Journey to Success
Supporting the Restoration of Trafficking Survivors
HT4 – 01 Journey of Success
Recovery operations are happening all across the United States for human trafficking victims.
These rescue operations happen because of work that the police are doing, tips to the national hotline (888-3737-888), and because of people who care and stay alert about the issue.
The good news is that they are getting recovered…EVERY DAY! But after recovery their healing journey begins and some of the stories about what these girls go through AFTER being trafficked are almost as painful as talking about the abuse.
In the picture-perfect Hollywood story, the girl gets rescued, then goes home to a warm, welcoming family instantly healed of the trauma and abuse and they live happily ever after.
That story sells tickets and makes us feel better about a horrible truth in our world.
But the truth is often gut-wrenching, ugly, painful, messy, and hard to look at.
The truth is, girls and young women who’ve been trafficked usually need months and sometimes YEARS of intensive help before they ever get “better”.
Over the past 15 years working with these girls and young women, we’ve seen a lot…
- We’ve seen a girl come in with a bullet fragment still in her head from her trafficker trying to kill her as she was escaping
- We’ve seen a girl come in with a broken femur because the trafficker dragged her from a car as she tried to escape
- Girls regularly come in with broken noses, broken teeth, black eyes and bruised faces
- We see sexually transmitted infections that take months or years to heal from
- We see minds that have been warped to think that every man is only out to abuse them or manipulate them into doing something
- Many girls come in with their trafficker’s names tattooed and sometimes burned into their skin like a farmer brands livestock
- Many of the girls have hearts that have lost the will to live and to love and to trust people
- Often we see girls that have spirits that have been broken like an animal through the mental and sometimes physical cages that the traffickers lock them in
What girls who've been recovered are saying...
“This guy trafficked me starting at 16 years old. When the police finally got me out I needed to come to a place like the Phoenix Dream Center to get better. They’ve given me so many amazing opportunities and resources. You won’t find any other places likes this…I mean this place like saved my life.”
Katie
“I ran away from home at 17 and an older man took me into his house. It turned bad and he started locking me in the bathroom and telling me when I could eat. The SWAT team raided his house and brought me to the Phoenix Dream Center. I made a lot of friends at the Dream Center and I got my high school diploma. First thing I ever accomplished.”
Mariah
“At the age of 14 they put me out on the streets day and night. I would bring the money back to them. I got beat, I got raped, it was terrible. When I got away a school councilor called the Phoenix Dream Center and they took me in the same day. I was pregnant and they helped me and my baby have a life.”
Ronni
Number of girls and young women who currently live in our healing program:
Number of girls and young women still needing support.
In Arizona your donation is eligible for the Arizona Charitable Tax Credit and you can get $800 in state tax credits for couples filing jointly and singles can get up to $400 in AZ Charitable Tax Credits.
