The Fight

Photo Credit: Amy Collins

The definition of sex trafficking is when an individual is coerced, forced, or deceived into engaging in sexual acts for payment. 

People sometimes ask me, in a curious and slightly judgmental way, "Didn't they try to get out?" Or "Why did they stay there?" or "Why didn't they fight harder to get away?"

Some of girls who are trafficked have been drugged and beaten, starved and maliciously raped until they have no fight left in them. 

For other girls, it takes less than that to keep them enslaved. 

Photo Credit: Amy Collins

We recently took in a 13 year old girl, Lynn*, who had been molested and raped by her father repeatedly since she was 9 years old. He would lock her in the house and beat her and her mother regularly. He threatened to kill the entire family if she told anyone. He used cocaine daily, always carried a knife and was very violent, so she had no reason to doubt his threats. When she couldn't take it anymore and told her mother, her mother asked her to keep it quiet so that they wouldn't be looked down on by their neighbors. Her father has another wife, and Lynn's mother is actually his mistress so he is not always staying with Lynn's mother, but when he does, Lynn would prefer to sleep outside than to be near him. To make matters worse, everyone in the community already knows about the abuse, but no one has ever tried to help Lynn, or the family. 

When a friend and neighbor coerced Lynn, at the age of 12, into taking a job at a restaurant, she readily accepted, longing for a way to escape. She's never attended school so any opportunity seemed like a good one. She soon learned that the job was more than just being a waitress, but she was told she would not eat unless she engaged in services, and having known no other life, and no other worth, she eventually gave in. 

Lynn was rescued by law enforcement and her neighbor and trafficker, as well as the men using her were all arrested. She was brought to My Refuge House and almost immediately felt safe. She was given clothes and health care and a chance to go to school. But most importantly, she was given the opportunity to fight, not only against her traffickers, but against her father who abused her for so long. 

And with the support of our staff, she is absolutely determined to see justice done. 

*Name changed for protection

want to know more? www.myrefugehouse.com