Appearance on Oprah

On Monday, October 30th, Trong and Rani Hong had the incredible opportunity to appear on Oprah. They were able to tell virtually the entire world not only about their amazing lives, but the even more amazing desire they have to reach out to victims of human trafficking.

Trong is a home builder, by trade. It is what he is gifted at, and he believes he was given this gift for a purpose. Because of his wife Rani’s past experience with child trafficking, and his childhood experience with homelessness, he has a unique passion to build homes for those who need a way out of the trap that is poverty, prostitution, and human trafficking.

Rani knows all too well the helplessness of being a human commodity. She remembers only shadowy fragments of her traumatic childhood, but she knows that she was stolen from her family, sold, purchased, and sold again as if she were a piece of clothing. After deciding to help those who are now like she was then, she learned that victims of human trafficking are usually moved immediately after being purchased or kidnapped to a place where they do not speak the language and have nowhere to go. She realized that the missing piece for a victim wanting to escape was a place to run to – a home.

Trong also knows the importance of having a home. His father sent him away from Vietnam on a boat to the United States when he was nine years old to save him from being forced into the army as a child soldier. After the boat was ravaged again and again by modern day pirates, it finally shipwrecked, leaving the nine year old Trong on an island inhabited by monkeys to survive on his own for two years. He built his own shelter, adding some branches here, a piece of driftwood there. Now he and his wife Rani have formed Tronie Foundation, which works to build shelters for people coming out of a life of slavery.

The Oprah Winfrey Show has over one million viewers on average. The opportunity to tell their stories and share their passion to such a huge audience was a great blessing. Trong and Rani hope that their appearance on the show will lead to more awareness about the horrors and surprising prevalence of human trafficking all over the world, including in the United States. If you would like to find out more about the Hongs appearance on Oprah, click here. If you would like to partner with the Tronie Foundation or would like more information, click here.

The Tronie Foundation has partnered with MyFundRazor to raise money for their mission.

King 5 News Coverage

King 5 News, a local news channel in Olympia, Washington, did several stories on the amazing lives of Trong and Rani Hong. The segments included interviews of the couple where they share about their childhoods. Some stories also include information about Tronie Foundation and projects that are currently underway. Click here to see the complete news stories.

Speaking in Washington D.C.

On September 28th, Rani spoke with several high ranking U.S. government officials and members of the press at a press conference in Washington D.C. Rani, along with members of the U.S. Health Department and Child Services discussed efforts to raise awareness about human trafficking as well as giving aid to victims, including the recent work of Tronie Foundation in Fiji.

The Trip to Fiji

Last June a team of builders from the Olympia area went to Fiji to build a shelter for women who want to get out of a life of prostitution. They laid the groundwork, set up basic structure, improved the water systems, and much more. This last September, a team from the Tronie Foundation, including founders Trong and Rani Hong, went back to Fiji for the dedication ceremony of this new shelter. It is a community of homes and classrooms for these women, many of whom were forced into prostitution. Fiji is one country among many where an alarming number of women are bound to prostitution because they have nowhere else to go and no way to support themselves. Many have children they love with no one to help raise them. The mission of Tronie Foundation is to build places all over the world that provide safety, love, and the tools these women need to face the world as fellow human beings, not commodities.

The team from Tronie Foundation was not only able to attend the ceremony, but also experience life at the shelter firsthand. One team member, Dave Ochsner, who led the team of builders in June, said it was a uniquely moving experience for the whole team. He said, “It was amazing to put this team in the sandals of these women. Not only were we living amongst them, on their campus, but we were a part of their day to day life as well.” Day to day life for the women includes rising early to bake bread; spending the day in classes that teach reading, writing, and even parenting and healthy relationship skills; and going out in the evenings to sell the bread they made, learning how to support themselves, and steadily becoming more independent.

'Nee-mee' was the first young woman to find a home in this shelter. Today she is turning her life around and now helps lead the facility, teaching the other young women who come to live there how to heal from their horrific pasts. It is the hope of Tronie Foundation and all the individuals involved in the process of building the shelter, both Fijian and American, that the future of this place will only hold more stories like that of ‘Nee-mee’, and more women will have the courage to walk away from the life they never chose for themselves or their children and into a life of strength and love, where they can be safe.

Speaking at Living Water

Trong and Rani Hong were invited to the Church of Living Water in Olympia, Washington in May 2006 to speak about their extraordinary pasts and their mission for the future. They spoke about their childhoods, how Trong, at the age of nine, found himself an exile of Vietnam, stranded on an island, forced to forage for his own food; and how Rani, as a young woman who had never understood the confusing and disturbing memories of her childhood, learned that she had been a victim of child trafficking in her native India. The experiences of this amazing couple have shaped them both into people who are driven to free others from a life of suffering and slavery.
Trong also introduced the newly formed Tronie Foundation. This foundation works to build homes for those whose roadblock to escaping prostitution and slavery is that they neither have a safe place to live nor the life-skills to survive on their own. At Living Water, Trong and Rani laid out some of their plans for the September trip to Fiji where they would hold the dedication ceremony for one such place where women and children would live and get the education they need (more on this in “The Trip to Fiji”).

The Tronie Foundation Rescues Children Around The World

The Tronie Foundation, is a non-profit organization that was established as a way to encourage and facilitate charitable giving by those who have a passion to stop this modern day form of slavery, known as Human Trafficking. The Tronie Foundation helps build shelter projects in the United States and in countries abroad. The Foundation also advocates to be a voice for the victimized children around the world.

The Tronie Foundation consists of many volunteers who have donated countless hours to end human trafficking. The Foundation is currently working to partner with other non-profit organizations, government officials, law makers and faith based organizations to provide shelters and services for women and children who have been traumatized by this evil trade of selling people for profit.

Trong and Rani, the founders of Tronie Foundation, have both had their own childhood experiences that have left them with a heart and a passion for children who are abused and homeless. They bring a face and a name to this issue of victimized children.

It is estimated that 1.2 million women and children are trafficked per year. These horrific crimes are being committed every day all across the world, including in the United States. Children as young as 4 years old are being kidnapped or sold into this modern slavery.

In effort to bring public awareness, Rani has been working with several different types of news media, including local and international television, radio, magazines and newspapers to be a strong voice for the victims of trafficking. In addition, Rani is a United States American Embassy speaker for the Department of State. Her travels have taken her to many countries speaking to embassies, parliaments, universities, and other organizations.

Copyright © 2006 The Tronie Foundation