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How an 11 year-old girl was trafficked: The Story of Oree Freeman, PART 3 | S6, E9
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🎙️ RE-RUN: Oree Freeman’s Story – From Trafficking Victim to National Leader | Trafficking Free America Podcast (final episode of 3-part story)
📢 Welcome back to Season 1 of the Trafficking Free America Podcast, brought to you by the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking (USIAHT). We're re-airing this unforgettable episode to honor the journey and impact of Oree Freeman, who now serves as the Director of Operations at USIAHT.
In this gripping and emotional episode, Oree courageously recounts her experiences as a survivor of child sex trafficking—exploited as young as 11 years old—and her remarkable path to healing, advocacy, and leadership. Her story reveals the painful reality of trafficking, the gaps in our systems, and the deep importance of trust, restoration, and real community.
💬 Whether you’re a concerned citizen, a professional serving vulnerable youth, or someone seeking hope, Oree’s voice will challenge, inspire, and transform your understanding of what survivors truly need to heal.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – Oree’s introduction to trafficking at age 11
01:15 – Exposure to abuse by people in positions of power
03:19 – Why demand fuels sex trafficking
04:26 – Helping survivors without being the “hero”
05:10 – Arrest, juvenile hall, and becoming a ward of the court
07:39 – Two months of trafficking and its lifelong impact
08:11 – Mother’s rejection in court
10:28 – Group homes and the start of healing
11:45 – The hard truth: restoration isn’t linear
14:39 – The physical toll of life in “the game”
20:07 – Transformation through creative expression and leadership
24:11 – Where was God? Oree’s reflection on faith through trauma
🔗 Learn more & get involved:
Become a part of the fight. Take our free certification to make your community a Trafficking Free Zone:
👉 https://usiaht.org/traffickingfreezone
📣 Subscribe and share this episode to raise awareness and bring hope to others. Let’s build a world where no child is bought or sold.
#HumanTraffickingAwareness #OreeFreeman #SurvivorLeader #USIAHT #TraffickingFreeAmerica #EndHumanTrafficking #PodcastReRun #FaithAndHealing
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Transcript
Life in the Motel: The Routine of Exploitation
00:00:06
Speaker
After the first night, it was just like a routine. You know, we go we would go to motels sometimes or hotels we would stay in. She would start posting ads, you know, doing online stuff. So sometimes didn't even know who the date would be. And we would have our rooms interconnected and she would bribe them like, oh, I have my, you know, my my girlfriend. Basically, that's what we call a wifey, you know, like that kind of
Early Exposure to Adult Situations: Emotional Numbness
00:00:26
Speaker
stuff. and You know, I remember being really young, first time, like 11, you know, 12 giving threesomes. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is the exposure to the stuff that I had to do as a child. Like, and so you just get numb, you just get numb. And then your image of men get very tainted. Your image of women get tainted. Cause it's not just men buying sex, it's also women buying sex. Sometimes women, ah men would hire us. I've been to nice houses in Beverly Hills in California that literally, I remember this guy hired us for literally for him and his wife. Like, you know what I'm saying? like
00:00:55
Speaker
nasty stuff, nasty stuff. Like just you getting exposed to and so then you get, you think everybody is evil. You think everybody
Exploitation by Authority: Encounter with a Cop
00:01:03
Speaker
is bad. You know, the first time I ever had sex with a cop was like literally I gave him a job because I didn't want to go to jail.
00:01:08
Speaker
I didn't want to go to juvenile hall because I know the process. Like I'm a be in there for a couple months and I'm gonna to camp or I'm gonna to go to a placement. Then I'm gonna have to find my pimp all over again, you know? Like I've had Johns that were like firefighters, you know what I'm saying? Like It's nasty, man. Like, and even if some of them say like in some of the classes, in their John classes that they get cited for, oh, I didn't know she was a kid, how?
00:01:30
Speaker
Even just my intellectual conversation, I can't even have a conversation with you other than talking about your wife or your kids that you have at home. Or talking about making you feel good. How? Like, I don't understand that.
00:01:44
Speaker
And most men too, what I know that they weren't looking for a child, but you'll still take what you have, you know? But that's disgusting. Like, you're still buying sex, though.
The Politics of Sex Work: Trafficking Debate
00:01:56
Speaker
There is currently a political debate about professionalizing the industry of, and I quote, sex work. In a nutshell, About 8% of men and women who work as a prostitute are wanting this industry to exist and thrive, and they're appalled at anyone getting in the way.
00:02:17
Speaker
They say to keep morals to oneself, this is their freedom. What these defenders seem to not realize is that by having an industry of purchasing sex, it is driving a demand for it.
00:02:30
Speaker
In any industry, once the demand rises, there is a need for more product. This is what is causing the other 92% of men, women, and children to be forced into prostitution, what we have clearly labeled as sex trafficking.
00:02:47
Speaker
They have come forward to say that they did not want this. While the demand and market for purchasing sex exists, there will always be trafficking. Truly the only way to keep men, women, and children from being exploited, trafficked, bought, and sold is to eliminate this market, eliminate this demand.
Introducing Ori's Story: Trafficking and Survival
00:03:09
Speaker
Can we really have sympathy for someone who did not know that they were purchasing ah child, an 11 year old child?
00:03:19
Speaker
This is the Trafficking Free America podcast.
00:03:34
Speaker
Thanks for joining us again at the Trafficking Free America podcast. Today, we're going to conclude Ori's story. If you have not heard the other episodes, I encourage you to listen.
00:03:46
Speaker
In episode one, we learn how Ori grew up and how she came to be trafficked as an 11-year-old girl. In episode two, we learn the details of how someone becomes trafficked.
00:03:58
Speaker
In this episode, we're going to hear about Ori's restoration, the life of a survivor coming out of trafficking.
00:04:06
Speaker
This is an extremely important episode to listen to and understand. So often we find ourselves wanting to be the hero of someone else's story, and that is usually where we get it wrong.
00:04:20
Speaker
I know that many of our listeners deeply care about helping survivors of sex trafficking. I am one as well. but I learned a great deal from my conversation with Ori. She showed me how to be patient, how to love, and how to help someone overcome this trauma, guilt, and lie in their life.
00:04:42
Speaker
Let's get into the episode.
Ori's Runaway Journey: Probation System
00:04:51
Speaker
What led me to being in the system of probation was in that time frame because I ran away. My mother didn't see me again, right, for like some time. I had a court date coming up. I missed my court date. So now that plays out a bench warrant for my arrest.
00:05:05
Speaker
To recap, Ori was on probation after assaulting someone in the eighth grade. She ran away and was trafficked during this time. That is why there was a warrant out for her arrest due to missing her court date.
00:05:18
Speaker
I'm working on the street. I don't think I'm working, I'm lying. i had just worked the street. I'm going back into the hotel. Police see me immediately. Put the light on me. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Why are you out past 1 a.m.?
00:05:33
Speaker
I'm like, can't say, yeah because if I say I'm going to the motel, they'll go to the motel. And JP can go to jail like that. You know, we go to jail. And so I'm like, um ahro I froze. Everything but a part of me was like, let me just tell the truth. He's like, what's your name?
00:05:46
Speaker
Are you on probation? And I was like, and I knew the name because your pimp gives you a name and everything to use to run so it could show that I'm an 18 year old, everything like that. And he was like, what is your name? And I was just like, Ori Freeman, he ran it.
00:05:59
Speaker
You got a warrant out for your arrest. Come on. And then, you know, I got in the back of the car and I was stuck into the station because I had a warrant out. So then JB and see me and stuff. So when I got into to they took me to the station, kept me near.
00:06:14
Speaker
I got transported to juvenile hall. It was so overcrowded in juvenile halls. We had to sleep in boats like the these these um plastic boats inside the recreation rooms.
00:06:25
Speaker
It was so over. capacity, all the kids were like 16, 17, 15 year olds. It was only two 12 year olds, me and this other girl, she had burned down her house, tried to burn down her house. She had some mental health problems.
00:06:37
Speaker
I was there because I had a juvenile warrant and we were sleeping in these boats, but we couldn't be in our cell with you know the other kids. I remember the day that they all came out for breakfast, it's like goldfish in a shark tank.
00:06:50
Speaker
And it's not that they wanted to hurt me or anything like that. I was exposed to a lot. Now I'm meeting girls that's working, they got their nails done, they got their weasin'. Like, oh my folks, my pimps, this, this, this. So now you learn in a whole nother world like, oh this happened all y'all. Like all y'all out here got pimps and all this. It's so common.
00:07:06
Speaker
So now you feeling like, all right wuss, everybody else do it.
Family Abandonment: Ward of the Court
00:07:15
Speaker
And so I remember though, I sat in juvenile hall for two months. So I had been gone AWOL for two months. So now it's total like almost four or five months. My mom didn't know where I was. Believe it or not, Ori was only trafficked for two months up to this point.
00:07:29
Speaker
But while two months seems to be a short amount of time, remember that the first night Ori was trafficked, she had turned over 14 dates. Traffickers know that they may only have you for a short while, so the amount of exposure Ori received would haunt her for the rest of her life.
00:07:49
Speaker
have court date. Mom, don't show it Another court date, oh, Ms. Lorraine says she on a way, she don't show up. Another court date, she don't show up. By the second month, the judge says, is Ms. Lorraine here? You know, Judge Miller Sloan.
00:08:01
Speaker
And the probation officer court stands up and said, Mrs. Freeman says she no longer wants a child in her home anymore.
00:08:11
Speaker
I had this poof ball in my hair, I was in an orange jumpsuit, and I remember like, I remember Judge Miller's face like,
00:08:21
Speaker
because she seen my mom a couple of times when we had to come to court for like the hearing and all that kind of stuff. That was like, that was, that changed. That was from from learning I was adopted to that moment was like, y'all.
00:08:32
Speaker
Everybody, straight up, I don't give Like, I will terrorize every building and i anybody that ever come across, I don't trust nobody. don't wanna to hear I love you. don't care what you talking about.
00:08:43
Speaker
Cause the only person that'll come get me is my pimp. Now imagine that, you know what I'm saying Like the only person that is answering my calls. My mom wasn't answering my calls cause you get free calls. She was not answering me. And I would ask her to be begging her, mama, please come get me, please come get me. They'll let you take me home.
00:08:55
Speaker
No, I think it's best for you to stay in that place. Or I'm a try to come to your court date, you know? they left me. My family left me. They left me and that day I became a ward of the court, literally.
00:09:06
Speaker
And because there was no, at the time, wasn't foster care and DC, like there wasn't DCFS, Department of Social Service, and probation kids could not be dual, I was told 12 years old I would be left on probation until I was 18. I would have to go to a group home until I was 18 years old.
00:09:21
Speaker
There would be no family, there would be nothing, just a group
Transformative Group Homes: Support and Care
00:09:24
Speaker
home. And when you hear that at 12 in the court, it was like,
00:09:29
Speaker
I just, I remember walking out that court alone, feeling like I was alone. Like, that's not okay. And I got left that day. I was told in my mind that I was in love. You know, the enemy definitely used it in advantage. Like, don't nobody love you?
00:09:44
Speaker
That's all you'll ever be is a prostitute, an abandoned kid, a recheck.
00:09:49
Speaker
These are the lies that scar you. These lies are what got Ori into the life. And these are the lies that kept Ori in the life. Once that lie becomes buried, it takes a long time to find it and release it.
00:10:08
Speaker
Once my mom took the court she no longer wanted me, I became a ward of the court. So I had to live in a group home until I was 18 years old because I was not eligible to be to be fostered by any foster parent or foster family.
00:10:22
Speaker
And so that took a toll on me a lot in my life because I felt like I was just another number. But honestly, My experiences with group homes really changed my life, honestly.
00:10:34
Speaker
Like I had really great staff who were dedicated and who loved on me. Like I remember being 14, coming into this group home and like when my transition out of the life started happening and this lady just hugging me, continuing to hug me and wouldn't let me go, you know? like I feel like me being in the system made a lot of things human. Like the first time I ever had a real birthday party, I was 16 in juvenile hall and my staff gave me a birthday party in juvenile hall.
00:11:03
Speaker
And so I think a lot of my relationships started building at that moment when the court said my mother no longer wanted me, my relationships started building from people in the system that worked for the system.
00:11:16
Speaker
You know, staff would always look out for me. Staff was always teaching me things. And those very same staff are actually still in my life today and actually been at my baby showers, been at was at my graduation recently when graduated from college.
00:11:31
Speaker
And so healthy relationships started to form. And when I allow people to love me, healthy people to love me this time, when I chose to allow healthy people to love me, um it started it started changing the way that I seen things.
00:11:46
Speaker
While Ori was truly feeling purposeful, intentional care and love like she hadn't really felt in her life, that didn't mean that her old life was over.
Struggles with Self-Worth: Running Away
00:11:56
Speaker
For years, Ori would still run away.
00:12:00
Speaker
She'd go back to selling herself for drugs. She struggled with discovering her self-worth and the care or trust of those around her. It takes survivors probably like over 20 times to exit the life out of trafficking.
00:12:15
Speaker
It takes them multiple times to leave, multiple of times, many times to leave until they finally are ready. So there has to be an open door policy. um And of course, certain situations like if it doesn't affect safety from trafficking, not inside the home. Girls are going to fight, boys going fight. That's the reality of it. They're teenagers.
00:12:33
Speaker
They're kids. But the one thing that um
00:12:39
Speaker
I kept going back to what I knew because that's all I had. And so when adults with some people that weren't really not trained but weren't in the right place, would say, why do you keep going back to these people that harm you, that have trafficked you, that have abused you? Why do you keep doing that?
00:12:57
Speaker
And it was because I never know nothing else. I don't have anything to go back to but that. And so until people gave me another option or an opportunity, then that was on the table or give me another resource that I was able to do that.
00:13:10
Speaker
And so it takes time. It takes time to build relationships. I was trafficked from 11 15. all out the time of like, um from like, yeah, 11 to 15, I was in group homes.
00:13:23
Speaker
Like from 12 years old to 15, I was in group homes. And so when I would run away, um sometimes it would be at like three months increments, four months increments. Sometimes it would be a month, you know, I would be gone and I would be with a pimp. So it always changes. So, but once you're in that lifestyle, you get stuck in that lifestyle.
00:13:37
Speaker
I would get picked up and arrested for like petty theft, for charges. Like I would be stealing clothes and get caught up. I would try to rob somebody at the time. Like rob take somebody, like just snap, ask somebody to use their phone and then run off of the phone. But that's like, you know, that's robbery and stuff.
00:13:50
Speaker
And so it would be petty theft charges, like things like that, um or robbery charges. And so once law enforcement gets contacted, like I would go to juvenile hall and then I would go back to the group home, run away again, go back to the streets, get back locked up for things like that, selling dope, like all that kind of stuff.
00:14:05
Speaker
And so a lot of times what I found in my life, it was so much um open door on in and open and closed doors within the juvenile justice system or the child welfare system. like A lot of that had a huge part in my life. like Because I was on probation, there was always kind of like you know rules that I had to follow and stuff. And so they always could also have a reason to lock me up, which majority of the time I should i definitely needed.
00:14:29
Speaker
like I remember at some points in my life, I would be like, I'm ready to go to juvenile hall so I could go get some sleep. cause you don't sleep while you're out there in a life. You don't get a lot of rest, you know? Or like you get really skinny, you get malnutrient, like, you know, you're just skinny. Like I remember when I first went to the group home, I was like, literally,
00:14:49
Speaker
when they got me, I wore a double zero, like 95 pounds, you know? Versus when I left, I was like 160. They had blew me up. I was like 160, cause I was able to rest.
Building Positive Memories: Group Home Life
00:15:10
Speaker
At the U.S. Institute, we've heard many stories of survivors leaving their actual safe spot and then returning time and time again. About half the time, they eventually stop coming back.
00:15:24
Speaker
But the other half eventually stays and begins to understand where their safe place is. It's a hard job caring for survivors. Many times you're the punching bag for all of the trauma that other people have caused.
00:15:38
Speaker
The way Ori shares her story, it seems that the punching eventually dies down, but when they see you're still there and willing to not throw them away, that's when the real restoration finally occurs.
00:15:54
Speaker
It's not about the institution, it's about the people. It's not about the group home, it's about the people that are working and serving youth there. And so for me, a lot of the impact in my life came from the relationships. What made it so special was the authentic, consistent, stable relationships.
00:16:12
Speaker
I would literally tear up a building. When I say tear up a cottage, break all the windows out, flip the refrigerator over, pour all the milk out, break all the plates, and literally be talking to someone and being like, you need to clean this up because yeah, this is what you're getting paid for.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah, clean it up, this your job to clean up after me. I was so angry. And yet, even though it was very demeaning, it was very disrespectful, those staff still loved me.
00:16:38
Speaker
Like they would clean it up and be like, we know it's not your fault. You just got off a phone call with a woman who don't want you to come back home. You just got off a phone call with a cousin who said she can't take custody of you. Of course you're angry. And so love showed up for me in my life.
00:16:54
Speaker
it was just consistent relationships. Like I needed people to look at me like I wasn't just this victim too. I didn't want people to just see me as a sex trafficking victim. I didn't want people just seeing me as, you know, this kid had been through all this trauma. Like I'm a human being, I'm a child. Like I never had really a good chance to really be a kid.
00:17:12
Speaker
You know, they gave me opportunities to do that. I remember the first time at 14, you know, like 12 and 13 and 14 at these group homes. And the first time I stepped foot on a college campus, the first time I went to a museum, the first time I went into an opera, the first time I watched to see a play, the first time I went to an amusement park and I wasn't being sold across the street from the world's biggest amusement park.
00:17:32
Speaker
But I got to make and create new memories. And so through relationships, It
Learning Life Skills: Restoration and Healing
00:17:39
Speaker
changed me. Like the best visual I can give is when i when I got into my first group and I was 12 years old, I literally was so angry.
00:17:47
Speaker
And this woman named Wanda, like literally this, she was just so big and full of love. Like just held me, just hugged me and like, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be okay.
00:18:00
Speaker
And so we created a bond, right? And so, Even at certain things she would tell me, you know, talk to me about life lessons, things that my parents should have been teaching me, you know, like these staff that were employed would be teaching me life lessons. You know, I had males in my life that was starting to teach me what healthy male love looks like. And I had no idea that all this stuff was literally planting seeds in my life to prepare me for when it was time for the real restoration happen.
00:18:31
Speaker
When I entered into this group home, I felt unsafe. I felt like I wasn't even a human being. I felt abandoned, rejected, unloved. I didn't feel heard. I didn't feel seen.
00:18:44
Speaker
And so at first people had to build trust with me. I don't owe nobody nothing. These kids, I didn't, the kids that I work with now don't owe me anything. I can't make them have, they don't owe me they trust.
00:18:56
Speaker
They don't owe me they respect. They've had a lot of adults in their life that said they love them and care about them, do the complete opposite, harm them, abuse them. um didn't owe nobody nothing.
00:19:10
Speaker
And so a lot of the adults in my life understood that though, that trust has to be earned. It has to be earned. Just as much as respect has to be earned, trust has to be earned.
Therapeutic Practices: Emotional Regulation
00:19:24
Speaker
When you in a life, right, you're told what to do, whatsoware how like what what you're gonna eat, how to talk, how to perform. That's what your pimp teaches you. When I got to the group home,
00:19:36
Speaker
it was just like, ooh, like, they just like was teaching me about deep breathing, recognizing my emotions, regulating my emotions, understand where this this feeling was coming from, understanding my trauma. like And it wasn't about trying to make me process it, but recognize it.
00:19:55
Speaker
Or like it would be in group therapy, we would do art. We was going to do pottery. Like it was like, ew, they was making me, the best way I could say it was like, they was making me all warm and fuzzy inside. Like the best character could think about is like the Grinch.
00:20:07
Speaker
Like that that was me, like the Grinch. And then here comes these people that just like, love on you, show you all these new skills, these new abilities, tell you what you're good at, allowing you to take your leadership that might have been distorted in the game of trafficking, in the life of trafficking, and then take your leadership and, you know, I'm leading events that we had or like putting, allowing me to put on events for the other kids on the campus at this group home. You know, it was like taking what might have been traumatic for Ori and then how do we get her to use those same skills in a positive way?
00:20:39
Speaker
How can we help her to teach her her leadership skills to show that she got it inside of her? And so it was all those
A Pivotal Decision: Leaving Trafficking Behind
00:20:45
Speaker
things. And so I'll never forget it was a moment where I was going to run away from the group home because I was a runner. I ran away my whole life. I ran away from every other group home that I had been in. I would run, I would run, I would run.
00:20:54
Speaker
You know, would go back to traffic and I would go back to the life because that was comfortable. Because something became so normal to me, it becomes comfortable. I didn't want to do anything else because I didn't know anything else.
00:21:06
Speaker
And so I remember this one point I was going to run away from the group home and I i left the facility. I got up the street. I had everything in my mind. I was going to turn a trick. I was going get in a car. i was going to turn one last date or I was going rob somebody from a phone. Right. It was all this stuff that going through my head. I got up literally to the Del Taco. I couldn't, I started crying.
00:21:25
Speaker
Cause I was like, what is happening to me? Like, I just can't hurt another human being. I can't do this. I don't want to do this no more. And that was because people in my life was showing me I was worthy of more.
00:21:41
Speaker
We'll be right back after this break.
00:21:53
Speaker
If you're listening to this podcast, you probably have a passion to end human trafficking. But even though you're passionate about it, you're not sure where to begin. Well, we can help you with that.
00:22:05
Speaker
The reality is that human trafficking, and specifically sex trafficking, can only thrive if there's a demand. The demand of buyers purchasing sex or watching pornography that traffickers and pimps produce.
00:22:20
Speaker
After a survey, four out of five buyers shared that they would not purchase sex if they knew that there was a much better chance of being caught or exposed. So how do we help scare buyers away?
00:22:32
Speaker
It takes education. Education around the community to understand how grooming of sex trafficking occurs, learning how men, women, boys and girls are being purchased and what signs to look out for to possibly stop this crime from happening.
00:22:48
Speaker
If the entire community, such as individuals, businesses, schools, and churches, were to become better educated around how sex trafficking and sex buying occurs, we could greatly hurt the industry of sex trafficking.
00:23:02
Speaker
The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking has a program to help you learn and be aware of how this is occurring in the community. It's called the Trafficking-Free Zone.
00:23:14
Speaker
The Trafficking Free Zone is a certification that you receive by watching our free online course that educates you about modern day trafficking and how you can help stop it.
00:23:26
Speaker
You can access this program on our website, usiaht.org slash traffickingfreezone. Encourage your business, church, school, community, or maybe just some friends and family to take this free online course and become a certified Trafficking Free Zone member today.
00:23:46
Speaker
Go to usiaht.org slash traffickingfreezone. Again, that's usiaht.org slash traffickingfreezone.
Faith and Strength: Finding Peace
00:24:11
Speaker
One of our last questions with Ori was where was God in all of this? We share how God is our redeemer. Christ is our refuge and hope. Yet all of this happened to this little girl.
00:24:27
Speaker
For Ori's entire life, she was used, abused and disregarded. Ori found Christ later in life. She is a professing Christian who preaches the good news.
00:24:40
Speaker
So when we asked her where God was this whole time, this was her answer. Yeah, but he was just, he was right there and everything that people don't understand is like he's there even through the good and the bad. It's just evil things in this world and that's just the reality and we don't wanna accept that.
00:24:56
Speaker
It's people that do really horrible things and so the promise is that he works everything for good. Every single thing has not become void in my life. The same people that rejected me and the same people that just told me literally it wasn't your fault and it was us. We shouldn't did that to you. We didn't love you, we gave up on you, like, but it took 27 years for somebody to tell me that.
00:25:15
Speaker
You know, everything works in his time. And I think the most biggest part of my life was that every single time, every trick that I've turned, every time I had to lay on my back, every time I've been abused, every time I've been assaulted, every time, every fight I've had, every bullet that has been passed me, every horrible relationship, God was always there. And I know that for a fact.
00:25:32
Speaker
It's no different. He is the same God that he was then that got me out of that stuff. The same God that didn't let the bullet hit me. The same God that even when he was beating on me, that I would be able to protect myself a certain way. And so that I don't get killed, the same God that might stop the car, he's the same God then, he's the same God now. And so the way that I've received that is like even all the things, bad things that happen in my life, do he want those things to happen? No, but it's a choice. Everybody has a choice in their life.
00:25:58
Speaker
Everybody has a choice on a way how they love. And so the ultimate thing is that it's like when I say that everybody has has a decision in their life to either do to treat people good or badly.
00:26:11
Speaker
And so I never even like, when I was younger, I questioned, where was God? He was right there. When I was suffering, he was crying and weeping too. Like, and he seen everything that was going on.
00:26:21
Speaker
Like, and he was hurting too, right then and there, but he was also caring in me. And he also was always according, planning on how it was going to work. When the enemy tried to do one thing, he would turn it the other way. And so that's how I genuinely look at my life or even in just the horrible situations. Like, how can you have faith in a God that allow all of He didn't allow that stuff to happen.
00:26:40
Speaker
The same free will that you have is the same free will that was done, you know, 15 years ago for me. Those men didn't have to make those decisions, but they did. I was just in bondage though.
00:26:51
Speaker
That was all that I knew. But at some point, like I said, we don't wanna talk about that. I had to make a decision. Did I wanna continue to be a victim in a mentality or did I wanna rise above that and become an overcomer and move forward in my life? And so the same God that is literally watching my daughter while she playing her dolls and he's watching me, he's sitting on the table or he's sitting on the stairs and he's just watching me interact and be the mother that I am or be the student, the same guy that's probably sitting, that is sitting right there in class when I'm doing work and I'm getting frustrated. Like he's there. He's right there.
00:27:22
Speaker
I've trusted the wrong people in my life. Literally, I've trusted traffickers. I've trusted abusers in my life. I gave God a chance and just trust in him.
00:27:34
Speaker
And I've always been taken care of, like from from from day one. The minute I put my trust in him, I got peace. You can't you can't buy that. Where was God and all that that happened?
00:27:46
Speaker
He was right there and he was suffering right with me the same way that he suffered, you know, and so He, there's this song by this girl. This is the last thing I'll say is by this girl, Amanda.
00:27:58
Speaker
And she sings this song and she says, you know, what if I can go back in time and change the way that I felt about my life? But then would I still have inside the same things that made everything right?
00:28:15
Speaker
Who I am today, no, I am not what people said I was. No, you know, everything that you've been through in your life has nothing to do with you. But everything that I have been through in my life has given me a fight, has given me my voice, has given me my power, has given me my passion in my
Embracing the Past: Relating and Helping Others
00:28:34
Speaker
life. I wouldn't change that for nothing.
00:28:36
Speaker
I am honestly, it has hurt that I was raped, that all these things happened to me. But the way that I could relate to people, the way that I can talk to kids, the way that I can have relationship, authentic relationships with people, I wouldn't trade that for a world.
00:28:50
Speaker
I wouldn't trade it for a world. Now I just pray and hope that I can be able to stop someone else from, you know, making decisions or or prevent it from happening, you know? But I also know that it's always going to be trouble and it's always gonna be bad people.
00:29:05
Speaker
That's just the reality of it. It's just like, how do you do how do you cause prevention? How do you help somebody through it? And that's just my job. God gave me a gift of my voice 100%. I know that for a fact.
00:29:17
Speaker
But I know what also he gave me, he definitely gave me the gift of relationships and community and being able to be that person for someone who's suffering, being able to be that person so they don't have to do it alone. My biggest mission is that people don't have to, kids don't have to walk through their journey alone.
00:29:31
Speaker
They don't have to walk in the middle of their chaos alone. You ain't gotta do it by yourself. I'll be right there with you to do it with you, you know, and I'm still going to be the same person I am then. I'll be the same person when you ready.
Providing Resources: Solutions for Leaving Trafficking
00:29:41
Speaker
It was not my choice to be trafficked, but it is my choice once I have healthy people in my life to make a decision. Absolutely. And that's where accountability comes in. But if you don't have that resource, if you don't have those people teaching you about accountability, you don't even got the option. And that's my biggest thing about me being trafficked until People, everyone, even to this day, have opinions about things, but don't have no resources for them.
00:30:05
Speaker
That's the problem. You got an opinion about something, but you ain't got no resource. I ain't trying to give no skill of what you can do in order to help. That's the number one thing. You got an opinion about how it should look and what housing should look like and all this stuff, but you ain't, you're not the resource. You ain't helping with the funds in order to to be a resource.
00:30:22
Speaker
So you can't have an opinion about it. And so it's just like, That's how I like, I don't, I can't make kids. I can't make kids stop going back to their trafficker. You cannot, you don't.
00:30:35
Speaker
I really want people to know like, you come in partnership and alignment with them when it is the time and when they are ready to get out. Are there situations where you rescue somebody absolutely out of a horrible situation and there have been a traumatic experience to her in that moment.
00:30:52
Speaker
But it's also not about you, you you're not the rescuer. You came at the right time when they was ready. You know, it's been plenty of times I literally be in a room locked up with other girls, like in ah in a hotel room.
00:31:05
Speaker
And I'm thinking he right outside the door, he in a whole nother county, but I won't leave in my mind. until I got ready. But in order for me to be ready, God sent people in my life to really show me and show me what love was and to show up even when it was like, I ain't doing that. don't want that. I don't want that. Don't hug me. Don't touch me. Like, stop saying I love you. Like, all that stuff, all that,
Availability and Support: Being There for Survivors
00:31:27
Speaker
all that. And that's always, that was just fear. That was fear of somebody leaving me again. Somebody rejected me. Somebody abandoned me again. All you're gonna do is do what everybody else did.
00:31:35
Speaker
But i don't I don't show up thinking that I can even like, make them make a decision to leave. Like it has to be on their terms. But what I do have the power over is that I'm right there and my door is open when they're ready.
00:31:49
Speaker
Because that one time that that door is shut can be the very time that they walk away and never come back.
00:31:58
Speaker
This concludes our segment of Ori's story, but we'll be back with some more content for you, starting with a sit down between the founder of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, Kevin Malone, and Ori, as they discuss how we can provide better prevention of sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and dark lies that our children hear.
00:32:19
Speaker
To do that, we as adults must fight to protect by keeping our eyes open and to always show unconditional love because it could save someone from repeating this story.
00:32:34
Speaker
I'm your host, Jeremy Hicks, and this is the Trafficking Free America podcast. Thanks for listening.