Tim Ballard is a former agent with the Department of Homeland Security and he’s dedicated his life to the rescue of children from sex trafficking.
Thanks to his non-profit organization, he has helped made the arrest of more than 2,100 sex traffickers and save more than 3,800 children from this life of horror.
Although our world is a beautiful place, it also holds so many bad things and dark sides and child trafficking is among the worst ones.
Many people avoid thinking or talking about this subject, but the truth is that it exists. We need to accept it and do something about it and protect our loved ones.
Ballard is one of those people who’s trying to make the world a better place by saving children from this disastrous life.
Man Helps Save Children from Sex Trafficking
Ballard does this through his non-profit Operation Underground Railroad and the goal is to take out as many children as possible from trafficking.
Ballard is a loving husband and father of nine children. He’s originally trained in counter-terrorism and weapons, but he went into the world of sex trafficking when he was asked to help start the Department of Homeland Security’s child crimes unit in the mid 2000s.
For the purposes of his role, he had to learn to go undercover as a sex tourist and convince the horrible traffickers that he was planning on buying children.
At the time, he was the father of 6, and found the work so traumatizing, but also pivotal.
He says that he learned to be horrible things and act like a pedophile or a trafficker. He did what he needed to do to enter organizations in horrible places located in Colombia and Mexico.
Ballard also had regular mental health consultations because this wasn’t easy. He wasn’t just shocked by the things he saw, but by how big the whole industry is.
He worked anti-trafficking operations for the government until he realized he could be of help to more children on his own.
In his DHS position, US jurisdiction limited him, but in case of his own operation, they would not be there.
One Moment that Changed His Life
While still working for the government, he wanted to help rescue the 3-year-old son of a pastor in Haiti named Gardy who was kidnapped by a church employee and sold to traffickers.
He did everything to help find him and even flew his dad to the US, but couldn’t make it a US case.
He promised to find Gardy, but his hands as an employee of the US government were tied.
2013, the Year OUR Began
Ballard assembled a group of people from the DHS, CIA, and the local and state law enforcement, many of whom were working security to work for his non-profit.
They currently have 25 employees worldwide and more than 100 contractors that help respond to calls worldwide.
Together with his wife, they even adopted two of the children they saved-a brother and sister
Learn more about the organization’s story on ourrescue.org.
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