TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Jane remembers how a sex trafficker choked her, raped her and smiled sadistically as he attacked her in 2014.
But Jane also remembers Sarah, the woman she credits with saving her life. Sarah is the director of Restore Hope, a division of the Topeka Rescue Mission which aids sex trafficking victims to recover from the trauma of that abuse.
The Topeka Capital-Journal (https://bit.ly/1SARWxP ) isn’t identifying victims or two key members of Restore Hope because of potential danger to them.
Without Sarah, Jane said, she probably would be dead. Jane calls herself a “survivor” of more than 20 years of sex trafficking. She is 40.
In 2015, Restore Hope assisted 45 sex trafficking victims, linking them with the services they need, said Barry Feaker, the mission’s executive director.
“No one was born to be a prostitute or with aspirations to be a slave,” Feaker said. “We want to help them to go beyond being a victim to being a victor. Christ can help them to be victorious and to be a victor.”
With Restore Hope, “we try to reach out, rescue and restore the hope that we believe they have (lost) as victims of exploitation, as well as sex trafficking,” Sarah said.
“As far as the rescue,” she added, “we say they’re worth it even if they’ve lost the fight for themselves. (In the restoration phase) we do believe they can overcome the trauma and the abuse and become a very valuable part of our community.”
Of the people rescued, about half arrived on their own at the mission, and others were referred there by agencies, including the YWCA, Valeo Behavioral Health Care and family members.
Of the 45:
- 42 were women, and three were men.
- Nine were juveniles, most 16 or 17 years old and some “significantly younger.”
- Fifteen youngsters, who were several months old to 10 years old, were the children of victims.
- Three were in the “grooming” stage, meaning the trafficker was trying to manipulate them into working in the sex trade. The remainder were being “pretty significantly trafficked” for sex to make money for a trafficker, Sarah said.
- Some worked for traffickers in Topeka, others worked for traffickers based in other states, and other victims had fled sex trafficking, Sarah said.
“Indicators are showing us that (trafficking) is larger than we previously thought,” Feaker said, adding reports indicate groups are being trafficked in Topeka.
When sex trafficking victims arrive at the mission, “usually they are extremely, extremely traumatized,” Sarah said.
They often are having biological reactions of fight (her guard is up, she is paranoid, and she is ready to fight), flight (contemplating fleeing the mission) or freeze (unable to speak and the body is frozen).
One woman was catatonic and was balled up on the floor in a fetal position unable to speak, Sarah said. Another constantly rocked back and forth, saying, “This doesn’t feel right,” Sarah said.
Often, victims have untreated sexually transmitted diseases, cancer because their body is too exhausted to fight back and severe hygiene issues, Sarah said.
The catatonic woman was terrified of water and couldn’t take a shower, perhaps because of some type of water torture, Sarah said.
When being sexually trafficked, the only reason some women shower and groom themselves “is to be a better product,” Sarah said. They fix their hair and makeup and get dressed up, not because they feel beautiful, but because it is expected, Sarah said.
The main goal of Restore Hope when a victim arrives is to establish trust with the victim, then get them into the services they need, make sure their basic needs are met and surround them with a team who believes in them, Sarah said.
An assessment form at the mission flags potential trafficking victims, creating a bridge for mission staff to talk to them, Feaker said.
Victims arriving at the mission from other social service agencies are flagged as potential victims.
Initially, the trafficking victims surfaced when they came to the mission because they were homeless. As they began to trust the staff, the victims would talk about the abuse they had suffered, Feaker said.
But not all trafficking victims walk through the mission’s front door.
The rescue mission’s street outreach program had been encountering homeless women who appeared to be sex trafficking victims, Feaker said.
A mission worker told Feaker he thought the women were being prostituted, Feaker said, and if so, drugs and firearms might be in the house, making it dangerous.
Feaker said the mission approached the houses “gingerly.”
Some victims wanted out of that life.
In late summer 2014, the mission informally started working to help trafficking victims.
Jay, a Restore Hope worker, recalls a trafficking victim who approached him in summer 2014 who wanted out of the life. That tripped a series of events leading to formation of Restore Hope.
“Can you help me? I’m not safe,” the woman told Jay, and he offered help.
“Just trust me,” he told the woman.
“Within less than 24 hours, she was in another city after she said yes,” he said. “That got my attention. That’s where it all started. So a few more happened, and a few more happened.”
He told Feaker about it.
“I think it caught him off guard when he learned Street Reach was actually doing it,” Jay said.
In October 2015, Alden’s House, a group seeking to found a restoration house to help trafficking victims, merged with the mission to become Restore Hope.
Restore Hope transports people from Topeka to another city because “they’re coming from an abusive situation in the sex trafficking industry,” Jay said.
“They may be getting away from the drug dealers, the human traffickers, the johns, all of that,” Jay said. “Getting them out of that environment and getting them into another environment can make them feel safer.”
As they gain more experience, the Restore Hope team is learning the signs to identify whether someone is a sex trafficking victim, Feaker said.
After Jay gets a tip about a trafficking victim, Jay and Sarah will make contact with her.
For instance, he walks over to a woman who has been living in her car. Then Sarah walks over, and Jay introduces Sarah to the victim.
The victims recognize Jay, a familiar figure on Topeka streets for five or six years, knowing him as the guy from the mission.
In late February, Jay introduced Sarah to a victim, reminding her he gave her a phone number, a link to some women who could help her. He flashed a big smile at the victim, she responded, then she and Sarah began to talk.
The link had been made, and he walked away, fading into the background.
The link between the women - Sarah and the victim - is a deliberate outreach method. In part, it removes any suggestion Jay is hitting on the victim or is somehow coercing her.
The mission isn’t just drawing trafficking victims.
It also has drawn traffickers.
Traffickers have come by the mission and perhaps one entered the mission, Feaker said. On another occasion in fall 2015, Jay was at the mission about to transport a victim to another city when a trafficker appeared.
“This guy was standing at the front of the vehicle and he was looking at her through the windshield,” Jay said.
The woman told the man, “’No, I’m not staying. I’m leaving.’ ” Jay said.
“Instantly,” Jay said, “I knew this wasn’t good. I stood right in front of him. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her.”
Jay moved in front of the man’s line of sight, and the man tried to dodge him as though signaling Jay wasn’t there, as though to say, “you’re nothing.”
Jay ordered the rescue mission team members to push the victim into the car and close the door. The trafficker started to walk toward the back of the vehicle, and Jay accelerated backward faster.
“There was no one behind me, and I backed up all the way from the mission and all the way out,” Jay said.
Jay doesn’t worry about his safety, crediting his “experiences in life,” including the Army.
And his faith.
“As a believer in Christ, I tell people I have already died, so if I’ve already died, I don’t have a fear of death,” Jay said.
He doesn’t fear being harmed or hurt but knows he can be.
And he isn’t reckless.
“I don’t throw out wisdom,” Jay said. “I need to be wise for my team, wise about my safety. I know the danger is there. I just don’t approach it as fear-based.”
Jay is the go-to, can-do guy in Restore Hope’s mission to aid victims. He works on the streets, transports victims, trains Restore Hope volunteers and handles communications.
“I have the knack for cultivating information to the point where I can get your your cell number and use it only at a time of need,” Jay said.
He uses the skills he learned in the army to try to make Restore Hope the “safest team possible.” Feaker warns traffickers not to enter their property.
“This is our turf you’re on,” Feaker said, and surveillance cameras would videotape them. “Don’t come here.”
In 2015, Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor could file criminal charges to arrest sex traffickers, but the safety net to get victims out of the trafficking lifestyle had holes in it.
Taylor wanted victims to return “to some modicum of normalcy, to be able to establish their self-worth, to essentially unbrainwash them, and (for them) to become independent again.”
The prosecutor didn’t want trafficking victims whose trafficker had been arrested to simply be taken over by another trafficker.
But police and prosecutors didn’t have any place to house victims waiting to testify in criminal cases and to provide the services they needed, Taylor said.
Then Feaker told Taylor the Restore Hope team had been aiding trafficking victims for five months and could transition them from that lifestyle, Taylor said.
“Everything Barry Feaker touches, he does very well,” Taylor said, and the rescue mission had a solution to bridge the gap.
“It was almost divined as quickly as the cards fell into place,” Taylor said.
Taylor uses financial lingo when he notes the economic impact Restore Hope has on sex traffickers.
Restore Hope attacks the demand side - traffickers and customers - of sex trafficking, Taylor said.
“This is a demand-side problem,” Taylor said. “We can utilize the victim without criminalizing the victim to help eradicate the demand side problem.”
Feaker faces sex trafficking as his challenge.
“I came to the realization that this world with all its wonderful things is a very hellacious place for a lot of people,” Feaker said.
“On a spiritual level,” Feaker said, “this is my assignment. This is why I’m here, and I decided to embrace it. It doesn’t depress me. It makes me more determined to try to figure out a way to fight it.
“I look at drugs, poverty, domestic violence, and human trafficking as the enemy, (as) the other team, and I’m on the better team, and I want to win.
“I’m a competitive guy, and I don’t like losing. I want to kick some butt. (Trafficking) isn’t right.”
___
Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, https://www.cjonline.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.