Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Linzy Laird. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Linzy, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Lighthouse for Life is a small, local to the Midlands of South Carolina non-profit that was all birthed from a vision that our founder, Andrea Wind, had after hearing the story of a survivor of sex trafficking. Once she realized that sex trafficking is not this far-off problem that only happens in other countries, but rather it was happening right in her own backyard in South Carolina, Andrea knew she had to do something! Lighthouse for Life exists to educate the community on the realities of human trafficking, while simultaneously coming alongside survivors to empower them to stay out of “the life” of trafficking– all with the goal of seeing human trafficking completely eradicated!

Linzy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Our name and our logo came from Andrea’s initial vision of seeing a lighthouse shining the light of hope into the darkness of human trafficking, with little houses around the lighthouse because it takes an entire community to truly end this atrocious evil! Over the last several years, her vision has been caught by many in our community as they join us in this fight to eradicate human trafficking, and support us as we are the “boots on the ground” folks who are serving survivors. We help survivors with a variety of needs, all completely dependent on each individual… from tattoo cover-ups (to cover the branding/tattoos from their traffickers), to helping them get on their feet to support themselves and have a place to live, to assisting with fighting custody battles (often times, a survivor’s child may be the offspring of her trafficker), we are here to help however we can!

How’d you meet your business partner?

I got connected with Lighthouse for Life several years ago when I was working in a crisis pregnancy center and started noticing that some of my clients’ stories seemed a bit “off,” or sometimes they would have an older man with them who maintained possession of their ID cards, cell phones, etc. A friend of mine connected me with Lighthouse for Life so that the staff could come in and train me, my staff, and my volunteers on how to recognize signs of human trafficking and then what we should do if we suspected human trafficking. A few years later, I joined the staff at Lighthouse for Life!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

As a non-profit, all of our funding comes from individuals, businesses, churches, and other organizations that share our vision to see human trafficking eradicated and want to join us in our mission! It has been a slow growth over the last 8 years of our existence, but we are continuing to build momentum as more and more people hear about the problem of human trafficking and want to do something to be a part of the solution. We are always in need of more supporters as we continue to grow our reach into the community and see more and more victims of human trafficking be rescued from the darkness and brought into the light!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lighthouseforlife.org
• Instagram: @lighthouseforlifesc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lighthouseforlifesc
• Twitter: @L4LSC
• Youtube: @LighthouseForLife