Survivor Story 10 My growing up years were spent with biological parents, step-parents, and adoptive parents. But by the time I was in high school, I was on my own. Having been introduced to the sex industry at a young age, I made a “career” out of porn and exotic dancing. Others viewed my body…
Survivor Story 8 My siblings and I were raised by our grandparents because of our parents’ drug addictions, so I grew up in an upper class Christian home. I made good grades at my elite private school, but even with all of this “going for me” I couldn’t shake the abandonment of my parents and…
Survivor Story 7 My dad said we could all have a better life in the United States, so we moved here when I was 14. I knew he was struggling to keep us safe and provide. He and I worked together at a local grocery store and restaurant. One day, he dropped me off with…
Survivor Story Day 5 All I knew, as a 10-year-old girl, was that mom was leaving and going away to the city to find work. I never knew what that single decision really meant for her or for us. Several years passed, and no one spoke of or heard from mom much anymore. So, I…
Survivor Story Day 4 I grew up in a great family and went to good private schools. When I was in middle school, I signed up for my first social media account. I added all my friends and even some “new” friends I didn’t actually know in “real life”. I accepted a friend request from…
Survivor Story Day 3 “I’ve spent my life in trap houses and drug houses in the southern United States.” -M My Life I am 14 years old. I’ve spent my life in trap houses and drug houses in the southern United States. Mom is still trapped in “the life”. Police and a local non-profit group…
Survivor Story 2 I was sexually abused by my uncle and cousins. Even my own mother victimized me – I saw her receiving money while sending me to entertain a group of men drinking alcohol. Before Rescue 1 came, I was sad, depressed, and in pain. I thought “I’m not worthy to be loved. Nobody…
Survivor Story 1 Raised inside the sex industry in the richest county in the state of TN, I had no hope that I could have a normal life. This was the only life I’d known. At a young age I fell for a man who promised to love and care for me. He promised to…
Preventing Victimization and Rescuing Victims from human trafficking is a daily reality for us at Rescue 1. This is why raising awareness, teaching individuals and groups to recognize the warning signs and training groups how to effectively report and respond to suspicious situations is so important to us. Situations like the story told by NCOSE…
It’s difficult for most of us to imagine the atrocities that can occur in the short span of a 19-year-old’s life. Until you’ve heard her words firsthand, the incomprehensible remains just that. It’s not until a survivor begins to share these experiences that the unfathomable becomes all too real. The moment the door opened for…
People are surprised when they discover my passion for fighting human trafficking. I am not sure why. Perhaps because they know my background: I have no secret story, no hidden skeletons lurking from my past. I was not abused in any way when I was a child. In fact, I was blessed with a stable…
We have been franticly busy the last few months with meeting after meeting, training after training, mobilizing after mobilizing, phone call after phone call, and email after email. You see the word is out! Trafficking is real, people really are being forced against their will to do things that no one deserves to do. Since,…