survivor

In the Booth with Ruth – Christine Stark, Child Trafficking Survivor, Award Winning Writer and Visual Artist

“I want to be part of a global movement to end this thing that nearly destroyed my life. I want to live in a world where children and women do not have to figure out a way to get up the morning after being tortured the night before. I want to live in a world where women and children are not sold for men’s pleasure.” Christine Stark, Survivor of Child Trafficking and Award-Winning Writer and Visual Artist.

Ruth Jacobs's avatarRuth Jacobs

Chris Stark

How did you become involved in supporting the abolition of prostitution?

Various family members sold me in a prostitution and pornography ring throughout my childhood and teen years. I always wanted to get away from them but since I knew what happened to kids who ended up on the street, I never ran away. I figured my best chance at survival was to stay home and get away by going to college. If I had run away, I would have become more expendable. They would have either caught me and punished me, or I would have ‘disappeared’. Given that I was used by my family, they had more accountability toward me than a youth picked up on the street by a pimp. For instance, they could only bruise me where the marks would not be seen. Bruises couldn’t show on my arms and legs and face. Plus, if one day…

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In the Booth with Ruth – Delores Day, Child Trafficking Survivor and Anti-Human Trafficking Advocate

“On my sixteenth birthday, my father sold me to his best friend,” says Delores Day, an anti-human trafficking advocate. “In the end, he was my pimp… I was still naive enough not to know this was trafficking. I just knew I had to get out…”

Ruth Jacobs's avatarRuth Jacobs

Delores Day

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

I’ve been on Facebook for quite some time but in the beginning, it was mostly to play games. I didn’t see anything else that interested me at the time. Then my daughter was abused by her now ex-husband. She somehow stumbled upon a Facebook page called The Sisterhood. I noticed on that page many hurting women who’d been battered and abused. My daughter’s story was on their discussion page. God, it hurt me to the bone of how he truly hurt her, and how my granddaughter was the witness of it all. That’s when my daughter knew she had to leave and she did. She was so brave. So, I would go in there once in a while to help console some of them and give them little words of wisdom I’ve learned in my years of life. The creator…

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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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