mobsters and traffickers, Zach is mic’d up and wired with a camera so that a designated worker can see and hear everything he does. After days, maybe weeks, of constant investigation, law enforcement steps in to rescue these girls and arrest the traffickers.

The next step of volunteer is wonderful woman who are there when the girls are being rescued, to comfort and help them through this tough time when they may not have family to do so.

Lastly, they help to restore these girls lives. To do this, they help employ them and get them back up on their feet as much as possible.

Zach has played a part in this as well. All of his band’s t-shirts are made from girls that have been rescued from trafficking. Along with this, part of his profits made from his band’s merchandise is donated to the Exodus Project to help keep this organization going.

Contrary to a common assumption. Human trafficking is not just a problem in other countries. Cases of human trafficking have been reported in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. territories. Victims of human trafficking can be children or adults, U.S. citizens or foreign nationals, male or female. Always be aware of your surroundings and never get into a strangers car under any circumstance.

While this seems obvious, other ways to ensure safety are to park under street lights late at night, avoid isolations, always have self protection devices with you, volunteer with caution, and be knowledgeable about human trafficking.

For more information on the Exodus Project, visit http://www.dcexodusproject.org/home.html. To receive text messages every time a girl or boy is rescued from trafficking, text REMEDY to 51555.