Founder Of Freedom Challenge Passes From Pancreatic Cancer At 62

SAN DIEGO and ATLANTA, Dec. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Cathey Anderson, The Freedom Challenge founder and visionary, who has helped free over 40,000 women and children from human trafficking around the world, passed away today in her San Diego, CA home from pancreatic cancer.  She was 62-years old. 

Even while battling pancreatic cancer Anderson continued to lead international Freedom Challenge Climbs to help end human trafficking.  This summer, after 2 very aggressive rounds of chemotherapy along with radiation treatment Anderson still led a group of Freedom Climbers for a 10-Day Freedom Challenge Climb through the Alps.  She climbed to Mount Everest Base Camp last year and Mt. Kilimanjaro the previous year to free the almost 30-million women and children who are the victims of the atrocities of human trafficking, and modern day slavery.  www.TheFreedomChallenge.com.

"My wish is that all women and children would know their God given value and worth. They are not objects to be used for financial gain or personal satisfaction.  They are uniquely and wonderfully made and no one should take that intrinsic knowledge away from them.  We will keep on being a voice for each one of them," said Anderson, on the eve of Human Trafficking Awareness month in January.  She was unstoppable in her mission to help those who do not have the ability to help themselves out of oppression.

Cathey and her husband, Mark, joined Operation Mobilization in 2010.  After retiring from a teaching career in 2008, she began traveling internationally and realized that many of the freedoms women enjoy here in the U.S. are not what most of the women around the world experience.   Cathey said she was blessed with the vision for the Freedom Climb, and it began in an effort to bring hope for a better tomorrow and change the future for women and children around the world. 

She leaves her husband of 30 years, their four children and five grandchildren, and the tens of thousands women and children she has helped directly and indirectly globally. 

ABOUT THE FREEDOM CHALLENGE

To date the Atlanta, GA based Freedom Challenge, started by Anderson, has raised millions of dollars that have directly helped free over 40,000 women and children globally. What started as a vision has become a global movement, with climbs and events pushing women to their limits all over the world. "Trafficking and oppression are a worldwide epidemic," says Anderson. "It's a problem in our own backyard. We celebrate and support efforts to combat trafficking globally, nationally and locally. The Freedom Challenge (TFC) attacks this 30-million humans enslaved problem at the source - in countries where women and children are most vulnerable."

The Freedom Challenge's purpose is to be a voice for the voiceless; for those who cannot declare freedom in their lives and climb out of their circumstances on their own. The climbs up Mounts Kilimanjaro, Everest, the Swiss Alps, the Rockies, and soon Wyoming, are symbolic gestures of what women and children around the world go through every single day in their arduous climb to freedom.  They support TFC's mission to end human trafficking. There are also grass-root challenges designed and carried out locally across the US all with the purpose to meet TFC's four-part strategy setting women and children on their path to freedom: Prevent, Develop, Rescue and Restore.  Currently there are 25,000 women annually going through TFC's self-help groups internationally.  Here are some examples of what Anderson has helped:

GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

• The Freedom Challenge projects in Sudan help impoverished, at-risk women learn how to save and invest money, create businesses, care for their families, and work together to release their community from poverty.
• In Costa Rica, women at The Freedom Challenge project learn how to sew—a valuable job skill. After class, they remain together for a Bible study, where they discover and embrace God's love for them.
• In poverty-stricken Moldova, abandoned and neglected children receive urgently needed food, education, & protection from predators at The Freedom Challenge project day centers.
• In Ghana and other countries, The Freedom Challenge projects coordinate with local authorities to free victims of sex trafficking. OM provides safe places for women to heal and gain life skills.

Georgia based Operation Mobilization's Freedom Challenge has taken women to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa, Mt. Everest, Asia, the Swiss Alps, The Rockies, and soon to Wyoming.

ABOUT OPERATION MOBILIZATION

The Freedom Challenge is an initiative of Atlanta, Georgia based Operation Mobilization, (OM) which supports at-risk women and children, specifically those who are exploited, enslaved, oppressed and trafficked. OM works with the most marginalized and least reached people in the world with 6,800 workers from 100 nations, serving in 118 countries. 

Learn more about how you can join or launch your own Freedom Challenge at www.thefreedomchallenge.com.

Your Challenge, Their Freedom

#TheirFreedom, #TheFreedomChallenge, #TheFreedomClimb, #EndItNow, #CatheyAnderson

MEDIA CONTACT 
Michele Nadeem-Baker
+1 617-818-1223
[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151222/317970

SOURCE www.TheFreedomChallenge.com

Related Links

http://www.thefreedomchallenge.com