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- [00:00]
Naila Boudu
This episode contains discussions of sex trafficking in sexual violence that may be distressing for some listeners.
- [00:11]
Erin Gardner
What happened is that basically two hotels got shut down that were farther up Evora Avenue because the city accused it of facilitating prostitution, which you would drive by at night, and that's exactly what they were doing. And then everything moved south into our neighborhoods.
- [00:32]
Virginia McKenzie
Hey.
- [00:33]
Erin Gardner
Run. There had been sort of intermittent shootings along Aurora for months. One night I woke up, I thought it was firecrackers because it was early July. And it turns out there had been a massive shooting just two blocks from my home. 30 shell casings. @ least one woman was hit. She survived. And it was all caught on a neighbor's security camera. It was terrifying. And it woke everybody up. It woke everybody up, really.
- [01:28]
Naila Boudu
Erin Gardner and her husband moved to Seattle in 2022. The Chicago journalist was looking for a career change and found a job in corporate communications with Amazon, one of the many tech companies headquartered in Seattle's glistening downtown. The couple found a home in a neighborhood bordering Aurora Avenue North. Like many neighbors, Aaron was oblivious to how deep some of the area's problems ran, especially the summertime spikes in shootings and that much of the violence was linked to sex traffickers. Jockeying for turf. Erin found her way to a group of neighborhood volunteers and experts in the problem of trafficking, all of them part of a Rotary Club dedicated to the issue. Erin wrote about the young club, which she joined in a recent Rotary magazine story, and documented their experiences helping victims of sex trafficking. From Rotary magazine. This is the Rotary Voices Podcast. I'm Naila Boudu. In today's program, I talk with Erin and two of her fellow Rotary Club members about their efforts to guide and care for the women and girls in their neighborhood who have survived the sex trade.
- [02:46]
Christine Moreland
Can we start with your move from Chicago to Seattle and why you ended up in your new neighborhood in Seattle?
- [02:53]
Erin Gardner
Yeah, absolutely. My husband and I, we got married, we quit our jobs, and we left Chicago, and then we went and traveled in Asia for a little bit. Covid forced us back, so we lived in Colorado for a little while, but then this job popped up in Seattle with Amazon. We're big outdoors people, so that was one of the big draws to Seattle. So we moved here. We also wanted to lay down roots, so we started looking around for a home for about six months. That's all we did every weekend. And we landed on the house that we have now, and it's great. And we checked crime statistics and did everything else that a journalist would do. So we purchased our Home. And everything was. Was fine for a good year, year and a half. And then all of a sudden, we just started seeing this influx of traffic and really nice cars. And I'm talking about Maseratis and off the lot Mercedes, which people in our neighborhood didn't really drive. We're more of a Subaru Outback type of neighborhood.
- [04:04]
Christine Moreland
I was gonna say, is it a Subaru neighborhood?
- [04:07]
Erin Gardner
Yeah, you know, so that was just odd. And they would drive very, very slow and circle basically along Aurora Avenue North. And Aurora Avenue north has always had a reputation of being a bit sketchy. You know, every city sort of has a drag like that. But even after we talked to neighbors, it wasn't that concerning. But what happened is that basically two hotels got shut down that were farther up Evora Avenue because the city accused it of facilitating prostitution. After those busts, everything went quiet for a minute, and then everything moved south into our neighborhoods. So we started seeing these luxury cars. Pretty soon, young women getting out, wearing hardly anything. And I was just shocked by how open it was. The girls looked so young. I was shocked. I went around a corner to get the bus to go to work, and I came face to face with a young woman who did not look older than 15. And we would call police because even though prostitution is a misdemeanor in most states, as it is here, minors obviously is a whole different. So I called police in those situations, and they always ask, how do you know they're so young? And I think as a woman who we tried to get into clubs when we were younger and underage, like, you know, how to make yourself look older. But the way that she walked, the way that she held her shoulders, her facial structure, like she was a young teenager. And it just. It broke my heart. Maybe it was because I was a former journalist. Like, I just couldn't not do anything. So I started researching and went down all kinds of rabbit holes.
- [06:03]
Christine Moreland
And then there was also a shooting.
- [06:06]
Erin Gardner
There was one night where I woke up. I thought it was firecrackers because it was early July. And it turns out there had been a massive shooting just two blocks from my home, where police gathered 30 shell casings. So at least 30 shots were fired. At least one woman was hit. She survived. And it was all caught on a neighbor's security camera. It was terrifying, and it woke everybody up really hard.
- [06:39]
Christine Moreland
Had you been talking to your neighbors before about this?
- [06:43]
Erin Gardner
Yes. A few months earlier, a shooting had happened inside the neighborhood. And my neighbor, who lives two houses down, found a bullet in his house. It had come through his home. One had also gone through his car. And another neighbor's car had been hit as well. But this bullet that went through his house barely missed his father in law who was sleeping. And we just thought, what the heck is going on? How is this suddenly happening? And the police did tell us the shooters are not local. The vast majority aren't from Seattle, and most of the girls and young women that they have approached aren't even from the state. So it was this combination of basically getting thrust into an issue that I had really no idea about.
- [07:40]
Christine Moreland
What did you learn about your neighbors in terms of sort of the community effort that was happening?
- [07:45]
Erin Gardner
All of us neighbors figured out that we had the same concerns. We just didn't know where to go or what to do. And so we decided then, literally standing outside in the streets the morning after this shooting and saying, we need to join forces, we need to get together. So we started meeting regularly, just discussing what was going on in different parts of the neighborhood, figuring out who was approachable at the city council, who was approachable even at the state legislature, who could we contact at the mayor's office? And that's when I met one of my neighbors, Andrew Steelesmith. And he had made some videos a few months prior about the activity that was going on at Aurora at night. So he was filming all of this and he put that video on YouTube and it went viral locally. And that video also caught the attention of Virginia McKenzie. She founded the Rotary Club of the Pacific Northwest, ending sex trafficking. And it turns out she had organized a community meeting that had prosecutors, lawyers, all kinds of people who were experts in this space. And she had seen Andrew's video and so she invited him. So he actually came from that meeting to one of our neighbor meetings and said, I met this woman who is connected to everyone in this space. She might be a really vital link for us. And so I found her on LinkedIn and I called her and we had a great conversation and she convinced me to come check out her Rotary club. So I did. She had connections all across this issue. And I was able to meet some people who have been working in this space for decades.
- [09:30]
Christine Moreland
Was it a surprise to you that there was like a Rotary Club to end sex trafficking?
- [09:36]
Erin Gardner
Yes, I was completely surprised that Rotary A was even involved in this issue, but they even had a club that was solely dedicated to it in our region. I'll be honest, I didn't know much about Rotary. My husband's parents are longtime Rotarians. They've probably been involved for about 50 years. But I didn't think an organization like that would touch an issue like this. So I was really heartened that I found them and that I was able to make connections with so many people who have literally devoted their careers to this issue. And I learned a ton of. And one statistic that has stayed with me that really turned my head was that the average age of girls when they are first pulled into this sex trafficking is 14, 14 years old. I went to a community meeting with police and they had just rescued an 11 year old girl about five blocks south of my house. And those sorts of statistics I just had never seen before. And again, I'm a former journalist, I should have known a little bit about this issue and I just didn't.
- [10:51]
Christine Moreland
You talked about one day going to a bus stop and seeing this young girl. How else did this affect your life in this neighborhood? Like, how else did you see this?
- [11:03]
Erin Gardner
It affected us in a lot of ways. I will say. During the summer that the traffic really picked up. We were afraid to walk at night, whereas, you know, we used to walk our dogs or walk down to a brewery or coffee shops. That's one of the great things about Seattle is you can walk to all of these great places. And we didn't feel comfortable doing that in our own neighborhoods. What also was really hard, and a lot of my other neighbors have also dealt with this, is when we have friends and family over. Occasionally you would hear pops. And so my parents came to visit and we went outside to get in my car, and right there on the driveway was a used condom. And of course my dad knew exactly what it was, kind of looked at me and then I said, oh, you know, there's a strip club nearby. And he kind of nodded and was like, okay, so you know, you're scared to go outside. Some of my neighbors, they would no longer let their kids walk the dogs alone after school. A mother who testified in front of city council, along with myself and some other neighbors, she said her kids on the bus now had a game which they called what is she wearing? And so as the bus would turn a corner into the neighborhood, there would be very scantily clad women, very young women. And so all of these kids who were coming home from the local elementary school would see that every day.
- [12:31]
Christine Moreland
Aaron, you said that your neighbor put up this YouTube video. And the question everyone kept asking is, how did this get so bad? In the article you interviewed Seattle police. Is there something in particular that people need to understand about Seattle in terms of why it was so bad? And in this particular neighborhood, yeah.
- [12:53]
Erin Gardner
According to police and all the other experts that I've talked to, it's been probably two bigger things. One is just a shift nationally in how police are approaching prostitution. For a long, long time, the women were the criminals, and they were the ones getting arrested. And a blind eye was turned to the johns, to the sex buyers. And now that's really shifted to go more after and to focus on the johns, or should I say to focus more on the demand? But during COVID what shifted is that there weren't enough police to crack down. And that's when we really saw the pimps moving in and the sex traffickers moving in.
- [13:38]
Christine Moreland
What has Seattle and Washington state done to try to combat sex trafficking and change this?
- [13:46]
Erin Gardner
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Washington state has actually been a leader in laws and legislation about human trafficking. Washington was the first state to have a state law that criminalized human trafficking. Eventually, other states all followed suit. There are a lot of organizations here to help. The problem is resources. A lot of these organizations will say, I've had five women call me today saying they need out. What that means is, I need immediate housing, I need immediate food, clothing. And there just isn't that here. We have a homeless crisis in Seattle like a lot of other big cities do, and we just don't have the resources to meet most of the women who are in these emergency situations, which is heartbreaking.
- [14:35]
Christine Moreland
What's it like now in your neighborhood?
- [14:37]
Erin Gardner
The violence has gone down because police did crack down. But actually, just a few weeks ago, there was an incident that was caught on security footage that had a Maserati driving in the neighborhood, surrounded by houses, and he was being chased by a jeep. And the guy got out of the jeep and opened fire on the Maserati in the middle of a neighborhood in the middle of the day. I think it was.
- [15:05]
Naila Boudu
Was noon.
- [15:10]
Erin Gardner
So there's still a boldness out there where people think that they can come into the area and not face consequences, which is disheartening. That said, that man was arrested a few weeks later, and police do seem to be cracking down a little bit more. But again, we have an understaffed police department and a complicated social issue here in Seattle.
- [15:32]
Christine Moreland
In the course of reporting the story, I imagined you learned a lot of different, probably realities that go up against maybe some common misperceptions people might have about sex trafficking. Can you share a little bit about what you think those common misperceptions are and how they make this even harder to solve?
- [15:53]
Erin Gardner
I think the biggest Misconception is that the women who engage in prostitution are doing so out of their own free will. They're there on their own making money. It's work. And what I've learned is that in the vast majority of cases, that's not what's happening. These women are lured in various ways, sometimes online, when they're quite young, and they end up what experts call trauma bonding with their trafficker. The trafficker says, you're beautiful. You're so much more mature than your friends. I love you. And this can be a man who's 20 years older than a girl, and, you know, if she's not getting a lot of positive feedback at home or a lot of the girls who are in and out of foster care are also. They're targeted. So they get hooked up with these men who abuse them in very psychological ways and force them out onto the streets.
- [16:52]
Christine Moreland
Aaron, you reported the story as a journalist, but also as a resident of this neighborhood. Can you share a little bit more about what you feel like you've taken away from reporting the story and what you want other people to take away from this?
- [17:07]
Erin Gardner
Yeah. I will say it was the first time that I've ever written a story that had me in it. As a journalist, you're always the fly on the wall, but I think when you have the lived experience, it helps you see things a little more clear. I mean, this is happening literally a block from my house, and I can turn on my journalism brain and find statistics, find police to interview, reach out to city council members, but as a neighbor, I'm scared. And I think that that brings a whole nother level to reporting and. And care for this story. And I also will say the people that I've met through Rotary were friends. Now, not only are we passionate about this particular issue, they're great people, and we hang out. And they were gracious enough to let me interview them for this story. So as a journalist, I have to know they're talking to me as a friend, and I'm talking to them as a journalist. And I was much more careful with them and saying, this is going to be published, so keep that filter on if you need it. And what was great is that a lot of them didn't. They are like, nope, this needs to get out. People need to know that this isn't the oldest profession in the world. It's the oldest form of exploitation. That's what it is. So I can take my journalism skills and use the power of the pen to try and educate people like Rotary has Educated me well.
- [18:39]
Christine Moreland
Erin, thank you for your reporting and for sharing the story.
- [18:41]
Virginia McKenzie
I appreciate it.
- [18:42]
Erin Gardner
Of course. Thank you.
- [18:50]
Naila Boudu
After talking to Erin and hearing about the Rotary Club of the Pacific Northwest ending sex trafficking, I reached out to Virginia McKenzie. She's the club's charter president. Here's the backstory of how Virginia started this club. In 2015, Virginia was a member of the Rotary Club of Seattle. She attended a panel discussion at her club meeting and the presenters described a local sting operation in which a fake advertisement was posted online offering sexual services purportedly from a 15 year old girl. Within two hours, the ad had attracted 250 calls. Virginia was shocked by the sheer prevalence of illegal sex. Trademark. Together with our club's peacebuilders committee, Virginia helped organize a project to train more than 1,000 firefighters, EMTs and other healthcare workers on how to recognize and respond to signs of trafficking. Then in 2021, she and others founded a Rotary Club that specifically focuses on ending sex trafficking in their neighborhood.
- [19:55]
Christine Moreland
Can you just start by telling me first of all how you first got involved with Rotary?
- [20:00]
Virginia McKenzie
I was early in my career as an executive recruiter and I had business development responsibilities as part of my role. And my VP was encouraging me to join a professional association. I was actually in the gym networking a lady that I was working out with that I knew was in finance and I was asking her for candidate referrals and she looked at me again and said, well, let me ask around my Rotary club. Maybe somebody in there would like this job. And then she said, maybe you'd like to join my Rotary. And I was like, oh, maybe I would. And I love to model her when I bring people into Rotary because she just really made me feel. Feel like a little princess in that. On our first couple of meetings, when she wasn't available to escort me to a meeting, she would hand me off to another exciting person to sit with and make new friends. So I think of her often when I am orienting somebody to Rotary. And I remember when I came in, I thought, oh, you know, this looks like fun, but I want to lead my own projects. And she said, you can lead your own projects. So how it works is you come in and you go to other people's projects and you get a lay of the land and you see how it works. And then when you have an idea for a project, then you lead and other people will join your project.
- [21:46]
Christine Moreland
And that led to you actually chartering the Rotary Club of the Pacific Northwest for ending sex trafficking. Can you just kind of take me back through how all, all of that happened.
- [21:57]
Virginia McKenzie
Oh my gosh. Well, I joined rotary a good 17 years ago. @ first it starts out with little projects, little dinner parties, little outings. And then, yeah, it gets bigger and bigger. My interest in fighting sex trafficking started was at a Rotary meeting where our keynote speaker was on the topic of human trafficking. And I remember going in thinking, oh yeah, human trafficking had happened. Happens in Southeast Asia and India. It's a terrible thing. And I sat down to listen and they said, basically, you know what, every town doesn't want to believe that it's happening in their own town. And so to quantify the demand, we put up a fake ad with a kid available for sale and we count how many unique kits we get to quantify the demand. This ad got 250 hits in Seattle. And from the IP addresses, we know that it's from downtown business offices in the middle of the afternoon. And Naila, you could have heard a pin drop. There was an audible gasp. All of us are business owners and business managers. And this topic went straight from, oh yeah, that happens overseas somewhere to oh my gosh, there could be somebody in my office down the hall scheduling an appointment with a youth this afternoon. I mean, it was like being struck by a bolt of lightning. I mean, I was angry, I was sad, I was scared, and I was like, what can I do? And as a Rotary Club, we were like, what could we do? So where I started was just taking an interest in all the nonprofits in the Seattle area who were working on this space already. And I attended every gala, every volunteer awareness, every community building event that they had. And I just brought my Rotarian friends with me. And I just tuned in to what are these nonprofits working on and what do they need to be successful?
- [24:24]
Christine Moreland
Can I ask you two questions? Not everyone who was sitting in that room had the reaction that you had, right? Like maybe they had the reaction you had, but they didn't do what you did. What do you think was behind you starting to go to all of these things and organize and do all of this?
- [24:42]
Virginia McKenzie
When I was in middle school, I, for a couple of weeks had a boyfriend, I'll use air quotes, that was twice my age. And when it ended abruptly, I was disappointed and I went back looking for more. And nothing too terrible happened but these stories of how these 13 year olds get wound up with what's called the Romeo Pimp. So he pretends to be your boyfriend and he showers you with gifts and tells you you're the most beautiful thing ever. And once trust is Established, basically turns you out and says, hey babe, remember all of those nice things that I got for you. I need you to do something for me. It's going to be so easy for you. I can't pay the rent this month and I need you to do this thing for me. And in her 13 year old brain, she thinks that she is investing in the love of her life and she knows that she probably shouldn't be doing what she's doing and she hides it and she's embarrassed about it. You know, he isolates her and you know, it just keeps getting worse and worse. So I didn't live that whole story. I didn't. But I could see how that could have happened to me. So right now one of our big projects is a Rotary Club is to help teachers to see the signs of sexual exploitation in their students. If you have a student who is sleep deprived, distracted, forlorn, has things that you know they cannot afford, luxury handbags, designer shoes, nails done, hair done, talk of the party life, a significantly older boyfriend, a second cell phone, if you see any of these in a student, that kid needs an intervention. And so I'm very proud of our Rotary Club. We're partnering with an organization called Three Strands Global foundation. And I'm proud to say that the founder is a Rotari out of Sacramento. Her name is Ashley Bryant. We're both members of the Rotary Action Group Against Slavery. And Three Strands Global foundation has training designed for middle schools, high schools, even younger. They've already trained a million students and over 100,000 adults. And the signs of trafficking and exploitation and how to respond. And I am very proud our Rotary Club is helping this curriculum get into our schools. And this is a very Rotary thing to do because it is preventative. You protect that child now from exploitation. That child can be a watchdog for their friends and family. Education is a low cost, high impact intervention. This is calling on the best of Rotary.
- [28:15]
Christine Moreland
I think it's so powerful that you've turned it into this work. Can you share a little bit more about some of the work that your club is doing and maybe some of the obstacles that you all face in the work that you've been doing.
- [28:28]
Virginia McKenzie
One of the obstacles and challenges is the second degree trauma that we as helpers experience by taking the time to understand this issue. And I would say to anybody out there that wants to work in this space, please get an education on secondary trauma. If you just Google it, you will find very helpful things out there. But it's tough. Trauma is a tough thing. Because it sneaks up on you. You end up with these very intrusive thoughts from stories that you've heard from somebody else and you feel bad about it. How can I possibly claim suffering for having to hear secondhand somebody else's trauma? But it weighs on your heart and your mind. I also purposefully am focused on local trafficking, frankly, because I think people are extra motivated to protect the youth in their town, in their community, in their families. When I was putting together this virtual club, I knew I wanted to visit my projects firsthand, that I could take my Rotary friends with me. And I felt like if I can communicate to people that we are protecting their families, their students, their kids, their grandkids, that I would have a better shot at mobilizing them into action. I want to sing loudly the very, very important role that our legacy clubs play in launching new, innovative clubs. This club would not be successful without my sponsor club, which is Seattle for Rotary. I have several vital mentors that came from Seattle Rotary that helped me launch this club, helped me mentor my new leaders, helped me with connections and projects and everything. And these are Rotarians who have been in rotary for over 30 years, but they've never started a new club before.
- [30:50]
Christine Moreland
So, Virginia, all the people who, the Rotarians who are listening to this, what do you want them to take away from this conversation?
- [30:58]
Virginia McKenzie
Well, these new clubs are exciting and you can join forces with them. Even if you're not going to leave your current club, you can help them be successful by promoting their projects, for attending their projects, for partnering with them on their projects, mentoring their leaders. There's so much synergy there to be had and it's just sparking us in new ways to do new things and to grow Rotary in new ways. And I feel like for Rotary to continue to be relevant, the more we can focus on modern day concerns, the more we will stay relevant. And look at your local community and figure out, where does my community need some Rotarians? If you don't know where to start, look in the evening news and whatever headlines gets your hackles up the most, think to yourself, how can I link arms with my fellow Rotarians and prevent that problem from happening? And if that problem does happen, how can we work to restore people's lives? And I'm talking about the big stuff. Homelessness, addiction, the refugee crisis, human trafficking.
- [32:25]
Christine Moreland
Virginia McKenzie, founder of the Rotary Club of the Pacific Northwest. Ending sex trafficking. Virginia, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
- [32:45]
Naila Boudu
One night about 20 years ago, Christine Moreland and a group of Volunteers walked through a homeless encampment of about 15 tents in a wooded area under a Seattle bridge offering food and wellness checks. Around 1am from one of the tents, Christine heard someone calling for help. She bent down and peered through the opening and saw a naked woman. The woman asked Christine to take her someplace safe. After getting her to a hotel room, Christine saw that the woman was covered in bruises. She listened as the woman told of being repeatedly raped by multiple men over several days while being forced to stay in the tent. That experience marked the beginning of Christine's career as an advocate. In the two decades since, Christine has helped countless sex trafficking survivors and people without homes. In 2024, she joined the Rotary Club of the Pacific Northwest, ending sex trafficking, and devoted herself full time to a nonprofit organization she founded called the More We Love.
- [34:01]
Christine Moreland
So, Christine, welcome. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. We really appreciate it.
- [34:06]
Yes, thank you for having me. It's an honor.
- [34:09]
Christine, can you tell me about your day yesterday? I know you were in emergency shelter, which is part of what you do, which is responding to emergency calls. First, can you tell me just a little bit about when you respond to an emergency call, how this relates to the work that you do for the.
- [34:26]
Naila Boudu
Nonprofit that you founded?
- [34:27]
Christine Moreland
The More We Love you bet.
- [34:28]
Yeah. Well, our mission is to create pathways out of homelessness, addiction, and most specifically, trafficking and domestic violence. And that's where most of my emergency calls come from. I'll give you an example of a call I actually received on Valentine's Day. I had an officer who called me at about 11:30 at night, and he was in distress. He had a young woman who was hiding behind a car in a parking lot who had just been brutally strangled and abused by her trafficker, her abuser. And when he put the young woman on the phone, I couldn't understand her. My first question, always to the woman, is, are you safe? And she couldn't even get the words out, yes or no to me. So I take a quiet moment just to sit on the phone with her and let her breathe with me. You know, just take some deep breaths. Baby girl, I'm here. I'm here. It's going to be okay. And then I get back on the phone with the officer and we quickly triage. You know, does she need a safe place to go tonight? Usually the answer is yes, even if the pimp is going to jail. I end up taking them into our care, which is our emergency safe housing for the night. There's no questions asked. They come in we embrace them, we let them get a good night. In this case, this woman was in such distress that she needed one of our advocates to stay with her that night. And then the next morning, either myself, our director of survivor services, or one of our advocates will meet with a young woman. And we go through that pathway out and then we start to kind of unpack the actual criminal part of all of this. How do we support law enforcement in keeping this pimp in jail? How do we support law enforcement in getting this young woman to be brave enough to make her statement? How do we support law enforcement and making sure that they know where she is so that she's safe and that they can continue to work alongside her and get the evidence that is necessary. Each woman's story is very unique, and so we're very, very mindful from the moment we take that emergency call all the way through on how we support each side, law enforcement, the survivor, and even in reassuring that the pimp, the violator is behind bars.
- [36:39]
Christine, I want to go back to what you said about working with law enforcement. How much of that is part of what you're doing on a daily basis?
- [36:47]
It is the blood and heartbeat of the work that I get to do. The officers working in this field, right. And being oftentimes mostly men working with young women who have been sexually, sexually violated, who have been trafficked, you know, they're sitting in this space of uncomfortability as well, right. They're going, christine, I'm not the right person to have a conversation with her if she feels okay, safe, any of that. Right. She's not going to talk to me. So what? I consider myself as an extension of the officers, a safe place for them to hand off the survivor and still know that she's being cared for the way that they would want to. But it's important too that they have the resources to be able to hold the people accountable that are harming these women. We have the ability to sit alongside a survivor where she gives a statement to law enforcement that is, quite frankly, the worst day of her life or moments or time. And she's sitting in front of strangers having to give that statement. But she's not alone because I'm holding her hand or somebody else is.
- [37:56]
What does that process look like for people?
- [37:59]
I have an immense amount of adrenaline when it comes to facing the pimps and the traffickers and the abusers. And the reason why is because I sit in very vulnerable spaces with the survivors, listening to their stories that quite frankly, break me most of the time, right. I have to go home at night and be reminded and visualize just the sheer terror of their existence. Two days ago, I was called into court because we had an arraignment for a pimp who had trafficked a young girl over state lines and strangled her. And she was able to get away, and now she's safe in our care. But we received the request to read a victim statement on her behalf because she was too terrified to go into court and face him. And so, rather, I did it. I was experiencing it for her, if you will. I read that victim's statement with an immense amount of respect for her circumstances. And I'm very proud to say that he is still behind bars at this moment because we were able to step up and do that on her behalf. It's terrifying, however, because there could be an opportunity or a chance that he could find out who we are as her advocates, and that's something that we have to protect. And then from there, I just roll right into taking another officer call of a young girl who you know is also being harmed.
- [39:23]
And how, like, obviously, this is not a 9 to 5 situation.
- [39:27]
No, I tell everybody my phone is on 24 hours a day, and I will always answer unless I'm sleeping, and I sleep in intervals because I never want to be the person who wasn't there when somebody needed me most. I think about that often. If a woman isn't safe and I'm available, it's my responsibility to keep them that way if I can.
- [39:49]
You talked about how you create pathways out of circumstances. Can you explain a little bit more about what that looks like?
- [40:00]
Yeah. A lot of trafficking also involves drugs. And, you know, a lot of the women are either addicted to drugs because it's a great way to numb from the actual existence of what they have to do daily to survive. And some are drugged in order to be trafficked and abused in that way. The real work begins when we sit down and really identify, how did we get into the life? How do we get out of the life? And so our pathway begins with getting them detoxed from the drugs that are in their system so that we can really clear their mind to be able to strategize on what's next. So usually our stabilization is coming into our emergency program. It can be from 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, whatever that looks like. Like, stabilization is just getting their mind right just so that they feel supported, loved, held. They attend our survivor support groups, they go to church if they need be. We get their doctor's appointments in check, they get to the dentist, they get their id and so we rebuild from the ground up. And then our pathways get real, real integral when they transition out of emergent stabilization and they get into that transitional phase where we start to talk about, what are your dreams, what are your hopes? What are your goals? Do we go into an education pathway out? Do we go into a job support pathway out? Are we reuniting with children? Are we needing a flight back, you know, home? Most are in their late teens, early 20s. Then I have older women who are in their late 50s. But, you know, imagine somebody being trafficked for upwards of 30 years of their life, 40 years of their life. Right. And a lot of the trafficking is generational, and so sometimes we don't have family and people that these women can rely on. So we. A lot of our pathways is creating new community for the women community that helps shape them and remind them that they are strong, brilliant, bold, beautiful women. Sorry. That deserve so much more than they've ever, ever received in their existence. Quite frankly.
- [42:12]
Christine, this is such important work that you're doing, and I can hear how difficult it is. What led you to this work?
- [42:21]
Thank you for that question.
- [42:22]
Virginia McKenzie
Yeah.
- [42:23]
Christine Moreland
And forgive me, emotions are real. I don't often get to sit and have a quiet moment to ever really discuss the work. I come from a very colored background. My father was a homeless heroin addict. I witnessed a lot of things growing up. I was vulnerable in a lot of spaces to trafficking myself growing up. But really what motivated me to dive the deepest into the human trafficking side? I've walked alongside the homeless sector and the addicted sector for about 25 years of my life. Volunteering, helping people get into shelters, resources. There's always been an intersection of trafficking within that work. The very first time I identified a young woman being trafficked, I was up in the i5 jungle, which is a homeless encampment that runs miles and miles under the i5. And I heard this young cry out for help, please help me in a tent in the dark. And when I unzip that tent, there was a naked woman in there. And I put her in my car, and I ended up taking her to a hotel to give her a shower and get her cleaned. And she was bruised from the knees to her. Her stomach. And she described the horrors of what took place in that encampment, in that tent under, and how many men she was forced to have sex with. Eighteen months ago, I attended an event called the Stolen Youth Luncheon, and I met a young woman named Sarah Ann Hamilton, who told her story. And she was trafficked at the age of 12. And she has been definitely in the darkest places of most of our cities doing unthinkable things for very little. And people exploited her in ways that I wish I could erase. But when I watched and listened to her story, she empowered me in a way that made me connect the little girl who was inside of me who had been exploited in ways that were not right. And. And from there, I think I just blacked out. And God gave me my purpose and said, go for it. And so we created the More we love. And it is now our mission to go out and be people's constants. So Sarah Ann Hamilton is actually the director of our survivor services.
- [44:46]
Naila Boudu
What do you want people to know.
- [44:47]
Christine Moreland
About how hard it is to get out of a trafficking situation?
- [44:50]
Yeah, it's incredible. The pimps and the abusers are experts at breaking down these women. They're experts at threatening them in a way that they're so fearful for their lives or their family's lives, or they're groomed to believe that they don't belong in any space but the one that the pimp has them in. They are groomed to believe that they're not worthy of love and support. When we really dive into the pathways out, it's the mental pathways that are the most important. Right. It's reminding these women that they believe that we believe in them, that somebody sees them for the value that they are. Sometimes there's women that are the pimps as well. And then we've got other layers of trafficking that becomes generational. You have family members trafficking, then if you have a mother or a father trafficking you, what message is that sending to you as the daughter or the son? In those circumstances, you're only worthy of being a commodity. And it gets deep inside of you. Have you ever been bullied or any of that and had somebody tell you over and over something? It does dig deep into you and you start to create that narrative. It's very, very hard. When a survivor comes into our space, I hug them immediately. And often I get this kind of half hug from them. They just kind of barely touch me. And when I hold them, I say, come on, Queen, you can do better than that. Hold me, hug me, try and break me. And when I give them that grace, to be able to hold me as tight as possible, sometimes I can't breathe. And sometimes it feels like they're holding on for dear life. I had a young woman called me the other night. She was in A hotel. And she just said, I just want it over with. He wants me to have ten men tonight, night. Ten in one night. When I get those calls, I think about the layers of what we need to do to get her out of that. Unfortunately, when she was on the call with me, the pimp entered the room and she had to hang up. And that's the last I've heard. Those stick in my head every day. I pray for them throughout the day, and I pray that my phone rings and that I'll hear from them again. It breaks my heart. I think about them all the time.
- [47:23]
Erin Gardner
Sorry. It's okay.
- [47:25]
Christine Moreland
Do you have a tissue? You're okay?
- [47:26]
Yeah, I'm okay. Thank you. Okay.
- [47:30]
I really just wanted to ask you one last question, which was, Christine, what specifically do you want Rotarians to know about sex trafficking in particular?
- [47:42]
I think the very, very important thing to know is that we are in a crisis right now with sex trafficking. We have a drug epidemic at hand which is fueling the trafficking of our women, our children, our young boys, and even our men. I think the most important thing for Rotarians to know, if you see something, say something, they should call the police in the National Trafficking Hotline. I think the other thing that Rotarians need to know is that you can also do something. You absolutely can do something. The organizations that work with survivors coming out of human trafficking are very far and few between. We don't have the adequate resources that are necessary to assist these women with pathways out. And oftentimes it's just a very little gesture from another person to help support the community. That's necessary. Necessary. My question to the Rotarian is, what do you do best? What do you love to do? Sometimes I'll have somebody who say, I was a nurse for 30 years, and I'll say, great. Would you ever want to sit on a call with our girls with some of our medical questions? I'll have somebody who will say, I love to knit. I have a grandmother right now from our Rotary group who comes in and knits blankets with our survivors. I have somebody right now who's just sending funding. Right. I mean, it takes all people, all resources.
- [49:00]
Christine Moreland is the founder of the More We Love. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
- [49:05]
Virginia McKenzie
I really appreciate it.
- [49:06]
Christine Moreland
You bet. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me.
- [49:19]
Naila Boudu
If you're interested in Erin Gardner's original reporting that inspired this episode, please visit rotary.org if you or someone you know needs help, you can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-88-837-37888. The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline number is 1-833-900-1010 or you can visit humantraffickinghotline.org we'll also include all of this information in this episode of the Rotary Voices Podcast was produced by JP Swenson and edited by Wen Huang. Production by Joe Desau. Music by Yoo Soo Kim. I'm Nyla Boudu. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate us five stars on Apple Podcast and Spotify and share it with your friends. The Rotary Voices Podcast is produced by Rotary Magazine, the official monthly publication of Rotary International. Thanks for listening.