Our Story

About the Foundation

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The Lydia Lerma Foundation was established in May 2018 after Founder and Director, Lydia Lerma, utilized social media to track down and bring her son’s abuser to justice after he had fled the country and hid in Mexico for over a year. Lydia used the momentum from the media coverage to give all survivors a voice. It is our hope that survivors will gain strength and courage from Lydia’s story to come forward and begin the healing process, as well as remove the stigma that silences victims.

 

About Lydia Lerma

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Lydia Lerma is a child advocate and community activist dedicated to helping sexual abuse survivors and their families. She is affectionately known as, "mama bear".

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Lydia is a survivor of childhood sexual assault and has dedicated her life to helping other survivors and their families as they navigate their way through the legal process and work toward healing. She works as a Sourcing Specialist by day and as her son would say, "a super hero by night." Lydia spends as much of her time volunteering for the Foundation as she can. She provides support and referrals to families in need. She is the face and voice for those who cannot go public or who need to maintain anonymity or confidentiality and she works tirelessly to keep fugitive cases in the public eye.

 

"I want these fugitives to know that we will not stop until they are apprehended and face justice. The safety of every child is in jeopardy as long as these fugitives are out there. These men do not change and cannot stop their sexual preferences - every time, they resume the same sexual exploitative assaults on children where ever they are. They will not stop until they are behind bars." ~ Lydia Lerma

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Lydia utilizes her extensive professional and social networks to circulate images of the fugitives she is tracking throughout the world. She is also an enrolled citizen of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and has the support of her tribe with members on both sides of the United States and Mexico border. 

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Lydia has served as Vice-President on the White Horse Creek Council, an organization dedicated to the continuance and practice of native spiritual, ceremonial, cultural, and indigenous permaculture practices of first nation peoples. She often states that from the northernmost parts of Canada, to the southernmost tip of Argentina, she has a network of indigenous people watching for fugitives and ready to help in their apprehension.

 

Lydia also serves on the Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors (CSAS) State Task Force and is a current member of the American Legion Auxiliary and Native American Fish & Wildlife Society. Veterans hold a very special place in Lydia's heart - her father served in the United States Air Force and her paternal uncles served in the United States Army and Navy during Vietnam and the Gulf War as well as immediately after 9/11. She has several extended family members who have served and cousins currently serving in all branches of the United States Armed Forces and the most dedicated volunteers to the Foundation are retired military veterans. Lydia could not do this work without them and their support. 

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Lydia is also an avid outdoorswoman, hunter, and an NRA Certified Instructor and Range Safety Officer. She practices the Lipan Apache tradition of big game hunting in order to feed her family and has extended that tradition to her children. If she isn't tracking down fugitives, you can find her riding mules and horseback in the Colorado Rocky Mountains with her children. She enjoys hiking, running, camping, snowshoeing, and spending time in the wilderness areas of Colorado and the western mountains of Maine. Lydia returns to Texas at least twice a year for intertribal Pow Wows and visits White Mountain and San Carlos whenever possible. Lydia attributes much of her family's healing to the time they spend outdoors. She is a firm believer in equine therapy and the healing elements of Mother Nature.

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