Human Trafficking Awareness Interviews

Michelle Carmela, Child Trafficking Survivor, Anti-Human Trafficking Activist and Advocate, Founder and CEO of Once Upon An Eden

Born into a Mafia family and enduring a childhood of extreme abuse, child trafficking survivor, Michelle Carmela, shares her story. Now an anti-human trafficking activist and advocate, and the founder and CEO of Once Upon An Eden, she dedicates her life to helping others who have suffered as she did.

Ruth Jacobs's avatarRuth Jacobs

Michelle Carmela

How did you become involved in the movement against human trafficking? 

I am a survivor of incest, child rape, child labor and child prostitution, as well as extreme child abuse. I was also born and raised in a Mafia family. I grew up in the United States. America, like every other country, is a great country, and like every other country, also has citizens that suffer greatly at the whims of others, thus having their rights violated.

After a forty-one year history with human exploitation and sharing my story with the public for the past twenty-six years, I am thankful people are listening and the awareness is greater than ever before, but honestly, as ungrateful as this may seem, the terms ‘human trafficking’ and the other terms that have become politically correct, irk me to no end. I have said it for many years and will continue to say…

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In the Booth with Ruth – Winnie Small, Radical Feminist/Abolitionist and Ally to Victims of Sex Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation

Winnie Small, a radical feminist, abolitionist, and ally to victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation gives an in depth interview for Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In it, she explains how pornography plays into other forms of prostitution, the affect the internet has had on this, how, within a capitalist patriarchy, ‘choice’ and ‘freedom’ don’t always mean choice and freedom for women, particularly indigenous women and women of colour, and she discusses the Nordic model, and the current law, which she describes as offering no reasonable assurance of protection “where money and men’s boners collide.”

Ruth Jacobs's avatarRuth Jacobs

Winnie SmallHow did you become involved in supporting the abolition of prostitution?

I must admit my opposition to pornstitution was largely academic at first, not felt in my gut to be wrong until I read anti-pornography/anti-prostitution feminist books, especially radical feminist books, like Gloria Steinem’s Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics, Joan Smith’s Misogynies – I read all these at twelve years old. Another book I read at the same age, Patrick Roscoe’s Birthmarks, is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories about prostitution, child sexual abuse, homelessness, trauma re-enactment, and so on – that is what really hit me in the gut/tear ducts. Before that, I was pro-porn, from about eight to twelve, consuming romance novels (from garage sales and the library) and porn – first sneaking looks at my dad’s friends’ porn, then seeking out mostly televised pornography on pay per view channels (we had a descrambler). I…

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In the Booth with Ruth – Nikolaos Al-Khadra, Child Trafficking Survivor and Anti-Human Trafficking Activist

When his father discovered he was gay, Nikolaos Al-Khadra was thrown out of the family home. On the streets, he was prey for pimps. He says, “I had become so mentally beat down by these men. I thought sex was my only skill. First, I was brainwashed, then conditioned by this lifestyle and at the end, dehumanized… I live with high amounts of PTSD… This message needs to get out about the amount of trauma associated with commercial sex.” For his advocacy work he says, “I let them know they’re not alone in this war, their soul is worth more than to be sold.”

Ruth Jacobs's avatarRuth Jacobs

Nikolaos Al-Khadra

How did you become involved in the movement against sex trafficking and sexual exploitation?

It happened when I quit nursing school. I was in counselling at the time just starting to deal with my past as an escort. That’s when I found my calling in life to be a social worker. In some of my first classes, I learned that social work was not just case management. And I knew that too from my past experience of having a case worker oversee services I needed when I had full blown AIDS.

While I was doing a research project for one of my classes, I noticed so many loopholes in state policies when it came to prosecuting those involved in youth prostitution. The victims, being the kids, were prosecuted and the adults, johns and pimps, were just fined. Then I saw something in my own past being a possible key as…

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