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St. Paul, Minn.

Hopkins woman honored for work to end trafficking in India

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Gretchen Merritt
Gretchen Merritt won the Bakken Invitation Award, which recognizes service and leadership by people who have benefited from medical technology.
Tom Crann / MPR News

A dollar can go a long way in India. Multiply that distance by 20,000, and you'll have an idea of the impact the Bakken Invitation Award has in the eyes of a Hopkins woman who works to eradicate human trafficking in India.

The award recognizes service and leadership by people who have benefited from medical technology. Gretchen Merritt, who wears an insulin pump, won for her service to an organization called Freedom Firm, which works to free the estimated 500,000 girls in India who have been forced into prostitution.

Merritt was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 13. She has worked with Freedom Firm since 2007.

"The mission of Freedom Firm is rescue, restoration and justice for victims of sex trafficking in India," she explained. The organization "has rescued around 300 girls since its inception" and has "grown from one office ... to five different offices throughout India."

"We started a jewelry micro-enterprise that gave a financial opportunity for girls to be employed outside of prostitution," she said. "We've seen trafficking reduced in different cities that we've been a part of, so there's been great success."

Winners of the award, named for the co-founder of Medtronic, Earl Bakken, nominate a charity to receive a $20,000 cash award. The winners will also travel to Hawaii for a celebration in 2015.

"This gift will touch upon all aspects of Freedom Firm work," Merritt said, including "rescuing girls out of the red-light areas; the restoration pieces; and the justice work that combats the whole, systemic evil of trafficking."