Safe and Sound.

Sex Trafficking - Sexual slavery or forced sexual slavery is the organized coercion of unwilling people into different sexual practices ;  the recruitment, transportation (within national or across international borders), transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation.

 

Yesterday, when Keagan came home from school he was telling me about his Speech class and how everyone had to get up tell a story about something that had happened to them in their life. One of the stories that a lady told was about her getting on the wrong bus with her daughter. It was suppose to go to New York, but ended up going downtown, in a rather shady part, of Philadelphia. The lady went on with her story, and said that when she got off the bus to find a different route to New York, there was a little girl standing on the corner. "She couldn't of been more than 10 years old." She said, "all I could think about was how that young lady should smarten up, and get off the streets, she's way to young to be selling herself." She then thought nothing else of the girl. Except when she told that story to her class.

*On a side note: Keagan corrected me. He said that the girl wasn't standing alone. She was supposedly getting a "pep talk" from her Pimp.



Honestly, when he told me that, it made me sick to my stomach to think about that little girl standing out. It broke my heart to think of that mother having such thoughts about that little girl. It just makes me think of my nieces who are around 10, and them standing out on the corner like that. Then again, why would she think that the little girl was kidnapped and forced to stand there? It pains me to hear the naivety some people have about our world. In the United States it is estimated that 50-75,000 victims are trafficked into America for sexual servitude. That isn't even including the 100,000-300,000 American children forced into prostitution around the states. Children and women ranging from all ages, 5-18 years old, kidnapped and forced into street-based prostitution, escort services, strip clubs, and even brothels. It breaks my heart to even begin to think of how horrible it would be to have your daughter or son taken from you, and put into that life.  

 Human trafficking is the second highest profitable organized crime in the world, where drugs is the first. It makes billions of dollars each year. A human trafficker, or Pimp, can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl, if the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty. Then the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, because it saves the future buyers the hassle. In Canada, it's said that "2200 men, women, and children, are trafficked into America from Canada every year. Canada is considered a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of prostitution and forced labor."  

My sister, Stephanie, and brother-in-law, Jess (and yes, I do mention them a lot because they are amazing people) have started an organization called, Child Rescue. Child Rescue is a non-profit organization that is in Canada, and the United States whose purpose is to rescue the woman and children from all of the horrors that come with human trafficking. 

 Not really realizing it until the past couple years, but my mother’s side of my family dealt a lot with sex trafficking. My grandma, great grandma, great-great grandma, and so on, were all subjected to that life. I mean, I've always known that they were prostitutes, and to me it always made my family history more interesting. Now to really go in depth about it all, and to hear only a few horror stories, but to not even begin to scratch the surface about what really happened 4 generations ago when it all first got started; it just makes me feel so blessed that my mom got out of it, and saved us kids from the worst of it. Even though she struggles with her past, she deals with it the best way she can. I remember when I was little, and my grandma would have me try to walk with a book on top of my head to "perfect" how I walked and held my posture. She told me that her mother would make her walk around like that when she was my age all the time, and if she dropped it she got whipped. She was trained to be a high class escort since the day she was born. I loved my grandma incredibly so, and sadly she passed away this past Christmas, but let me tell you she was quite the interesting woman. My grandma wasn't a saint though. She did do a lot of bad things in her life, but a lot of good also. She just didn't really know how to a mom, or how to do anything else except what she was taught by her mom. She survived in the only way she knew how, and that was fend for herself.

One of the problems with sex trafficking is that you aren't going to get a girl to come up to you and tell you that she is in trouble and needs your help. In the beginning I wrote, and underlined that they "train" and "break their spirits", which is exactly what they do. These girls have been beaten, and bruised to the point where they are afraid to even think about running away. They have been threatened. Their families have been threatened. So they stay, and live the life that has been chosen for them. Human and sex trafficking is everywhere, and most people just don't realize it. It's happening here in my city, and it probably happening in yours as well. One of the problems in our society are people who are obsessed with technology (cell phones, laptops, etc.), or so into their own life they can't see what is going on around them. I watched a Child Rescue video a while ago that my sister-in-law, Keshia, told a story about an anonymous tip to the police about mattresses being delivered to a nail salon, and it seemed a bit sketchy. So what happened? The police investigated, and found all of these women chained to the wall and drugged in the back of this nail salon.

Stephanie , told me a story about their friend Natasha Herzig (which you can just click on her name to hear her entire story from her) who was an all American girl. She was a cheerleader, on the principal's list, did beauty pageants, and did missionary work for kids in Jamaica. Natasha wanted to see the world. One day when she was walking around the mall a lady came up to her and told her she had nice make-up and said if she was interested in a career in make-up to give her a call. Handed her a card and walked away. 
A few days later she called the woman, and scheduled an interview. She went to a fancy office building that looked legitimate. It had all the fanciness to it that you would expect; the girls walking around in all black, the receptionist, everything. They had her filled out paperwork, and had her "try out" for the job by applying make-up to one of the girls. She talked to a few of the girls about the job and what it was like. They said that they loved it! They all stayed at a house together, they got to travel, and do make-up! I mean what girl wouldn't love that!
She then talked to the manager, who said that a lot of other girls were applying for the job, so they would call her if she got it. A few weeks went by and they finally called her and said she got the job. They told her to pack a bag because she was going to be gone for a few days. She met them at a restaurant they had told her to go to, and she said that she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. She tried to ditch them by saying she wanted to get her sweater from her car, and she'll be right back. Then next thing she knew they had her in the back of their van. 

Her story is incredible, and I encourage all who read this to watch her video.

 It saddens me to hear people talk about prostitutes in a bad light. The majority of those women were not put there by choice, like Natasha. This is an ongoing battle in all of our countries, and it has to stop. Here is a link to Child Rescue where you can watch some other videos that will help you become aware of sex slavery, and what to do when you notice it happening. Thank you so much to everyone who reads this post, as it hits really close to home. My hope and prayer is that you do become more aware in your community and you feel empowered to get involved!

Song for the mood --
[Safe & Sound - Taylor Swift Feat. The Civil Wars]