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The Indiana Daily Student

Speaker shares the effect of human trafficking

caUnslaved

In Muncie, Indiana, two teenage girls entered the car of two men who said they were going out for pizza. When they got in the car, they were beaten, drugged, raped and then forced into sex slavery.

In Fishers, Indiana, a girl was sold as a prostitute by her older sister to pay off drug debt.

In New Castle, Indiana, a van at a Pilot Flying J truck stop was found with 10 girls under the age of 12 hidden inside, all of whom were being sold for sex at different truck stops around the state.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a 16-year-old girl was forced into sex slavery after she ran away from home.

Rhonda Patterson said she has met all of these girls. Patterson, 47, is the founder of Unslaved, a movement started in 2008 to support the survivors of human trafficking and raise awareness of the issue. Patterson told these stories Wednesday night at the Indiana Memorial Union to a crowd of about 100 students.

“We have a tendency to believe that the women and children being taken and exploited are people from other countries, or people from backgrounds very different from us,” Patterson said. “But it’s happening all around you. They are the women and children you love, and they are being taken from you.”

Unslaved works primarily to help victims of human trafficking, Patterson said. Their team helps to find and rescue girls who have gone missing. They also help victims who escape sex slavery financially support themselves by creating clothing and jewelry through Unslaved stores in Muncie and Fort Wayne.

“We want to help empower these women after what they’ve been through,” Patterson said. “We want them to be able to say, ‘I’ve created something, I’ve accomplished something and I have worth as a person.’”

Some of the jewelry created by survivors of human trafficking was on sale at Patterson’s talk.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, between 100,000 and 300,000 children in the United States are victims of commercial sex trafficking each year.

Not only does Patterson help some of these women and children, but she was once one of them. Patterson said she, her twin sister, her younger sister and two neighbor boys were sold as sex slaves from the time she was six to when she was 13.

“The first time I tried to tell someone about it, she stood up, said ‘I thought you were classy,’ and walked away,” Patterson said. “Human trafficking was not something in our everyday dictionaries back then. It was a fight to get people to listen.”

Even as awareness of human trafficking spreads and the problem becomes widely acknowledged, fundamental cultural values make it a hard problem to fix, said Daniel Walker, who works for Patterson’s team with Unslaved.

“There’s this narrative that men are bred to exploit women, and that’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re a man,” Walker said. “And we are telling ourselves that exploitation is acceptable and ignoring the shame that comes from living this narrative.”

At the start of the event, two young women and a man acted out what the violence and force of what trafficking can look like.

The man yelled, “Get up here!” and shoved the women to the front of the room and forced them to stand in the corner of the stage.

“That part was very dramatic and grabbing,” IU junior Jordan Hartman said. “Between that and the stories that were told, it really put a face to all the statistics you hear. Maybe that will move people to talk about it a little more.”

One of the women, Mindy Hurley, 28, has just started working with Patterson and Unslaved.

“I was sexually assaulted, and I want to find a way to start something that can help other people who have gone through that,” Hurley said. “I’m working with Rhonda to learn how I can do that. She makes such a huge difference in a lot of women’s lives, and I’m learning so much from her.”

Patterson said since starting Unslaved, she has spent all her time and resources working towards support and awareness for human trafficking victims.

“I don’t exactly know what to do about the situation, because it’s too big to be fixed by one person,” Patterson said. “But the more that stands in my way, the more I know I must be on the right track. So we’ll keep fighting for these women and children and help the ones we meet as best as we can.”

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