Steve Maman, a Jewish Canadian businessman started a charity which seeks to rescue Christian and Yazidi children sold into sexual slavery by the Islamic State.
While critics say that the effort funds ISIL, Maman countered that the money raised does not go to fund ISIL, but rather to buy children from their "owners," who use them as sex slaves. In that sense, Maman sees the initiative, in the worst case, as a "refund" to the "owners," who in turn bought the children from ISIL.
"They've been raping them for the past year. Some of them have been resold five times, ten times. A lot of them have had 'virginity reconstruction' procedures done so they could get resold and be virgins again. I mean it's horrendous what's happening to them," Maman told Sputnik.
Inspired by German businessman Oskar Schindler, who saved Jews from concentration camps in Nazi Germany by employing them at his factory, Maman has thus far rescued 130 children and adults from enslavement. According to Maman, the children are brought back and then reunited with their families or resettled in refugee camps.
Maman added that there are five or six other groups engaged in the same effort in Iraq, but do not have the media access needed to raise the funds necessary.
