The long-awaited movie covering the extent of depravity and magnitude of negative social impact by human trafficking, Sound of Freedom, has recently made its theatrical release. Director Alejandro Monteverde was moved to create the film after watching a segment on the evening news regarding child human trafficking. He was unable to sleep that night, but in his restless stupor, he became driven to create a masterpiece that would reveal for the entire world the ugly face of the child sex slavery industry.

Sound of Freedom begins on a heartwarming note, with the rhythm of a gentle drumbeat played by a young girl named Rocío in her bedroom in Honduras, singing sweetly in her native tongue. A well-dressed woman knocks at the door to her home, then, upon entering, she is revealed to have previously recognized the young girl’s talent when she was singing in the street. Following a brief but tense exchange with Rocío’s father, the well-dressed lady persuades the family to lend her the child for the day to audition for big-time show business later in the week.

What happens next is the worst nightmare of every parent. The father drops off his daughter at a hotel room the morning of the audition and is told to return at 7 PM sharp to retrieve her. When he returns to find an empty room, with no trace of his daughter or anyone having been there, the audience’s collective heart sinks ten feet below the theater seats.

Exit the movie theater for a moment, and enter real-life hero Tim Ballard:  Founder of Operation Underground Railroad and CEO of The Nazarene Fund. Long before Sound of Freedom’s inception, Mr. Ballard worked as a Special Agent and as an Undercover Operator for the Department of Homeland Security for over a decade, until he encountered one particularly harrowing mission that would change his life forever. While working for the United States government in Haiti, Ballard met a man named Guesno Mardy whose son, Gardy, had been lost to human traffickers. Hell-bent on seeing this man’s son returned to him, but unable to fully assist while holding the position he then held with the US, Ballard quit his job and formed an alliance dedicated to recovering Gardy and many suffering souls like him.

Operation Underground Railroad was born. Armed only with his heart, his faith, his passion and his drive to liberate (and enough firepower to keep the team protected), Ballard dove into the heart of darkness with a group of like-minded and similarly driven individuals to go undercover in an attempt to recover Gardy and other children who had gone missing from the streets of Port-au-Prince. The motley crew of determined warriors recovered 28 children from the tenacious grip of child sex slavery, two of whom Ballard later adopted.

Gardy Mardy was not among the liberated children, but a movement had begun. The wheels on the train of freedom spelling doom for human traffickers were set in motion, with no possibility of derailment. Operation Toussaint, as this skirmish was later known, become just the first in a series of child liberation events that came to occur all over the world. One thing led to another, and today, the motley crew that Ballard assembled to infiltrate Haiti has evolved into a global network of child-saving superheroes. Sound of Freedom is a semi-fictional account of just a day in the life of the regular occurrences of Operation Underground Railroad.

Sound of Freedom is a difficult piece of cinema to consume, not because of the tragedy shown, but because you know how real it is, even as it’s displayed before your eyes. Human trafficking is big business; with $150 billion in worldwide revenue every year, it’s more profitable than Google, Nike, Starbucks, and the NFL combined. Individuals like Mr. Ballard exist to lead the way to freedom for the 100,000 people that become victims of human trafficking every year, but their commitment and dedication alone is not enough to resolve the issue. They need our help.

It may seem like a lost cause. What can we do? Anyone who has seen the movie (based on real events) knows that the amount of corruption and evil at foot is too much for any one person to overcome. But coming together, we can make a difference. Tim Ballard may save only a dozen or three children at a time, but the diminutive scale of outcome from his consistent efforts doesn’t slow him down one iota.

You don’t have to be an action hero to make a difference in the lives of victims. The folks at Operation Underground Railroad and The Nazarene Fund need our help, both financial and promotional, in the form of social media support, to put an end to this terrible plague. And they’re not the only ones! Sound of Freedom is a milestone movie that will undoubtedly change the lives of millions and become a fixture of remembrance in the cinematic hall of fame, but stories like that of Rocío are playing out every day, with far fewer folks poised to listen to them.

If you appreciated Sound of Freedom, I strongly recommend searching out the stories of survivors in your local community. From my local area of Dallas, for instance, the movie 8 Days tells the true story of a young girl who was abducted from a high school party and sold into sex slavery. Despite her parents’ diligence in doing everything they were supposed to do to protect their daughter, including meeting the parents of the young man in whom she showed interest, Amber Stevens disappeared into the darkness of human trafficking without a trace. She vanished suddenly and fell through cracks laid out right in front of our eyes. Amber was fortunately returned after a hellish 8-day terror, but she serves as an extremely rare example of situations like hers in which the child is recovered. Thank goodness that she was, for her own sake and her family’s, as well as for the existence of the movie that came from her deplorable treatment:  8 Days

Finally, if you appreciate the work of Tim Ballard, check out his documentary on the mission that started it all:  Operation Toussaint

Child Safety Corps gives Sound of Freedom 5/5 stars for its quality acting and production, but especially for its societal impact and the long overdue awareness that it is helping to promote. We’ll be waiting eagerly to see both the long-term effects of this movie on society as well as the next moves in the lives of Monteverde and Ballard.