ARKANSAS, USA — According to the FBI, about 90% of the human trafficking cases they work on are related to sex trafficking and the other 10% is labor trafficking.
The average age of sex trafficking victims is around 12 years old and worldwide, there are nearly 28 million human trafficking cases.
Advocates define sex trafficking as using someone for a sexual act in exchange for anything of value— that can be food, shelter, transportation, drugs or money.
It’s a hard topic and not one many want to discuss. Here in Arkansas, two women who survived sex trafficking have turned into advocates determined to share their experience in hopes to give a voice to the problem that officials in Northwest Arkansas say is more prevalent than many understand.
Kathy Bryan
Kathy Bryan was 15 years old when she met her neighbor while walking to her friend's house to study. It started out as a friendship— “I thought it was just a guy in the neighborhood.”
After six months of friendship with compliments and lunch dates, it just started to feel like they were dating. Kathy said she trusted him totally. “He didn’t even do anything except hold my hand,” she said.
But one day it all changed when the man she considered her boyfriend trapped her in his house with another man. Kathy said she tried finding a way to escape.
"I opened the door really slow hoping it wouldn’t make any noise and make a run for the front door," she said.
But it didn't work.
He threatened her and said if she didn't do what they wanted, he'd hurt Kathy's 5-year-old sister Kassandra.
“'From this point forward you'll be where I tell you to be when I tell you to be or else Kassandra- and he pointed to the floor where they just assaulted me,” she remembers.
From the outside, Kathy said it would've been difficult to recognize her as a victim while she still spent time at home, attending school and doing her homework. However, when she told her parents she went to bed, she'd leave and go into the hands of her abuser. "I would sneak out and he would take me to houses, apartments, wherever he had set up.”
Kathy said she would get home in the early morning hours and only get a few hours of sleep.
"And that lasted for about two and a half years."
Then one day her trafficker said, “I don’t ever want to see you again," told her not to ever contact him
But one day it all changed.
The man who trafficked her said,
“I don’t ever want to see you again. Don’t try to contact me don’t try to contact anyone you’ve met and then he said this is the only way I can save you then he kissed me on the forehead pushed me away and left," she said.
Kathy at this time was 18 and now finding a new path in life.
“I met my husband like a year after I was released and fell in love against my will and now we've been married been 38 years... I have three kids, 12 grandchildren, and got healing.”
Now she helps others recognize the signs of sex trafficking.
Kathy started her own non-profit The Genesis Project, helping victims feel empowered and have support through crisis intervention, court and justice advocacy, case management, solution-based direct services and long-term relationship-based advocacy.
Giving victims a voice and support system that she didn’t always have.
“I'm a survivor of human trafficking."
If you or someone you know is or has been a victim of sex trafficking there are resources to help. You can start getting help by calling the national human trafficking hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
Amanda Pulley
“I was in kindergarten or first grade when the sexual abuse started," said Pulley.
Amanda Pulley grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, and she "experienced sexual abuse from various family members throughout my life.”
At 14 years old, the abuse stopped, but two years later it started again, and at a place she felt safe.
“I met one of my traffickers when I was 16 years old.” It was at the church she grew up in, he was the local youth leader.
“He took an interest in me—I’m sure he saw my vulnerabilities and he was one of the people I looked up to in the youth group," she said.
At first, the 28-year-old man was like a big brother to her.
“Everything was normal for a while. we would do fun things. he taught me how to do donuts in the snow. he taught me how to drive his truck. normal 16-year-old things.” But things started to change.
She said, “I didn’t have the choice of what to order when we went out to eat anymore. he was telling me what to eat.” And the control only got worse... “He forced me to skip school one day and I was that nerd who loved to be in school and he forced me to skip school and he took me to a hotel.”
That’s when the abuse started, “He told me he was teaching me to provide services for other men.”
When people started to notice the two’s relationship, she was the one punished: “I had to stand there and apologize, and they kicked me out as well I went to a Christian school, and they kicked me out.”
At just 16 -years-old Amanda was kicked out of school and church, but out of nowhere, her dad reached out to her.
Amanda said, “I missed my dad from the day he left when I was three and I was so excited to find out that my dad had moved back to the area.”
Her dad invited Amanda and her boyfriend—the 28-year-old youth leader—to his house. “There was this piece of me that thought 'my dad will protect me.' That’s not what happened at all.”
But, instead of that protection, her dad connected with her abuser and began trafficking Amanda out of his trailer. Amanda was not allowed to leave.
“If I was given any money, it was theirs and there were certain requirements, I had to provide services... to a standard.”
After a year, Amanda found a way to escape, “It was as if I heard this voice that said go, run now. so, I ran.” She was left alone, grabbed the keys, and headed to her grandparents’ house.
Her grandpa helped her find protection, and Amanda homeschooled herself through high school.
She said, “I had all these dreams of going to college. and with being the first person in my family to graduate, I had all these aspirations, and I felt like he had taken everything.”
But the abuse she entailed did not stop her. She worked and paid her way through college.
Pully said, “It took a lot of years to understand what happened.” And during that time there was a lot of self-discovery. She says she had to learn how to trust herself.
While the trafficking started from a man she met in church, she said it didn’t change her faith, “When I realized God loved me for who I am that he saw me, and it wasn’t based on what I did or didn’t do he loved me for who I am. it really did change my life.”
Amanda is now an advocate for sex trafficking victims, “To anyone experiencing that, you do have worth. There is hope to get out. There are people who understand and walk with you, and remind you on the days you don’t feel worth it that you are.”
Both Amanda and Kathy work with the genesis project—a non-profit Kathy started to help survivors like her.
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