Students host events to bring awareness to human and sex trafficking issues
By Laura Frazier
Like most normal teenagers, Jessica Richardson started working when she was 17. But for Richardson, her boss was a pimp, and her paycheck was $30,000 to $50,000 a month for having sex with roughly 15 different men a day.
Trapped in sex trafficking, Richardson was faced with challenges that most people can hardly imagine. But now free, Richardson shared her story with UP students as a part of Slavery Still Exists week.
On April 6 in St. Mary's Lounge, the human trafficking awareness week kicked off with "Listen - Sex Trafficking Up Close and Personal - The Life Story of a Portland Sex Trafficking Survivor."
The night started with a viewing of the documentary "At the End of Slavery," which addressed global child slavery and sex trafficking issues.
According to the film, human trafficking is a $32 billion market, and the third largest growing criminal industry in the world behind drugs and weapons trafficking.
Human trafficking exploits roughly two million children worldwide, and a child can be sold for as little as $40.
Richardson connected the issue to real life with her personal story.
Richardson was forced to have sex by neighborhood boys at about the age of five.
Then, after her father was murdered, she started drinking and became sexually active by 12.
She had her first miscarriage when she was 13.
It was while she was working at a restaurant four years later that she was formally introduced to sex trafficking when an older man approached her and offered her a job.
"For the first time, someone was giving me attention without wanting to get in my pants," she said. "I was told by him that I could get paid for sex. He made it sound fun."
Richardson was first enticed by the glamorous image of being controlled by a pimp, such as the benefits of nice clothing and exotic trips. But she soon realized what the man had left out.
"What they don't tell you is that your freedom is gone," she said. "You may have nice clothes and money, but you still can't walk out the door."
Richardson was trapped in the business for 14 months, as she had no place to go or the life skills necessary to start over.
Also, the control that the pimps have over every aspect of the victim's life can make leaving seem impossible.
"The brainwashing is so deep that they can't imagine anything different," she said. "They don't even know that they are a victim."
Eventually Richardson decided to just walk away. Now she is a successful businesswoman and a wife and mother of four children.
Dr. Cyndi Romine spoke about what is being done to rescue child slaves.
Romine works for Compassion 2 One, a privately funded organization that rescues children from sex traffickers.
Romine travels all across the globe and not only removes victims from the situation, but sets them up in safe houses and gives them a new opportunity for life as well.
"They have to be rescued and given a new life somewhere," she said. "They are just children who haven't been given what they need in life to make it through life."
Romine emphasized how prevalent human trafficking really is.
"This is a problem we are facing right here in the United States," she said. "It's not just an international problem."
Human trafficking is a serious problem in the Northwest as well, Romine said.
She said that Portland is the second largest trafficked area in the United States behind Seattle, due to easy transport along Interstate Five.
Romine is determined to continue to fight the problem with optimism.
"What some people see as tragedy, I see as hope," she said. "There is hope for this situation."
Junior Brianna Hodge, president of the UP Social Science Club, coordinated the event as a way to educate UP students about the issue of human trafficking.
"There is a lot of ignorance around the issue," she said. "There is so much work that needs to be done but people need the education aspect first."
Freshman Kelly Pullin, who attended the event, agrees that the issue is worth attention.
"A lot of people are more na've then they think," she said. "It's not that people don't care, it's just that they have no idea."
Hodge hopes to continue working to stop human trafficking by gaining support and increasing awareness.
"My goal is to educate people and make sure they know the real facts and get them to start thinking differently," she said.
