Whanganui couple learn about work to prevent human trafficking on trip to Thailand with LIFT and Tearfund

Tim and Lucy Oliver were invited to go to Thailand with Tearfund and LIFT to learn about LIFT's human trafficking investigative process.

When Whanganui resident and two-time Olympian Lucy Oliver read Daniel Walker‘s book God in a Brothel: An Undercover Journey into Sex Trafficking and Rescue, her eyes were opened to the horrific realities of human trafficking.

In response to her newfound knowledge, Lucy (a former New Zealand representative middle-distance runner) and her husband, Tim Oliver, started contributing financially to Tearfund’s work to combat modern slavery. Tearfund is a charity dedicated to addressing global poverty and injustice.

LIFT International is a partner of Tearfund’s modern slavery work with 53% (NZ$392,000) of its 2023 income coming from Tearfund donations.

“In April this year we felt like we wanted to do more so when we received an email from Tearfund inviting us to go on a supporters trip to Thailand to learn more about their partner, LIFT International, we felt like it was an answer to prayer,” Lucy said.

LIFT International, formerly known as Nvader, was founded by Daniel Walker and Justin and Carolyn Boswell to face the root causes of human trafficking. It was inspired by Walker’s time in the New Zealand Police doing undercover work to investigate and identify victims of sex trafficking.

LIFT’s three main goals are to identify, protect and prosecute.

In 2023, through the work of its lawyers and criminal investigators, 20 offenders were arrested, with eight convicted, 144 years of jail time sentenced and more than NZ$122,000 in compensation ordered.

Tim, a lawyer at Horsley Christie in Whanganui, was particularly interested in this aspect of LIFT’s work.

Lucy was primarily interested in victim support as she previously worked as a care and protection social worker.

“We attended workshops where the LIFT team walked us through the way they process a case. So we had their intelligence and forensics team talk to us, their law enforcement team and their social work team.”

Tim and Lucy Oliver hope others will join them in supporting the charities.

“As you can imagine, when it comes to something like sex trafficking there are so many complexities to a case,” Lucy said.

According to its 2023 impact report, LIFT removed and supported 194 victims out of human trafficking.

Part of LIFT’s work is referring survivors who have no safe place to stay to shelters. Tim and Lucy visited one of these shelters on the outskirts of Chiang Mai.

Social work care, legal assistance, life skills training, vocational training, educational support and health care are provided to the shelter’s residents. It currently housed 34 young survivors of sex trafficking as young as 11, Lucy said.

“That was really impactful for us,” she said.

The Olivers plan to continue contributing to Tearfund and LIFT, and they hope to get others on board.

“Hearing from the lawyers, investigators and social workers at LIFT, it was evident that they couldn’t do their work without the commitment of Kiwis supporting them through prayer, finances and advocacy,” Lucy said.

“They told us that our support makes them not feel alone and they feel like they have a family overseas caring for them.

“Even if in our lifetime we’re only impacting one survivor, I feel like it’s worth it. I always imagine if it was my daughter in that situation.”

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.