North Carolina Mom Saves Teens from the Streets

When Abbi Tenaglia saw 12 and 13-year-olds hustling on the streets, while their pimps looked on, she knew she couldn't stay silent.

So, six years ago, the Durham, North Carolina, mom started Transforming Hope Ministries, a faith-based non-profit to fight human trafficking in her community by building awareness and encouraging prevention.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center say it has received 83 reports about human trafficking cases in North Carolina already this year. Twenty-five of the reports involved minors.

"Typically, when we hear the term 'human trafficking' we think of someone coming from another country into the United States to be sold for sex or labor and that absolutely does happen," Tenaglia told WRAL-TV. "But American children and adults are also being sold."

Tenaglia told WRAL that she does bookkeeping and administrative tasks for several Triangle-area businesses while running Transforming Hope.

She explained what motivated her to found the ministry.

"THM was started in November 2010 after I heard Christine Caine with the A21 Campaign share some of her stories about trafficking in Europe," she said. "As I researched human trafficking, I discovered how prevalent it is right here in the United States and how much it aligned with my own past trauma and brokenness."

Tenaglia said she has not been a victim of trafficking but identifies with those who have because of her own history with abuse and addiction.

Already, Transforming Hope has educated more than 3,000 people about trafficking, including parents, teens, first responders and service providers like medical professionals. The ministry offers training in Spanish and English.

One focus is encouraging dads to parent their daughters well.

"One major commonality in girls who have been trafficked is the fact that their fathers aren't healthy role models in their daughters' lives," Tenaglia said. "So if we can support healthy father-daughter relationships, this can be another way we contribute to preventing things like human trafficking from happening."

Tenaglia also encourages people to use the power of social media to promote awareness.

"We need folks to get on social media and start talking about this issue," she said.