Dawnna Plummer founded an organization to help young girls, who have been rescued from human sex trafficking. Called Beloved Not Forgotten, Plummer’s mission is to provide safe, long-term care in a safe home for girls ages 11-17. (Photo by Phoebe Muthart)
WARSAW — A bracelet on Dawnna Plummer’s wrist simply states three words: “Be the Change.” It’s what her organization, Beloved Not Forgotten, is all about.
The non-profit organization is bringing awareness to the major problem of child sex trafficking. Plummer is hoping to take it a step further by providing a safe home in northern Indiana for girls who have been recovered from sex trafficking.
Plummer grew up in Warsaw and graduated from Warsaw Community High School in 1983. After attending Ball State University for three years, she moved east and worked as a nanny in Connecticut. She moved to Philadelphia, where she worked for an automotive company for more than 13 years. But she found working for a church most rewarding as she helped youth in an area known as the “Bad Lands.”
“I did that for six years,” she said.
Plummer later worked with youth at another similar organization.
“I’ve always had a heart for kids,” smiled Plummer, who moved back to Warsaw in 2003 and took a job at Zimmer, where she worked for more than seven years.
“I grew up in a home where I was loved. My parents always told me they loved me,” she smiled.
Some children aren’t so fortunate. While living in Thailand for more than a year, doing mission work, she experienced young girls who were being sex trafficked.
“I sold everything and moved there in May 2014,” she said. “It was the toughest time in my life, but my relationship with the Lord grew.”
This is when she became aware of the problem in the United States and even in Indiana. According to the 2016 Indiana Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Report, 170-plus cases of youth had been involved in human sex trafficking. There are currently six active cases in Fort Wayne in the judicial system, she said.
“Those are the ones we know of,” Plummer said somberly.
While volunteering and later working at Baker Youth Club, she met two underage girls. The girls had been used for sex trafficking. The experience changed Plummer, and she decided to do something about it.
She founded Beloved Not Forgotten in December 2015. As executive director, Plummer is a one-woman show. However, she does have a board of directors and about five to nine people she gets together with to pray weekly. She is in need of two more board members.
Plummer hopes to have a house in Kosciusko County secured by December. The home will be a safe haven for girls who have been rescued.
“We will be an all encompassing home,” she said. “By the time they are rescued, they are in need of help.”
Beloved Not Forgotten’s mission is to provide safety and long-term care in a safe home for girls, ages 11-17, who have been rescued from sex trafficking and to empower them to reclaim their lives, transform their destinies and fulfill the good purpose God created them for.
Plummer is currently not getting paid for her executive director’s position. But for Plummer, it’s less about the money and more about saving lives.
“He has put this in my heart, and I’m just following his direction,” she said of the Lord.
For more information or to help financially, call Plummer at (574) 265-7966, email her at dawnna@belovednotforgotten.com, or visit Facebook/belovednotforgotten.
(This article originally appeared in ‘the PAPER’ Jan. 11.)