Non-IA Scholars Reflection

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a student run organization which brings in speakers to give various Tedx talks.  On November 27th a few of my fellow scholars and I sat in on the Tedx called, “Red Light: Breaking the Cycle of Human Trafficking”.  The program included various speakers some of which were victims of human trafficking, and others who have studied and researched the “cycle” of human trafficking.  The presentation began with a rapid fire of devastating facts related to the number of women that are involved in prostitution.  The two facts that stuck out the most to me were that 62% of women get involved in prostitution before their 18th birthday, and 1/3 of women participate in it before they’re 15.  After they had run through all of their statistics, an immediate sense of shock was felt across the crowd.  This shock made me realize how overlooked this issue truly is.  It’s because of people like Vanessa Perkins, a victim that went through Catch Court who are bringing awareness to the issue.  Perkins was the first to share her story and the most shocking to me.  Most pimps/bosses of human trafficking target particular people that they feel are easy to lure in.  In Perkins’ case, her pimp befriended her by buying her dope to keep her from getting dope sick, giving her a home, food, and a most importantly what she thought was a friend.  After a few weeks of him “pampering” her, he then told her that he owned her; his wish became her command.  Not only was Vanessa Perkins a victim of human trafficking, but she was also abused by both her clients and her bosses.  To close out her story, Perkins left the crowd with one thing, she wanted everyone to know that pimps are not stupid, they know what they’re doing and exactly how to do it, they are smart.  Her story hit me the hardest because her lack of self-respect stemmed from sexual abuse from the time she was 4 all the way until she turned 12, her family overlooked what was happening, and let her believe that she was to blame for what had happened.  These combined sparked her craving for drugs and alcohol which she quickly became dependent on and later made her a perfect target for a sex slave.  Perkins’ story wasn’t all bad, through a program known as Catch Court, she was able to hit the reset button and start over with a clean slate to make a new life for herself.  Catch Court offered her support through a mentor program, and also surrounded her with fellow victims that could all truly understand what each one had been through.  Their program is run through three steps: acceptance, structure, and transformation.  Acceptance through this program comes from the mentor and the fellow survivors who form a family for the victim to be a part of.  Next is structure, this is the part of the program that encourages every participant to stay committed to the process.  Last is transformation, transformation is the moment that a woman can, “…transform her life from one of exploitation to one of personal freedom”.  Not only did the program make its audience more aware of the issue, it also demonstrated ways that the cycle can be broken and both men and women who are victims of this can heal.  The most interesting part of the presentation for me instead of the actual TedTalk video was the live speakers standing just a few feet in front of me.  It was an amazing thing to see so many victims that have reinvented their lives and are now working to help others.