Story Library
Stories of victory over trafficking.
John’s Story
John had a respected job until a serious assault left him with life threatening injuries. John could no longer do his current job and was battling to support himself when he saw an advert in a local newspaper for work in a food packing factory in the UK. On arrival he worked hard but because of his reoccurring health problems, he had to leave his job and ended up homeless. That was when the trafficking began.
Anna’s Story
Meet Anna. You changed her life.
She was forced to work in a factory for six months without pay, living in horrendous conditions.
She said: “Without Hope for Justice I don’t know what would have happened to me or where I would be. If you didn’t help me, maybe I wouldn’t be alive.”
Megan’s Story
Megan met a man online and travelled to another state to meet him. During their ‘relationship’, he got her addicted to heroin and then began trafficking her for sexual exploitation to various cities throughout the United States. Today, thanks to Hope for Justice, she is free.
Khalianna’s Story
Khalianna was travelling to the big city when she was befriended and offered a soda. The drink was spiked, Khalianna was drugged and delivered to men who sold her for sex again and again. Months later she was rescued by police and brought to the Hope for Justice Dream Home. Now she is free.
Srey’s Story
All she knew before her rehabilitation was violence and neglect. She says she never had the chance to experience an abundance of love and care from her family. But for her son, Srey is choosing a different life.
Sabina’s Story
Sabina had no privacy; she spent months sleeping on a mattress on the floor with a strange man who had also been trafficked. Her trafficker violently assaulted her and sent her to work in unsafe factories. But now she is free, has a home and a good job.
Jerome’s Story
‘Jerome’ was rescued by Hope for Justice after spending months trapped in a situation of forced labour.
In all that time he hadn’t been able to visit his children. This was a brutal blow because providing for them was the very reason he left home in the first place.
Edward’s Story
Edward was beaten, degraded and made to work exhausting hours. One day, he watched helplessly as he was sold by one man to another man for £300. He knew he was a slave. People ask why don’t men like Edward run? The real question is why do they stay?
William & Samuel’s Story
5 years is a long time. It was for William.
That’s at least as long as he was locked into a cycle of exploitation, moved from city to city across the UK. Every day, ordinary people passed by the house where he was painting and plastering for no pay, at the hands of violent traffickers.
Martin’s Story
When we found Martin, he was in a bad way following repeated bouts of trafficking and exploitation. He had escaped, but only to a destitute life on unfriendly streets. That was until he found out about Hope for Justice at a church soup kitchen. Now he is safe, far from his trafficker, with a chance at a normal life.
Ma Ni’s Story
Living in Cambodia with an abusive father barely able to afford one meal a day, Ma Ni* wished for a better future in Thailand – which then became a living nightmare. As a little girl Ma Ni lived in Battambang Province in Cambodia with her family. The family were extremely poor, only earning enough to eat one meal a day – they were sometimes so desperate they had to beg their neighbours to feed them. She thought she could provide more finance, but was tricked into slavery.
*name changed and actress used to protect identity
Magdalene’s Story
Magdalene and each of her children were kept under lock and key. She was delivered every day to a factory where she worked gruelling 12 hour shifts. Every penny of her wages was paid into her trafficker’s bank account. Despite going without food herself, she still couldn’t feed her children with the meagre amount she was given.
Piotr’s Story
Piotr’s* traffickers shuttled him back and forth from work to his accommodation daily, watching him and never allowing any opportunity for escape. Finally, facing a life of slavery, Piotr managed to find a way to escape, taking the split-second chance and travelling for 13 miles, through the night, to a location where he was rescued by Hope for Justice.
Zoe’s Story
Despite the horrors she faced, Zoe could not understand why anyone, especially a stranger, would want to help her escape. She’d been tricked into being trafficked by a friend and that terrible betrayal had devastated any faith she had in human nature.
NOTE: Names and some details changed to protect identities in all stories.
