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Ashley’s Story

My sister Ashley was 29 when she died.  She left behind two children, my niece and nephew, and took with her another, as she was pregnant when she passed on. Ashley did not have the best life.  Technically she was my half-sister, we had the same dad but different moms. Little did I know that our mothers would be the defining factor between her lifestyle and mine.  Ashley’s mother battled with addiction and mental health issues her whole life.  She never got the help she needed, and when she had Ashley her problems intensified.  My family tried to get Ashley who was then just a little girl to come live with us.  My aunt, my mother, and my father all tried to get full custody of this little girl but their efforts were to no avail.

            As I said, Ashley’s mom was an addict.  She was in trouble with the police but she still needed that “fix” so she began to send Ashley onto the streets for her.  At that point, Ashley didn’t have a record, so her consequences if caught would be a lot less than those of her mothers.  Ashley was her drug runner.  She had her shoplifting shampoo in CVS because all of the money went to drugs.  At the age of 12, Ashley was sent into the world of sex trafficking and prostitution.  Her mother became her “pimp” and would send Ashley to a local motel in Marietta to have sex with grown men for money that went to her mother’s drug habit.  Now remember this was her only daughter. 

            Ashley's life then spiraled.  She was in and out of jail, still having sex with men for money for her mom, and she herself became an addict.  However, deep within Ashley was always a want to get better.  She started to straighten out when she met a man and became pregnant with her first child.  Ashley cleaned herself up, much to her mother’s disgust, and moved out with the father of her child.  She got a job and started to raise the child in a stable home.  This went on for a few years and during that time she had another child. However, things took a turn for the worse when she was in a car accident and needed prescription painkillers.  Due to her addictive past, she again became addicted. She got fired from her job, she was losing the apartment, and eventually her boyfriend left pushing her right back into the arms of her mother.  Their lifestyle quickly resumed and Ashley was again being trafficked and prostituted by her mom.  If she said no or resisted her mother would beat her until she would agree.

            The last time I saw Ashley was the summer before she died.  My father took Ashley, her two children, and me to Hershey Park knowing that the kids were never there before.  I remember pulling up in front of Ashley’s mothers house and the two kids coming out but not Ashley.  That’s when her little boy who was about five at the time got into the car.  He told us “mommy will be out in a minute, she's trying to cover up what grandma did last night”.  Ashley soon came out with cuts and bruises all over her face with makeup caked on to try to hide the marks.  So that was what grandma did?

            We got the call December of that year that Ashley was found dead in her mother’s home.  She had missed her probation meeting after getting out of rehab a week earlier.  When the officer went to the home her mother tried to tell them she was still sleeping, but when they pushed past her Ashley was dead in her room.  Her last words ever spoken to me were “keep going to school, don’t ever let yourself get into the situation I am.  It’s too late for me to change, so all I want is to see you go on and have a great life.  You never got into this lifestyle, you always kept your head on straight, you're so smart, and I'm so proud of you.”

            When we went to the funeral home to see Ashley before her mother had her cremated, the bruises on her face were obvious.  She was beaten before she died.  Ashley died of a drug overdose.  The nature of that overdose, whether intentional or not, and who was responsible we will never know. 

Trafficking is closer to home than you think.  Take it from me; it is very hard to get someone out of that lifestyle.  It is a lifetime battle, it isn't something that you help someone out of and just brush your hands of it.  Anything can cause them to slip back into that world.  For us, it was even harder to help Ashley because that was her mother.  All that a little girl ever wants is her mother’s approval.  It was not some random scary man on the corner that pushed her into that life; it was her own flesh and blood.  If you know someone that is in this situation please get him or her help.  We tried to get Ashley help her whole life but we couldn’t break the bond between a mother and her daughter.  I am telling her story to raise awareness.  It is still very hard to talk about the situation, but it’s even harder to get that phone call that someone has passed on from this lifestyle.

Get help and be aware.

In loving memory.

Jordan Hall

Check It Out!

human trafficking podcast

This is a podcast that focuses on human trafficking in PA.  There are three key speakers: the first is Timothy Bradley the current mayor of Mount Joy.  Mr. Bradley is very involved in the fight to end human sex trafficking, and is a victim's advocate.  The second speaker is Bethany Woodcock, who is the founder of the anti-trafficking group Not In My Backyard. The third speaker is Kelly Towers, a task force leader for the group Love 146.

the porn industry and the dehumanization of women

This video is about the porn industry and how it changes a viewer's belief on sex and women just by watching one time.  It goes on to talk about how sex has been dehumanized.  It is no longer a matter of love and respect.  Society and the porn industry have turned sex into something more about supply and demand rather than an emotional connection.

Enjoy!

Jordan Hall

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.

 

Every year, human traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits by victimizing millions of people around the world.

Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women, and children are trafficked in their own countries and abroad.

Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power, for the purpose of exploitation. It is a form of modern-day slavery where people profit from the control and manipulation of others.

Forms of exploitation include prostitution, slavery, servitude, forced labor, and services.

Sex trafficking includes commercial sexual exploitation of children, as well as every instance where an adult is in the sex trade. Sex trafficking occurs within numerous venues in the broader sex industry, commonly found in street prostitution, online escort services, residential brothels, and massage parlors. Forced labor or services include domestic servitude as well as working in farms, factories, and restaurants. Many traffickers tell their victims they must work in order to repay their debt.

It is a social problem because it affects large numbers of individuals and does not discriminate by gender, age, or race. It is globally recognized as a social issue in today's society and their is an outcry for change and correction from individuals across the globe. It is social in origin with the root causes targeting individuals who are on the lower levels of class structure living in poverty who continue to accumulate debt and are easy targets for traffickers. The main social cause for human trafficking is society's need for supply and demand. The sex industry also contributes to the rise of human trafficking in regards to pornography, sex-toy shops, brothels, massage parlors, and strip clubs, phone sex. Some ways to reduce human trafficking include raising social awareness through the media and advertisements. Additional laws and regulations need to be established to crack down on traffickers and increase punishment severity. There needs to be more prevention programs and information made available to people so they are able to identify and respond if they suspect there is trafficking going on in their area. At the individual level people can share their personal experiences, join activist groups within their local communities, volunteer or donate to programs to help abolish trafficking, and use social media to raise awareness about this ongoing social problem. At the structural level, people can form activist groups, get petitions going, and write letters to local representatives and government officials.

WORLDWIDE HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATISTICS

• Value of Human Trafficking Worldwide is 32 Billion dollars
• Number of Human Trafficking Victims Worldwide is 20.9 Million as of 2013

UNITED STATES HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATISTICS

• Human trafficking generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States
• Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States
• The average age of entry into prostitution for a child victim in the United States is 13-14 years old
• A pimp can make $150,000-$200,000 per child each year
• The average pimp has 4-6 girls
• The average victim may be forced to have sex up to 20-48 times a day
• Fewer than 100 beds are available in the United States for underage victims
• Department of Justice has identified the top twenty human trafficking jurisdictions in the country: Houston, El Paso, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Miami, Las Vegas, New York, Long Island, New Orleans, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Phoenix, Richmond, San Diego, San Francisco, St Louis, Seattle, Tampa
• 1/3 teens on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home

Our Course of Action: Love 146

     For our action, we as a group decided to join the organization Love146. Love146 is a global force of abolitionists against child trafficking. The name of the organization originates from an experience the co-founders experienced when they went undercover to a brothel where children were being sold for sex. Rob Morris, President and co-founder of Love146 tells us the story.

“We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children…raped each night… seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn't watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl... All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her. Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives.”

Since then, Love 146 has been actively involved in the fight against child trafficking. They operate on one simple principle: That love has the power to protect, defend, restore, and empower. This love is exercised practically by means of four main programs:

1. Survivor Care – providing holistic care for survivors of exploitation and assistance with reintegration.
2. Prevention Education - Teaching local communities how to protect themselves and others from child trafficking.
3. Professional Training – Equipping professionals who interact often with children with tools to aid in protection and restoration.
4. Empowering Movement – Developing and aiding abolitionist groups with education, training, funding, evaluation, and support.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

     Through these channels, Love146 has made an impact in the fight against human trafficking By promoting prevention and providing care post-trauma. They are not directly involved in the rescue of children, but they work in close association with those that do, according to their FAQs page. In signing up to be a part of Love 146, we have access to information regarding  opportunities where we can lend a hand. It is the intention of all three of us to pursue volunteer work in this area. The story and mission of Love146, as well as it's results, are inspiring to be sure. They are a prime example of what can be accomplished when you decide it's time to make a change. But they need our help so that more children can be spared and more survivors can be aided in healing from the trauma. Let's do what we can to end child trafficking. How can we say no, when we have a community of abolitionists ready to stand with us in the members of Love 146.