A Trafficking Survivor Shares How We Can Combat Modern-Day Slavery

By Published on January 18, 2016

Today, we remember Martin Luther King Jr. We remember a man who famously said “I have a dream” and followed through on it. We remember a man who fought to erase the the residual effects of slavery that had troubled our nation since its founding. On this day in particular, I’m reminded, as we all should be, of my own personal dream for this country we call home.

I have a dream that modern-day slavery, what we now call human trafficking, will end. I personally was trafficked for more than twenty-five years. Had it not been for the program I joined when I hit rock bottom in Chicago years ago, I would not be alive today. Thankfully, that program was founded and run by a caring woman named Edwina Gateley who had the insight and compassion to recognize the reality of trafficking thirty years ago, when most people thought it was about cars and traffic jams. But we need more awareness, outreach, and understanding to bring an end to trafficking.

I grew up on the west side of Chicago. When I was 6 years old my mother died. I was left under the care of my grandmother, who was abusive when she drank and didn’t allow my father in my life. One day when she was drinking, I was molested by a family friend.

By the time I was 14, frightened and with low self-esteem, I had sex with neighborhood boys. I was hurt, and nobody knew how broken and sad I was. Having been molested, I didn’t have value for my body. I saw prostitutes in my neighborhood, and one day, when my grandmother told me she needed me to help get money for food, I asked a girl where she went. Desperate and with low self-worth, I walked down a dangerous path. Men picked me up, and they didn’t care that I was only 14. I made money to take home, and my grandma was happy. But I ultimately realized, this was no Pretty Woman fairy tale.

Read the article “A Trafficking Survivor Shares How We Can Combat Modern-Day Slavery” on verilymag.com.

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