Beautiful Survivor: Escaping the Statistics

De: Christa Cairus

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Imagine walking down the street enjoying your latte and smiling at the people you pass on the sidewalk. You might make a mental notation of how great this woman looks in her professional attire or how fantastic that guy’s haircut is. You might possibly be envious of how well this mother is put together for dragging three small children along with her to run errands by herself. But you don’t know any of these people from Adam. In fact, all you really know is the image they portray on the outside. The reality is that you don’t know of a person’s struggles or successes when you first see them. You don’t know if they just got a promotion, served divorce papers, inherited a fortune, or just buried a child that passed away. If you met a woman on the street or even worked side by side with her, would you notice the signs of domestic abuse? Let’s take it a step further. Would you notice the signs of somebody involved in sex trafficking? When you think about sex trafficking, odds are you envision someone who has been kidnapped, drugged, and enslaved for the purpose of sexual manipulation. Unfortunately, it’s not always so black and white. Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation where the victim is forced, in one of a variety of ways, into a situation of dependency on their trafficker and then used by said trafficker to give sexual services to customers. Some victims have the freedom to come and go while others are trapped and incoherent. Some traffickers “own” several victims while others have only one. Some victims become involved as children while others are kidnapped-- some victims even become involved through the force of someone they once loved and trusted. When I met the man of my dreams, it didn't take long for me to become his puppet. His controlling behavior turned me into somebody I didn't recognize and somebody my friends were not able to associate with. The closer I got to leaving, the easier it was for me to suck me back in, especially when I got pregnant and paralyzed. As he isolated me from all positive connections in life, I realized that time was running out and I needed to escape.