sexual exploitation

In the Booth with Ruth – Natasha Sandy, Ally to Victims of Sex Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation

January 23, 2013 // 49 Comments

Survivor voices deeply touch my heart and my sense of humanity. There’s no way I can sit idly by knowing the horrors endured inside the sex trade and the deep bio-psycho-social-spiritual wounds it creates. I like, respect, and want to be part of a movement that cares about the well-being of a population that society dismisses and deems disposable, because nobody is disposable. The massive ignorance around, and ignoring of, the prostituted is something I want to help change.

In the Booth with Ruth – Anna Malika, Child Trafficking Survivor and Anti-Human Trafficking Activist and Advocate

January 23, 2013 // 5 Comments

Unfortunately, I was trafficked at the age seventeen by a co-worker who was forty years old. I was in that situation while still attending high school, until I was nineteen. During that time, I was forced to do unthinkable things and experienced extreme sexual violation through manipulation and brainwashing while participating in his ‘art project'. I didn’t find out until years later that what I was actually doing was pornography.

In the Booth with Ruth – Sheila Quigley, Author and Ally of Human Trafficking Victims

January 23, 2013 // 3 Comments

My first novel, Run for Home, is about a family living on what some people call a sink estate. Thirteen-year-old Claire is enticed away by the delectable Brad, thinking she is going to be part of a film. He leads her to the docks where she’s taken prisoner. There, she finds two other girls on the boat. All are to be sold into the sex trade...

In the Booth with Ruth – Barbara Amaya, Child Trafficking Survivor, Author, and Educator of Human Trafficking

January 22, 2013 // 7 Comments

I had the classic ‘aha moment’ or an epiphany last spring as I watched a newscast about trafficked teens in my neighborhood here in Virginia. At that moment, I realized that all those years ago when I’d been in the streets of New York, the man who’d exploited me had actually been trafficking me. He had been a pimp, true, but for years I’d been thinking all that happened to me had been my fault, the abuse I suffered before I ran away from home, the beating he gave me to make me compliant and more. I had truly believed all of those things were my fault and I’d carried it with me for decades...

In the Booth with Ruth – Servaas Hofmeyr, Anti-Human Trafficking Advocate

January 21, 2013 // 3 Comments

While busy studying in 2008, I browsed around the web (as one does) and came across an article discussing the effects criminalisation and, alternatively, legalisation of prostitution has had in various countries. I was quite shocked to learn what conditions most of the prostituted women found themselves in – varying from being drug addicts, to suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, to being victims of regular abuse by both their pimps and clients.

In the Booth with Ruth – Bridget Perrier, Survivor of Child Trafficking and First Nations Educator & Co-Founder of Sextrade101

January 20, 2013 // 16 Comments

The reason why I became a part of the movement is because of my past as a child survivor and as a First Nations voice. I saw that for First Nations women there was very little representation in the movement. I also used my experience as a trafficked child. I was exploited at a very young age and felt that all the adults, professional and family, did a lot of nothing to help me, and in some ways, they made it worse. I was tired of being looked down on and blamed by society.

In the Booth with Ruth – Ruthie ‘Angel’ Jones Patton, Anti-Human Trafficking Activist

January 19, 2013 // 1 Comment

I'd have to say what draws me to be involved is a spiritual thing really. I believe in the universal connection of all living things. I feel that what happens to one of us happens to all of us. I started to read more stories from trafficked survivors as well as interviews and realized I had to stand up and do something.

In the Booth with Ruth – Gemma Wilson, Anti-Human Trafficking Activist

January 19, 2013 // 6 Comments

The first modern day slave’s story I heard was that of Long Pross. Her story is real, and when I heard it, it became a part of my own. Wilberforce is quoted as having said, “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” Once we know, we are responsible...

In the Booth with Ruth – Lise Bouvet, PhD Researcher in Gender Studies

January 18, 2013 // 8 Comments

I've been working on prostitution for fifteen years now, in social sciences, then philosophy. I've worked for NGOs too. I have both field and academic experience. I have researched and compared situations in many countries including USA, England, France, Germany, Netherlands of course, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, China and Thailand...

In the Booth with Ruth – Holly Austin Smith, Survivor of Child Trafficking and Anti-Human Trafficking Advocate, Speaker and Author

January 17, 2013 // 9 Comments

The first survivor I ever connected with was Tina Frundt, founder of Courtney’s House in Washington D.C., an organization which provides services to male and female victims of child sex trafficking. I attended a training session to volunteer at Courtney’s House, and Tina explained to us the tactics used by traffickers to lure children away from home. The tactics were exactly the same as those used on me in 1992. I was blown away. It wasn’t until that moment that I truly realized that I had been a victim, and I knew I had to speak out. I knew I had to share my story in order to educate teens, parents, and teachers.

In the Booth with Ruth – Magda M. Olchawska, Anti-Human Trafficking Activist and Filmmaker

January 16, 2013 // 3 Comments

The support system for the victims needs to be much better and they can’t be punished for a crime they have not committed, but was committed against them. Some countries treat the victims of human trafficking as illegal immigrants and punish them - even with prison sentences.

In the Booth with Ruth – Rebecca Mott, Exited Prostituted Woman and Abolitionist

January 13, 2013 // 12 Comments

I first started campaigning for abolition of prostitution after the murders of several prostitutes in Ipswich. That was very triggering for me, but at the time, I was unclear why. I was very angry, incessant with rage, for it seemed that the media is, and was, only interested in the murders of the prostituted when it is in connection with the sensation of a serial killer...

In the Booth with Ruth – Aimee Galicia Torres, Anti-Human Trafficking Activist, Filmmaker and Non-Profit Founder

January 13, 2013 // 1 Comment

I was inspired to support the movement against human trafficking by creating and starting a non-profit called The Majestic Dreams Foundation (www.themajestic.org) because I wanted to create awareness on all forms of abuse. Having been in the film industry for a little over eight years as an award-winning cinematographer, I decided to create a company that would embody and create films that make an impact, therefore, making a difference. I was featured on CNN's Anderson 360, Al Jazeera English on my work on human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

In the Booth with Ruth – DublinCallGirl

January 12, 2013 // 13 Comments

I worked as an escort for nearly five years from my early twenties. During this time I was very open minded about the whole thing, and very much on the side of it being empowering and a confidence booster. The effects it left me with I still struggle with every day. I made my choice. I can live with and conquer the consequences. However, I cannot sit by and see women and girls get exploited who made no choice to be there, or were lured, coerced or otherwise exploited and taken advantage of...