Mollie Thorsen Andrews: Local Roots, Global Impact
Warrenton Native Fights Human Trafficking
Written by Lia Hobel | Photo by Shannon Ayres
In October 2016, Mollie Thorsen Andrews registered for the annual Walk for Freedom event in Washington, D.C., with her sister. A21, a global nonprofit, hosts the event every year in hundreds of cities around the world to bring awareness to and combat human trafficking.
When her sister suddenly passed away before that year’s walk, Andrews knew she wanted to keep moving forward in supporting A21’s mission. “A21 was looking for someone to host the walk in 2017 and I thought immediately this would be something I’d love to do, and my family would love to do, also, to honor my sister that way,” she says.
Andrews says becoming involved in the community action event deepened her understanding about human trafficking and her desire to do more to help. “The first walk we did really put Washington, D.C., on the map,” she explains. “After that, things just naturally began to grow, and our efforts [did too].”
Andrews will be at this year’s D.C. walk, which will take place on October 19, though she expresses a desire to be at two places at once, as a simultaneous Walk for Freedom will take place in Ashburn at OneLoudoun.
Following through on her desire to be more involved, Andrews took on launching A21’s public service announcements across United States airports — a common hub for human trafficking. The initiative is known as the “Can You See Me?” campaign. As a Warrenton native, Andrews has worked diligently over the last five years to get the PSAs in her own backyard at the Dulles, Reagan, Norfolk, and Richmond airports. “I just kept wanting to do more because I could see the changes that were happening,” she says.
Along with airport announcements, Andrews worked with Clear Channel Outdoor to spread awareness on highways through billboards. “I think we had over 100 billboards with the PSA on them throughout Virginia,” she says, noting that some of the billboards are on the largest highways in Virginia with the potential to reach an average of one million people each month. The advertisements show different scenarios of human trafficking, as it’s not just kidnapping like what’s shown in the movies. Human trafficking can involve domestic servitude, agricultural labor trafficking, sex trafficking, as well as child exploitation.
After success in the PSA sector, Andrews was asked to join the nonprofit’s leadership. In her role as A21’s U.S. director of corporate engagement and advocacy, she works with global companies to find avenues to get involved and develop best practices to battle human trafficking. She also advises politicians and provides input on legislation for how an organization can work with survivors to protect them and their communities. “A lot of the work that I do in Virginia is not in my job description. I do it because I have a feeling that I have to do it. It’s in my heart,” Andrews shares.
A graduate of the Highland School, Andrews brought her work back home to Warrenton and the surrounding areas. She visits schools across Hunt Country to have community-based conversations about human trafficking and ways to prevent it. “It’s been really rewarding to go back to Warrenton, to Fauquier, and to Loudoun and give kids the tools they need to really protect themselves from online predators,” says Andrews, who cautions that anyone with an electronic device can fall victim.
Andrews says one of the rising trends is online exploitation and extortion, which can lead to online trafficking. In her school talks, kids and teachers are educated on what predators look like, the ways they can target children, and red flags to look out for. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a nonprofit that A21 works alongside, received 18,400 reports of possible child sex trafficking in 2023. Additionally, the NCMEC has received over 82 million reports of possible child sexual abuse and reviewed over 322 million images and videos, resulting in over 19,100 identifications. Andrews shares this sobering data to point out the severity of the situation.
Becoming a new mother has reaffirmed Andrews’ determination to protect children from predators. “I think about this often. I started doing this work in honor of my sister, but now I think about my son and everything I want to do to protect him and give him the best world to grow up in. That’s been my driving force,” she says. “I’m pretty exhausted raising a newborn and doing this work, but it’s really rewarding knowing that it could impact the world that he grows up in, hopefully.” ML
For more information on A21 and to register for the walk on October 19, visit a21.org.
Published in the September 2024 issue of Middleburg Life.