posted on Nov, 28 2010 @ 12:48 PM
Last night I saw a shocking CNN documentary: Worlds Untold Stories: Trafficked in plain sight.
It told the story of Given Kachepa, a Zambian boy whose parents died when he was 7 (I assume he was an AIDS orphan). Kachepa found refuge by singing
in an acapella church choir, which was spotted by a Pastor Keith Grimes and his TTT Partners in Education First Baptist ministry.
Kachepa was taken to the US in 1998 aged 10, and the ministy promised him and 11 other boys a salary for singing and an education.
Instead the boys were enslaved, forced to perform exhaustively, and do other tasks, and no salary or stipend was ever paid. No education was provided.
Grimes' motives were hidden, but also very clear. Love gifts poured into his coffers after every performance of the group.
Grimes died in 1999, when a concerned Sandy Shepherd got a call that the boys would be jailed as illegal immigrants.
Shepard began receiving threats from the TTT ministry after she exposed them, and the boys had to sleep in her home.
Luckily, many boys were subsequently adopted. Their families in Zambia never saw a promised dime.
Shepherd adopted Kachepa, who recently qualified to study dentistry and now finally has US residency rights.
Since then he was finally able to visit his family in Zambia.
Here is a clip from CNN:
www.cnn.com...
Here is an article from Christianity Today:
www.christianitytoday.com...
edit on 28-11-2010 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)
edit on 28-11-2010 by halfoldman because: (no reason
given)