Category Archives: Reflections

The Truth About Recovering From Child Sexual Exploitation

Published on April 1, 2023
The Truth About Recovering from Child Sexual Exploitation

To care for a child leaving the commercial sex industry, a caregiver absolutely must think in terms of holistic care. We have to realize that brain development has been compromised and slowed. We have to realize that basic things like autonomy, self-awareness, and personal boundaries have sometimes never been learned. We have to realize that in addition to the literal and figurative demons that child survivors face, they are fighting with their own bodies for basic health. So with these realizations, we are back to our first question: how long does it take to see a child survivor heal?

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The Harm of Fake Trafficking Stories

Published on May 1, 2022
How Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts Work

Last year, the world’s attention has turned toward human trafficking in new numbers. Particularly in the United States, #savethechildren made headlines as supporters took to the streets seemingly in support of victims of child trafficking. On social media, story after story was shared about people who believed they or their children had narrowly escaped being […]

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Exploited for Profit: A Story of Two Street Kids

Published on January 10, 2022
Exploited for Profit

There were two of them. One was probably around 7 and the other younger… maybe 4. They could have been sisters. They were both small and skinny, with tattered clothing and hungry eyes. I saw them as I was walking across the parking lot to the convenience store where I stopped to get a bottle […]

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The Truth About Survivor Success Stories

Published on December 26, 2021
The Truth About Survivor Success Stories 2

When there is no longer a need to find food and shelter and physical safety, they have to wrestle with questions of their own value and the implications of what has been done to them. I cannot begin to describe how difficult this process is for a survivor.

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After Aftercare

Published on November 2, 2021
After Aftercare

Caring for child survivors of sexual trafficking is multi-faceted. In the initial days, we deal with things like acute medical needs, family services, and legal procedures. But slowly life takes on a rhythm, trust is built, and the deeper wounds are cared for. Trauma for sexually exploited children runs deep, and it is not something that any aftercare program can ever fully and perfectly address. Aside from the necessary mental, emotional, and spiritual healing, a good aftercare program has to think about a child’s future.

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The Last Step in a Survivor’s Journey

Published on September 21, 2021
The Last Step in a Survivor's Journey

Do you like your job?” The random question was directed at me. There was a lightheartedness in the tone that fit the playful mood that we were in, but there was also a depth to the question that needed a real answer. The question came from a young woman I supervised in our Freedom Business. […]

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Inside an Indonesian Brothel: Intan’s Story

Published on August 14, 2021
Inside an Indonesian Brothel

Every month I join a team of women that goes into brothels, nightclubs, and red light districts in a large Indonesian city. Every outreach night is different. Sometimes our conversations seem insignificant – just small talk. Other nights, it seems like we have important conversations and make long-lasting connections with the girls and women we […]

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I Saw You

Published on July 5, 2021
How Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts Work (4)

I saw you with your face turned toward the street as the person in charge of you hungrily scanned the crowd to see who would eventually notice you. Who came all the way here just to feed on your soul and ravage your body

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The Cost of Caring

Published on June 8, 2021
The Cost of Caring 2

For many survivors, the consequences of their experiences are lifelong and can significantly impair their ability to live a normal life. What is less understood is the affects of being a caregiver of traumatized people, especially the kind of caregiver whose role is to listen to the details of horrible abuse from the perspective of the one who experienced it. In fact, what makes a caregiver good at his or her job is compassion, and it is exactly this compassion that can lead to the undoing of that caregiver’s own mental health.

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They Buy Baby Clothes

Published on April 5, 2021
The Buy Baby Clothes 2

I know the power of a mother’s love. That’s love that will go through hell every single night if it is the only way to keep my baby from suffering. That’s love that would never breathe a word of my own suffering to keep his world innocent and perpetuate his belief that I can protect him. That’s love that buys baby clothes from rape money.

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