Our heart is to teach the women in the Red Light District that they were created to create. We want to empower the women with life skills that include sewing classes with varying skill-levels to accomplish, art therapy, bible studies, group therapy and personal counseling. The objective is to teach these women that there is hope and also a possibility for other avenues of having an income.

1. To create an escape from the tumultuous environment of the Red Light District, even if only for a cup of coffee, a prayer and a shower.
2. To house the Free the Girls project (see below) and train women who are in prostitution skills and character qualities required to keep jobs, in order for them to have the opportunity to leave prostitution.
3. To be a refuge of hope within a community of darkness, and present the gospel to those who may never be in a place where they can hear it.

Free The Girls Project
Face of Justice offers, through "Free the Girls", a job training program to empower women in vulnerable situations to help them start a new life for themselves by establishing their own micro-business selling bras. Each woman is offered the initial inventory of bras to start her project and that little by little they can sell, replenish and grow your business.

Empowering clases
We have for them jewelry, sewing, English and computer classes, providing women from the Red Zone with a comprehensive business opportunity to escape their situation of prostitution that would otherwise be forced. We strive to give our women the hope of a future with greater opportunity in the economic, relational, spiritual and emotional spheres. Our business model teaches them the values ​​of responsibility, commitment, consistency, quality, ownership and professionalism.

The method that we have chosen to encounter the problem head on is to build relationships with the victims and the people who are most vulnerable to it. Face of Justice is committed to going to the streets of downtown San José where we build relationships with the prostituted men, women and children there.

Almost every other part of our ministry stems from taking 15 staff and volunteers to roam the streets of San José and serve coffee and cookies twice a week into the late hours of the night when our friends are on the streets the most. A hot cup of coffee, a good hug from a friend and a prayer from a powerful God is often all these men and women need to invite them out of the darkness in which they live.

+ 2.000
COOKIES DISTRIBUTED

When we encounter people in prostitution on the streets (during the ministry previously mentioned), we only have about ten minutes to have a conversation with them. For most of them, our prayer for them on the streets is the only time they are consciously in the presence of God. Most are not comfortable walking into traditional churches, so we have a “street church” service twice a month that is open and inviting to anyone and everyone: people in prostitution, transvestites, homeless people, their families, street kids, etc. Anyone can come and will be loved fully. With the help of local pastors, a local church building, local worship leaders and local volunteers, we put on this service including worship, a short talk, and dinner together. The idea is to give them a longer opportunity to be submersed in the presence of God, and learn what it means to be a part of a community of believers who love one another sacrificially.

Men's Bible Study
There is one park in San José with over 100 boys and men who prostitute themselves every night. Many of them are addicted to drugs, trapped in the street culture, or are homeless and haven’t been able to get out of prostitution for that reason. Our volunteer-led Bible Study meets at one of our staff members’ homes every Thursday night, encouraging the men in what true biblical manhood looks like and walking alongside them in order to help them in life-altering decisions.

Casa Libertad is the safe house of Face of Justice. We provide a safe environment for at-risk female minors 12-17 years of age who have fallen prey to the destruction of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. One of Costa Rica’s greatest needs has been a place to offer over-night housing for minors who are victims of those crimes. Before the opening of Casa Libertad, these minors were being placed in temporary housing, which did not meet their specific needs as victims. Casa Libertad opened in October 2016 in order to provide a safe place where their needs can be adequately met.

Our main objectives for this immediate care center are:

• To provide immediate, short-term holistic care for girls aged 13-18 who are rescued, discovered or seeking refuge from dangerous and exploitative environments.
• To work in collaboration with government efforts and protocol in meeting the needs of the victims they and Face of Justice encounter among these at-risk populations.
• To provide a safe place where these victims can be protected from perpetrators, traffickers and pimps.
• To create and maintain a positive mutually beneficial relationship with Poder Judicial, OIJ, PANI, Atención de Victimas, and Ministerio Público.

AHAVA is a self-sustaining mobile coffee business that serves as a vehicle for empowering our girls with dignified employment, life skills, and job training once they turn 18. 

More than providing a service or a product, Ahava exists to impact and provide opportunities to continue dreaming and to be a bridge between rescue and reintegration. We believe that giving is the best way to receive and strive to always share experiences full of love and purpose with everyone who meets us. We always seek to differentiate ourselves by giving in abundance, both in the quality of our services and that of our products.

We partner with a local prosecuting attorney in order to bring education about trafficking and sexual exploitation in the country or specific city. By educating about the laws and what we can do as a community, we begin to see the issue diminish in that community. We are partnering with government agencies and other NGOs to bring awareness and education throughout the country. This training is effective because it allows the police to see what they can do in the midst of all that is going on, and it gives them an understanding of what trafficking looks like so they can be looking out for it. It is difficult for police to catch a vision to help end trafficking and exploitation until they know what it looks like on the outside. Even though they are constantly in the zones where trafficking is predominant, it is often not until they go through our training that they know what to look for, what the laws are, and how to have the confidence to respond. Our main objectives for this program are:

• To build a bridge of trust between the people and government officials who are fighting to end trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in Costa Rica.
• To motivate community leaders to report and be a part of the solution.
• To educate community leaders on how to identify victims.
• To explain the laws related to trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
• To educate about how to utilize the government reporting system currently in place.

Investigative police, similar to the FBI in the US) investigate and capture the men and women involved in making Costa Rica such a hot-spot for foreign sex tourism. They are working on incorporating

Internet technology in order to do sting operations with men who arrive to Costa Rica for illegal sexual encounters with minors. These are also one-to three-day trainings specific to the country in which we host, translate, and help facilitate these informative meetings.

To guide each woman or child who has fallen victim to trafficking through the legal processes they face as they bring their perpetrators to justice. The Special Advocacy Project will train people to serve as a liaisons between the investigators, the courts, the victim, their family and the community. Costa Rica’s current government protocols do not adequately meet the emotional and physical needs of the victim, and advocacy is a concept that needs to be applied to the high-risk population in the legal system. The Special Advocate Project will walk through the legal process of pressing charges, testifying and bringing to trial the perpetrators of women and children subject to trafficking and sexual exploitation.

This program will involve:

• Training adult leaders to be Special Advocates.
• Adapting the program to current government protocol already in place.
• Establishing an in-court system in which Special Advocates are appointed at first point of contact.
• Placing Special Advocates in the field as victims are rescued, discovered or come forward to report.