In the Booth with Ruth – Gladys Lawson, Author
sex trafficking
In the Booth with Ruth – Linda Sullivan, Executive Director/President of B.E.S.T. & Master Certified Coach for Victims of Human Trafficking
I have been working in this field since I was a young volunteer myself, for over 25 years. I have been an advocate for at risk populations over my lifetime and became passionate about the subject of human trafficking when I first assisted a victim. I studied social sciences in Manhattan at the New School University and became well-versed in cross cultural human rights issues. My studies at the New School University opened the doors for studies in comparative religions and anthropology and tribal studies. My work, studies and volunteer efforts kept me drawn to human rights and human trafficking issues.
In the Booth with Ruth – Jacqueline S. Homan, Author
What inspired me to write in the first place is that I am a marginalized woman—from deep inter-generational poverty, and I am also an exited woman who escaped sexual exploitation as a homeless orphaned teen. Like so many other poor and marginalized exited women, my voice and real lived experiences are never heard. So I decided to do my best to change that, because words not only convey thoughts they create fact. Very few truly understand what it is to be shoved aside and erased and left for dead more than destitute exited women with nothing, no family, no avenue of legal remedy, and no support network—not even any welfare or medical care.
In the Booth with Ruth – Magda M. Olchawska, Award Winning Film Director, Writer & Producer
In the Booth with Ruth – Andrew Boff, Conservative Member of the London Assembly
Some sex workers in London feel that when they report crimes, police focus on their crimes related to sex work – such as having a ‘brothel’ - over the crimes they originally reported against them. I have seen several cases like this in London. As a result of this belief in the sex industry, sex workers have told me they feel that they cannot safely report crime to the police...
Guest blog on the Merseyside model for Coventry Women’s Voices
In the Booth with Ruth – Jayne Rogers, Community Mental Health Team Leader
I come from a perspective of working in mental health; there is a long history of women with mental health problems being violently sexually abused and forced into prostitution by pimps. The police are generally of very little help and appear to think that abuses should be managed by services operating safeguarding policies to protect the vulnerable. Of course this means that women do not receive a service...
Cry for the Merseyside Model: Crimes Against People in Prostitution/Sex Workers Must Be Treated As Hate Crimes UK Wide
These very real women photographed above are dead. They were murdered, and most of their cases remain unsolved. Women in prostitution suffer higher rates of murder [the mortality rate for women in prostitution in London is twelve times the national average - Home Office 2004a], higher rates of rape [more than half have been raped and/or seriously...
In the Booth with Ruth – Aashika N. Damodar, Anti-Human Trafficking Activist, Advocate and Non-Profit Founder
So many events in my life have culminated to this point: a life dedicated to combating sexual violence and trafficking. When I entered university, I learned about a trafficking case that took place right across from my dormitory at UC Berkeley. Lakireddy, a Berkeley landlord and restaurant owner, came under investigation when a young woman died in one of his apartment buildings. He was convicted for both sex and labor trafficking...
In the Booth with Ruth – David Zimmerman, Child Trafficking Survivor & Advocate
My involvement began as I was receiving EMDR trauma therapy to recover from lifelong posttraumatic stress disorder. I was overwhelmed by flashbacks, night terrors, anxiety and depression that were triggered by the passing of my father, who began grooming and sexually assaulting me at the age of three, and then trafficked me on a regular basis, mostly in...
In the Booth with Ruth – Rachel Lloyd, Founder and CEO of Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS)
We get a lot of people who want to go ‘rescue’ girls on the street – (a) we’re about empowering girls and young women, not rescuing or ‘saving’ them and (b) places like Big Brother Big Sister are always in need of healthy, consistent adult mentors, and long term, the impact you could have in a little girl or boy’s life will make a true difference in actually preventing children and youth from being vulnerable in the first place...
In the Booth with Ruth – The Sophie Hayes Foundation (Anti-Human Trafficking)
The Sophie Hayes Foundation became involved in the combat against sex trafficking and exploitation when a survivor from the UK named Sophie Hayes wanted to make a difference after her horrific experience of being forced into the sex industry. Like many, Sophie had a very normal life, good education, stable job, and wonderful people surrounding her...
In the Booth with Ruth – Founding Member of The NO Project (Anti-Human Trafficking)
About twelve years ago, I happened to read an article in a Sunday paper, which described a young woman, eighteen years old, who had hung herself in a toilet using her own stockings. She was a young foreign woman – a girl really - being used for commercial sexual exploitation in a city in northern Greece. That article pretty much changed my life - kudos to...
In the Booth with Ruth – Anne Bissell, Sex Trafficking Survivor, Author, Executive Director Voices for Justice/Silver Braid
When my book, Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor, came out in 2004, I found myself on the frontline regarding issues of child sex trafficking and the commercialized sexual exploitation of children. Towards this end, I have worked for many years to create a strategy, which I call Operation Silver Braid...
Ruth Jacobs 