01/29/2019
Free movie screening to help raise $1M to end child slavery
A team of worldwide volunteers is making it possible
LOGAN, Utah – A free movie screening at the Logan Library (255 N. Main St.) will be one of dozens of worldwide events over a three-day period aiming to raise $1 million for the slavery-fighting non-profit Operation Underground Railroad.
The free screening will take place at the Logan Library at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31.
Volunteers at the event will share the practically unseen director’s cut version of “Operation Touissant,” an intense, eye-opening movie that documents a real-life extraction of child s*x slaves in Haiti.
Human traffickers posing as an orphanage in Haiti collected children after the decimating 2010 earthquake that killed about 300,000 people. “Operation Touissant” is the true story of those children’s rescue, told with actual footage from the operation.
Many similar operations by Operation Underground Railroad all over the world have rescued 1,765 women and children and aided in the arrests of 858 human traffickers in Washington state, Mexico, Cambodia, South America and more.
And that’s in only the past four years.
“We all want to see these kids rescued and feel we can make a worldwide and global impact by our hard work, effort and donations,” said Chad Thibodeaux, the Arizona man who recruited dozens of worldwide volunteers to coordinate the massive fundraising effort in conjunction with Operation Underground Railroad.
Thibodeaux said he became aware of the cause at an event for marketing software ClickFunnels. There, he screened the movie himself and came away with a broken heart.
Thibodeaux’s own organization, CF Design Academy, draws interns from across the globe and helps them master marketing skills and then pairs them with non-profits to implement fundraising techniques that benefit the non-profits and the communities they serve.
At the time Thibodeaux first saw the movie, he had been looking for a signature charity to support. He recognized it in Operation Underground Railroad.
He said the non-profit impressed him with the cause – aiming to end human trafficking, especially among minors who slavers force into s*xual deviancy or even organ harvesting.
Equally impressive is the way OUR operates. Every penny donated to the cause goes to fulfilling the mission rather than to salaries and unnecessary overhead.
“The people putting their lives on the line raise their own money to do that,” Thibodeaux said. “I knew our money would be well-invested.”
According to the documentary, it costs between $10,000 and $20,000 to rescue a single slave and help in transitioning them into a normal life.
Globally it’s expected that as many as 40 million people live in slavery. About 71 percent of those are women and children forced into s*x, labor or marriage.
Local business owner Mark Wilcox arranged the local viewing of the movie.
“When I watched this documentary, all I could see were my own children in similar circumstances,” Wilcox said. “We all owe it to our children to be part of this cause, even if it’s only with awareness. This screening will open your eyes and make you realize how big this problem really is. Please join us.”
The live screening for the community will take place in the Logan Library’s Bonneville room at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31. Gigi’s Cupcakes will be providing refreshments.
Online viewings will also be available.
And for anyone who can’t make it to either, the standard edition of Operation Touissant was recently added to Amazon Prime, where it can be streamed for free by Prime subscribers.
The event is free, but donations will be encouraged. Gigi’s Cupcakes of Logan will be supplying refreshments.
All donations will be made through an official portal to Operation Underground Railroad.
All are welcome, but the themes may be too intense for younger viewers. Discretion advised.