Freeset, Anti-Human Trafficking Nonprofit, Helps Victims Of UPS Plane Crash Despite Monetary Loss

An Alabama-based nonprofit is continuing to give back after an enormous recent setback.

Despite losing $150,000 worth of goods, Freeset, an organization dedicated to rescuing victims of human trafficking in Calcutta, is helping the families of the two pilots who died in Wednesday's UPS cargo plane crash, according to a press release.

Freeset, which sells bags made by women freed from the sex trade and returns all of the profits to support them, stated that they are now selling memorial T-shirts to honor Shanda Fanning and Cerea Beal Jr., the pilots who lost their lives in Birmingham. Freeset plans to donate all of the profits from the T-shirts to the pilots' families.

“Our prayers and thoughts are with the families of the pilots that passed away in this tragedy,” said Kristi Griem, President of Freeset USA, in a press statement. “We seek to honor them and their families in the face of this loss. We also are thinking about the women at Freeset, who worked hard for 3 months to make the bags.”

In a recent interview with NBC News, Griem explained that their organization's financial loss, although significant, was unsubstantial in light of Wednesday's tragedy.

“It is a loss, but at the end of the day, it is just stuff," Griem said. “The families of the pilots have been tragically affected.”

According to CBS 42, UPS plans to reimburse Freeset for the damaged goods, which would have been used to benefit the lives of the formerly trafficked women working for the nonprofit.

Freeset employs about 150 victims of sexual trafficking, offering them financial support, healthcare, educational opportunities, retirement benefits and daycare for their children.

While Freeset does their best to rescue and rehabilitate these victims of the sex trade, they report that the women often struggle with serious physical and emotional health complications.

"Many of these women suffer from some very serious and debilitating illnesses," said Freeset nurse Pip Rea in a company newsletter. "Sometimes I dread getting the results of the tests because the news is often not good.”