Hyannis and New Bedford would've been destinations for two girls sold into slavery, if it weren't for the work of El Pozo de Vida, a Mexico City shelter that rescues victims of human trafficking.

Wareham resident and Elite Fitness owner Annmarie Churchill sat behind her desk at the Wareham Crossing gym, wide-eyed and nodding her head, knowing that the fact would shock people.

Churchill, two of the gym's members, and four staff members returned from a mission trip to El Pozo de Vida more than a month ago, and says she's still dealing with “a whole array of emotions.”

Churchill and the gym members were inspired to take the trip after reading a Wareham Week article about Kathleen Gately Delgado, a Wareham native, and her husband Oscar, who work with El Pozo de Vida, which means "Well of Life" in Spanish.

The Elite Fitness members taught the women at the shelter how to cook healthy foods, exercised with them, and took them on hikes up mountains, paddle boating, and walks. During the eight-day trip, the group spent 12 to 14 hours a day traveling to visit and spend time with the women.

The trip was funded through community fundraisers and events, and the members themselves. The group raised more than $15,000 and was able to donate $10,000 to the shelter, contract private buses to take the women on trips while keeping them protected, and take them out for a meal from time to time.

For the women and girls who are being protected from human trafficking, such exploration of the world is a rarity.

They are hidden and protected by El Pozo from their traffickers while their court cases are open. The girls testify against their traffickers by sitting with their backs against theirs and identifying them by the feeling. In Mexico City, the commonly accepted term for a client of prostitution is “John.”

The younger girls are only allowed out of their homes one day a week for church. During the six other days, the girls are in hiding in a remote location with security. They eat, sleep, and are homeschooled in the same location.

“It may be hard on us [to hear about that], but it's not hard on them because their life is so much better there,” Churchill said of the shelter.

El Pozo has seven programs, including two restoration homes: one for people aged 10 to 18 who were domestic servants and victims of labor and sex trafficking, and another that's a transition home for girls aged 18 to 23.

El Pozo also organizes a jewelry employment program for women ages 23 to 53 were trafficked as teens and young women. The jewelry the women make is for sale at Elite Fitness, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the affected women.

Gym member Amy O'Brien learned of a girl who was chained to a wall her whole life before being rescued. Others she met can't return home because their families sold them into slavery.

"We try to reconnect them with their families when it is safe, but sometimes that is not an option either because their family was involved or family would be in danger," said Delgado.

Due to the work of El Pozo, O'Brien said, “I can see they're going to come out in the other side."

One girl who came to the shelter from the Middle East learned how to speak Spanish in order to attend a university. She told O'Brien that in three months, she'd start studying to become a doctor.

Though not everyone from the Elite Fitness group speaks Spanish, the attachment the women felt with the girls was one created through a common language.

“There were no words needed. All you needed was love and compassion,” said Churchill.

Even knowing before they traveled to Mexico that human trafficking hits close to home, Churchill and O'Brien said it was difficult to understand the true horror of it until meeting the women and girls at El Pozo.

“We sit here and we complain about the things in our lives and we know nothing about the pain that they have suffered and that they come out that strong,” said O'Brien. “It was amazing to see that, to feel it.”

The two groups still keep in touch through letters, pictures, and on Facebook. Churchill said she hopes to return at some point. O'Brien is looking for ways to raise more funds for El Pozo de Vida as it expands to offer more services.

Also taking part in the mission trip were Tricia Wheeler of Rochester, Suzanne Gokavi of Marion, Sandy Orr of New Bedford, Lisa Delgreco of Wareham, and Therese Amato of Wareham.