Selah Freedom provides insight to UN delegates for domestic abuse recovery, sex trafficking

SARASOTA, Fla. - A stay at a safe house through Selah Freedom means rescue, retreat and the beginning of a new part of each woman’s life. 

"Trauma is trauma. Whether it is happening here locally in the United States, or across the world," said Laurie Swink. 

Swink, the co-founder of Selah Freedom and Selah Consulting Director, welcomed an internation connection on Thursday morning. 

UN delegates from The Republic of Tajikistan came to learn more. 

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"Selah is recognized on a national level because of the outcomes, successes and measurements that we’ve had in the programming that we are able to use for our survivors," said Swink. 

Tajikistan borders Afghanistan and is a mountainous landlocked country where help for survivors of domestic violence and sex trafficking is few and far between. 

"Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues and the implementation mechanism is weak," said Malika Jurakulova. 

Lack of regulations has been a roadblock in opening crisis centers and shelters. 

Education is another problem. 

"The law on prevention of domestic violence was adopted back in 2013, prior to that no one knew that domestic violence was a crime," said Jurakulova. 

Malika Jurakulova is the head of UN Women in Tajikistan. 

A group which works globally for UN Nations to protect women’s rights. 

"Therefore, we came here to see how we can improve our work and what we can learn from here in order to replicate them in the republic of Tajikistan," said Jurakulova. 

An effort started a decade ago in Sarasota, now a global mission. 

Selah Freedom uses awareness, outreach, prevention, consulting and residential housing to help women break away from their abusers.

"What we do works. We are not saying it might work, it could work, but it absolutely works. To be able to provide that type of experience, resources and training to other organizations is helpful to them so they’re not reinventing the wheel," said Swink.