Eternal Hope honors son’s memory, rescues girls from sex trafficking

Hunter Graham regularly filled his backpack with food from his home before heading to classes at Lewis and Clark High School, but it wasn’t for lunch. He gave the food away to the homeless, mainly women.

Just after his junior year, the 18-year-old who loved watersports died in a personal watercraft accident at Hayden Lake on Father’s Day 2009. His memorial service drew more than 1,000 people, and a fund set up by family friends in Hunter’s name grew to a substantial amount.

“Two years ago as a family, we sat down and talked about how can we best use this money to continue Hunter’s legacy,” said his father, Mark Graham. “We agreed it had to be for those who were disenfranchised, poorly treated, just down on their luck.”

“The next day, I was Skyping with a young lady in China. That was at the end of 2012.”

The Grahams recently founded Eternal Hope, a Spokane nonprofit, working to build economic development that provides ongoing funds for the rescue and care of Ugandan girls and young women who escaped human-trafficking rings in China, Thailand and their own country.

To create a reliable funding source, Graham and organizers plan to launch a large commercial pig farm in Uganda, as early as spring, with eventual profits going to support the Kwagala Project. Kwagala is a ministry for rescued girls and offers a safe house in the Bwaise District of Kampala, Uganda.

Next week, Eternal Hope also will hold three meetings in Spokane to raise awareness about sexual exploitation and groups aiding victims. A caregiver from Uganda plans to travel here to speak, and a video of a rescued victim telling her story will be shown.

“These girls need long-term aftercare,” Graham said. “This is the piece that is so sorely missing today.”

It costs the Kwagala Project about $3,000 a year per girl for food, trauma counseling, education, job training, medical attention and other expenses, he said. The project has funds to care for about 25 to 30 girls now, but another 30 beds remain empty, he said.

“We’re going to find the funding to fill all the empty beds,” he said. “Just two weeks ago, there were about six to 10 girls ages 12 to 16 back in Uganda ready and sorely needing to come into aftercare, but they couldn’t because of lack of funds.”

In the financial industry for 30 years, Graham works in Spokane as a senior vice president with a wealth management firm. He agreed two years ago to volunteer as a business coach advising on economic development to fund ministries, which led to his Skyping with the woman in China. She is an American known only as “Watson” among the women she rescues from human trafficking.

Watson told him about the Kwagala Project, but also the story about her first rescue in China of a young Ugandan woman named Lillian. Now 26, Lillian is the same age as one of Graham’s own daughters.

Lillian was lured by an older Ugandan woman who gave her false claims of well-paying jobs teaching or in factories in China. Once in Guangzhou, China, a “boss lady” took away her passport and told Lillian she must work as a prostitute to repay costs. Because Guangzhou has a major shipping port tied to East Africa, a large African male population is based there, Graham said.

“I was losing sleep, literally, after hearing Lillian’s story,” he said. “That’s what prompted me to hire consultants to see if there was even a possibility to establish a business (in Uganda).”

“Watson has gotten to know over 200 girls by first name from Uganda, and she estimates over 1,000 from Uganda are in Guangzhou.”

The pig farm, about 30 miles outside of Kampala, also will create jobs and pay villages for corn they grow as feed, Graham said. Expected to take 18 months to ramp up, the operation eventually is expected to support more Kwagala homes.

Graham and his wife, Diana, along with family friends, so far have funded Eternal Hope’s start, he said. Their son’s benefit fund will provide some of the first dollars for upcoming stages.

“Through prayer, we believe this is how God is leading us to honor Hunter.”