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Moving mountains to fight slavery

Climb for Captives connects mountain climbers to human trafficking survivors.

Doing something you love to help others in need is the point of adventure philanthropy.

One East Tennessee photographer embraces it.

Paul Hassell's gallery in Sequoyah Hills features gorgeous photos of nature at its best. He travels around the world to capture those images.

Earlier this month, he climbed Mount Hood in Oregon - something he's done before. More than a dozen friends joined him.

"We've climbed Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta, down to Mt. Whitney, the highest in the continental U.S., so we have done a lot of different mountains with this idea of Climb for Captives," he said. "Climb for Captives is an adventure philanthropy where we do what we love to do to fight what we hate. So we climb mountains and we fight human trafficking, which is modern-day slavery."

The statistics are disturbing. Hassell said almost all rescued girls - 97 percent - return to the brothels within a month.

"If you just kick the door down and say you're free, it's way more complicated than that," he said.

The mountain climbers support an organization that builds safe homes.

"Rescue: Freedom International has safe homes in these different countries so that five girls a day are being pulled out of brothels right now in 15 different countries," he said.

The safe homes become communities that provide healing over years. It's a place for the girls to start over.

"Where 97 percent of girls go back into brothels typically we see only 7 percent go back and there are reasons for that. It would be great if it were zero. But the ripple effect is absolutely amazing," he said. "They see someone train as a nurse who has been through college and now they see them in the hospital and they see her and it is like this dynamite explosion of hope and they all say I can leave this, I can get out of this, it's possible."

The climbers are very invested in the cause, not only financially but also emotionally.

"Before the climb this year, in India, some girls sent a video clip letting us know they were fasting and praying for us while we were climbing," he said. "I was probably crying and tearing up. But just to see their faces and how thankful they are. And they are praying for us while we are on the mountain."

It's a connection across continents.

"It's adventure philanthropy. We go on an adventure and we're doing good at the same time. It's just like a collision of two great things. It's way more awesome than climbing a mountain by itself or going and doing fundraising. Putting them together is amazing," he said.

It's an amazing effort to free girls from modern-day slavery, one step at a time.

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