6. This mom who escaped slavery after 14 years thanks to a beating from her pimp
Shirley was just 15 years old when she met her first pimp. Having run away with the hope of finding a comfort and love she’d never had before, she instead wound up in a 14-year fight for her life as a sex slave.
“I found myself trapped, afraid to get out, and scared for my life.”
In 2013 though, Shirley found her saving grace in an unlikely way. Pregnant with her daughter, a pimp beat her so terribly that she went into labor.
It was her nurse at the hospital who was able to spot the signs of human trafficking and offer Shirley the help she needed to escape.
Today, Shirley has been reunited with all three of her daughters, and she’s living free for the first time since that fateful day at 15 when she ran away.
7. This Oregon mother who was lured in by love
Rebecca’s story of love, betrayal, survival, and advocacy is literally the heartbeat behind the movement to end human trafficking.
After unexpectedly getting pregnant at 17, Rebecca un-enrolled in college courses to take care of her new baby girl. It was around that same time when she met her real-life Prince Charming.
The Oregon native dated and fell in love with the man who would later become her abuser.
He moved Rebecca and her daughter to Las Vegas where he could support their small little “family.” But it was only a matter of hours before Rebecca was forced to “pay back” what her abuser had done for her by selling her body.
“When you have a trafficker that’s waiting at home with your child, that says, ‘If you don’t bring home $1500, you’re going to find your daughter out on the corner,’ I think I was probably more frightened to go home,” Rebecca explains the horror she lived.
