Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has spent more than a decade combating human trafficking and has helped to rescue over 2,000 victims and bring more than 500 traffickers to justice during that time. Recently, the Tim Tebow Foundation partnered with the National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF) to rescue an additional 71 missing and runaway children in New York.
“So grateful that 71 missing and endangered children have been identified and are safe!” Tebow wrote on Instagram. “So often when children run away, they don’t know the danger they’re running into — trafficking, exploitation, drugs, violence, criminalization.”
Two organizations joined forces in the first-ever “Capital Region Missing Child Rescue Operation,” Tebow explained.
“The operation brought together more than 60 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private partners to collaborate and provide critical investigative support,” a statement on his Instagram page explains.
Those missing were found in Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, New York as part of a three-day operation in which investigators “worked to explore new leads, review case notes, and leverage technology to find children who are at risk of endangerment, exploitation, and harm.”
“At NCPTF, our commitment is simple: Find. Listen. Help. Every missing child is at risk, regardless of how they are classified—runaway, abducted, or missing. And every child deserves urgency, care, and action,” said Kevin Branzetti, the co-founder and CEO of NCPTF.
As CBN News reported, in recent years, Tebow’s organization has been looking for opportunities to step up efforts to rescue innocent children.
Last year, he appeared on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to do more to fight child sex trafficking.
“To sum it up, we strive to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves,” he told members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. He cited the evidence of more than 50,000 unidentified boys and girls worldwide who are known to have been sexually exploited.
He added that those unidentified children are being abused, raped, and tortured and their images and videos have been captured online, but no one knows who they are.
“They’re unknown,” he explained. “And until someone knows them, how could someone rescue them.”
According to his foundation, the U.S. hosts many of those websites that contain this harmful material – more than any other nation in the world.
In September, Tebow went back to Capitol Hill to rally support for the “Renewed Hope Act of 2024,” which pushed to hire and train more personnel within the Department of Homeland Security’s Victim Identification Laboratory of the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit.
“I believe the ‘Renewed Hope Act of 2024’ to combat child sexual exploitation is going to do just that: give hope to kids, to protect them, to love them, and to show them Faith, Hope, and Love in their darkest hour of need,” he wrote.
In 2023, Tebow started the UNKNOWN campaign to raise $1 million to combat trafficking.
“I believe that human trafficking and child sexual exploitation are two of the greatest evils we face today,” he expressed.
“Children around the world are suffering from horrific sexual abuse, many from the very people who are meant to protect them. CSAM, or child sexual abuse material, is an evil that has been hiding in the darkness of our communities, our homes, and the internet for too long and it’s past time we exposed it to the light,” he continued.
“Those are all boys and girls that are made in the image of God that are going through torture,” Tebow added.
You can visit the Tim Tebow Foundation for more information.
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