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I wanted to say whatever he could,

and so I could get away because there was another girl

that was supposed to,

she was trying to do the same thing and he found out,

he got wind, and she got really mouthy.

And he said, "We're going to take a trip."

So we all got in the car and we all went

to this other pimp's house and he put her

into a dog cage and started beating her

through the little rails with a broomstick.

And he said, "That's what happens when you try to run.

That's what happens when you get lippy with me."

I don't know how this happened.

They just tell you hundreds of things

that break you down mentally.

You can't just exit that lifestyle.

If you go to the police they will say, "Why are you doing this job in the first place?

If you don't like it why don't you leave it?"

What about life after the life?

What about the journey that we have to take?

Nobody understands that struggle.

They think once we're rescued, we're healed,

that's it, done.

I didn't have a home to come back to.

- The way my body felt, this is not what I deserve.

My name is Sadhvi Siddhali Shree.

I'm a Jain monk and an Iraq war veteran.

I've struggled with PTSD,

not only from serving as an army medic,

but from repressed childhood trauma that came flooding back.

I only knew something happened to me.

I forgot it.

You blacked it out.

I blacked it out

and it wasn't until I went into a deep meditation

October, 2013.

And I was just like just lying there

and just going deep into my soul.

And all of a sudden I was reliving everything.

- No! - Like when it was happening

I know PTSD, I know pain.

After what happened to me,

I always wanted to help others that had gone

through similar anguish.

I didn't just want to help them,

I needed to see how they survived.

- How do survivors of such horrific events move forward

with their lives and heal?

I reached out on social media to see

if there were any survivors willing to share their pain.

Our journey began with Angie, who instantly replied.

Hi, my name is Angela Williams.

I'm 35 years old from Houston, Texas.

I grew up in a low income Hispanic community

and was targeted by my first trafficker, Andre McDaniels,

when I was only 17 years old.

Through a high school friend,

he recruited me into a trafficking underworld

in the disguise of a modeling opportunity.

He groomed me,

he broke me down,

and he forced me into full-time stripping and prostitution.

- Physical and sexual abuse by the suspect,

who she described as a pimp.

Hey.

Hello.

Hi.

I brought water.

Thank you.

Hey.

How are you?

We're set up here.

I didn't know what was going on.

They don't say that they're sex traffickers,

they don't identify themselves as pimps.

They make you feel like if they're some sort

of business manager or life coach.

Even putting themselves at the same level of a god

that you should obey and worship.

- While Angie was open with us on her first day,

she expressed she wasn't ready to tell her full story.

Survivors must be given the grace to tell their story

in their own way and in their own time.

Months later, we traveled to Las Vegas,

the city where Angie spent most of her trafficked years,

but she almost didn't come at all.

Whether she was triggered, got scared, or had doubts,

she missed her flight.

Luckily, Southwest Airlines understood her situation

and booked her a new flight.

When she arrived, it was as if nothing was wrong.

Like many survivors, she harbored a pain

that was invisible on the outside.

I was 18.

I didn't understand the severity of minors being trafficked.

To me, it just reminded me of the drug dealers

and how they get hotel rooms to work out of

or trap houses to work out of.

So it was just another underworld of the ghetto,

like a female hustler.

One of the older women gave me a mini tour.

She was like, "These are the towels,

you lay them on the bed,

so the clients don't sit on the sheets.

They sit on the towels over the sheets,"

and it was all clinical.

"And this is the rags that we clean them with."

When a guy would come in,

the doorbell would ring and all the girls would have to come

to the window of the front of the brothel,

like a cattle call in our lingerie.

I would see clients and I started just doing hand jobs.

And eventually, the other girls got mad

because he was giving me, he was babying me.

So I ended up getting pressured into giving full service

with the clients.

And it was tormenting and horrible and traumatizing.

And every guy felt like I was being raped.

Every guy felt like I just, like,

I would just hold my hands like this when they were over me,

just so that way their chest and their sweat

would not come near me.

I had a family and I was so ashamed and so embarrassed

with myself when I would think about it,

that I just tried to suppress it and not think about it.

I was getting pedophile clients that wanted me to act

as if I was 13 or 12 or 16.

And I looked that young and this client wanted me

to meet him at the high school bleachers

and pick me up and then take me back to the brothel.

He was like big, fat, oily,

greasy, nasty, disgusting,

rich guy who just wanted me to be

a 16 year old high school girl.

And I felt like the 16 year old high school girl,

that was probably like my first trauma,

like where it, it stuck with me, even to this day.

Like I remember him, his smell,

like pig sweat.

- The next survivor to contact us was Kendra,

a woman from Miami.

After a decade, she was finally ready to share her story.

Why don't you just leave?

In one day, I lost my car, my house,

my furniture, everything.

When I went and he took me for three months,

I lost everything.

What was I gonna go back to?

The things that he says, "I'll kill your family,

I'll never let you go,"

it sits into your mind and then later,

when you make these decisions, you hear it,

you hear his voice.

I got emancipated when I was 15

and being, thinking I was a grown adult,

I kind of went out into the streets to work

and live wherever I could.

Then developed a, you know,

a drinking habit and drinking led into drugs.

And then, drugs led into needing to maintain that lifestyle.

And the easiest way to get that lifestyle was to go dance.

And I was always the I'm here for my money, you know,

I'm not here for the nonsense.

And I think that that was where he noticed how loud I was

and how arrogant I was about not being able to be pimped.

So he sent two girls about my age in,

and I was living in Orlando and he, the girls came in,

I didn't know they were with him at all.

And they told me, "Oh, let's go to Miami for New Year's."

And I said, "Okay, let's go.

You know, I've never been to Miami."

So I had the one Corona and then I had a drink

that they gave me, and then that's it.

I kind of blacked out after that.

And when I woke up, the ground was moving,

I was getting very nauseous, and I looked up and I kind of,

you know, assessed my surroundings.

And I was in a van and I kind of rolled over

and he shifted around, he grabs his gun,

and he pointed it towards me.

And he said, "We're not going to have any problems, are we?"

I think it was that first night,

one of the girls did something he didn't like,

and he was super aggressive with her

and just grabs her by her face

and was just pushing her around and yelling.

And I thought to myself, I said,

"It's not, it's not gonna be the life for me.

I'd rather die than have you beat on me

and sell me for money."

I told him, I said,

"Look, you're going to have one dead girl on your hands

if you think that I'm going to go and sleep

and sleep with these Johns."

And he made a compromise for me, he said,

"Okay, I'll keep you for me and you go to the clubs,

you make my money, and you bring it home."

How do you define sex trafficking?

- It's different than smuggling because smuggling

is what people think of.

Oh, they're bringing humans across the border.

Sex trafficking is when there is money exchange for sex

using force, fraud, or coercion.

Rachel's father was the leader

of a biker gang and prostituted women,

including Rachel's mother.

Her escape to foster care was short-lived,

as the family she was placed with only took in children

to rape them.

At 15, she tried to escape again, living on the streets,

doing whatever she could to survive,

but a phony modeling agency trafficked her

and blackmailed her with photos,

threatening to expose her secret life to her school.

When she graduated,

she finally got away to a remote college

where she studied nursing.

- And now I share my story with whoever I can

because I realize so many people are helped

when we're able to get our voice back and share our story.

And that's when we get our power back,

because we're able to speak and not be afraid.

The biggest question asked is why didn't she just leave?

They can't leave.

There's either drugs, a $20,000 cocaine habit

that's reeling them in.

Threaten their families.

A lot of times when their pimp tells them,

"We will kill your family," they truly believe them

and they're trying to protect someone else.

Even if they can run, where are they going to go?

They've already lost their self-value of thinking

I can do this on my own, they're ashamed of it.

They don't want to ask for help because they believe

that they're going to be the scarlet letter,

the throwaways, and unfortunately, in today's society,

they are, that's not a misconception on our part

as survivors.

We are looked at as dirty.

For victims, it's not a choice.

Even when they're told they're choosing up,

a misnomer that refers to being sold

from one trafficker to another.

Angie left her first trafficker, Andre,

and chose up multiple times,

trafficked nationally by violent pimps

until she met her final trafficker in Las Vegas.

Tyree was a boyfriend pimp,

someone who masquerades themselves

as romantically interested in vulnerable girls

or young women.

And he came around,

took me to a martini bar,

coercion on a different level.

And the whole time, his intentions were only

to do the same thing that all the rest did.

We had date night every Wednesday, went to the movies.

We had, you know, martini bar nights,

nice fancy restaurants,

went out, wine and dined me.

And next thing you know,

when I don't want to give him the money that he's expecting,

I'm getting my door kicked into my mansion.

The way my body felt, you know,

just knowing that this is the life

that I was going to be in.

For over a decade, I feel like I lost myself completely.

I made a facade of somebody

who was okay with all this.

You know, this is just how it's going to be.

From Miami, we went up to South Carolina,

he bought a house out there,

and we went to work the next day.

And when I came home,

he had assigned us all different rooms.

And I go into my room, he had nailed all the windows shut

and our doors had keys, so there were no door handles.

So when we went to our rooms,

we were locked in our rooms.

And even when I would go to my room,

after I get off of work,

that's when he felt like it was his time with me.

There were times when I would cry during the rape,

and he would put his hands so hard over my mouth,

but he so big, so much bigger than me,

his hand would cover my nose and my mouth.

And it would get to the point where I'd almost suffocate

and before, he would let me off,

before he would let me breathe,

as he said it, he would let me breathe.

Two elbows

Move here.

Okay, go.

That was the end of the round, right?

- That's the end of the round. - Good, I need to breathe.

He said he was going to take a trip.

And at that point, I think I had gained enough confidence.

I took the keys and I unlocked the front door.

And I don't think I, I don't think I took anything with me.

I just ran as fast as I could and as far as I could,

and then I took a bus and came home.

- I knew I realized that I needed to get away

from trafficking and I had a sneak apartment,

and I was making my way to exit that lifestyle.

But you can't just exit that lifestyle.

It's easier said than done.

So when I decided to leave him, that's when he came back,

and assaulted me and left me for dead.

- Angie took the crew and I to her old condo,

where the assault happened, it was still empty.

And on a whim, she tried the door,

we were shocked to find it unlocked.

So creepy.

This is where I lived and this was going

to be my runaway haven.

I was upstairs, I got a call from Tyree.

So he ran in, he had something in his hand,

I didn't see at the time,

and...

The first strike with the nightstick

and he said, "Get the fuck upstairs."

He told me to put my hands out.

And when I put my hands out,

he grabbed the nightstick and hit me again.

He told me to get the fuck downstairs

and he hit me again with the nightstick,

but I went like this.

The nightstick hit this part of my arm.

My bone popped out of here and blood just splattered here.

And he started trying to give me blows to my head,

so I tucked under like this,

holding my arm, and I'm cornered back here.

So I was just like this, like, look at what you're doing.

I think, I think something's broken and you're hurting me.

You're going to kill me and I just started praying to God.

And I have never felt such a spiritual moment

or so close to God as that moment

because when I screamed and prayed and begged for him,

he was there for me.

And Tyree was standing right there and he had the nightstick

and dropped it and told me to go the fuck upstairs

and don't come back.

- [News Reporter] Beaten and left for dead,

a woman says she was trafficked for sex by her ex-boyfriend

for years who also savagely brutalized her.

I'm in so much pain and it hurts so much.

- [News Reporter] She tells us her ex-boyfriend

beat her so viciously, he left her with a fractured skull,

her right forearm broken, now in a cast,

her left hand shattered.

- I can't even bathe myself or feed myself.

I need somebody with me all the time.

I just sat in the hospital and realized like,

this is not the way to live.

This is not what I deserve.

This is not the end of my story.

Anything that I did to get me to this point has to die.

And I have to change now.

Pain is universal.

It allows us to feel empathy up to a point,

but we are limited by the depth of our own experiences.

Can we truly relate to what trafficking survivors

go through?

With my own trauma, I was only just discovering it.

When it all came flooding back that first time,

I immediately wrote down what happened

so I wouldn't forget again.

I told my spiritual teacher, Acharya Shree Yogeesh,

and he reminded me of one of his teachings.

He said, "Express and never suppress."

Remember, mind doesn't hold the pain,

mind only remembers only the physical body.

It is like a wound. That's not your wound,

somebody gave you the wound.

You're suffering, but it is healable.

Two times this side,

You're swallowing the air.

And breathe out twenty five times up.

Thank you, Acharya Shree.

My blessings.

Through my meditations,

I'm able to admit to myself what happened when I was six,

but to truly heal,

I feel the need to connect with others who can relate

to my story.

Like Rachel, who has worked with many survivors,

I find purpose in traveling,

teaching, and doing anything I can to inspire hope

and healing.

I was honored when Rachel agreed to join us on a trip

with a group of activists,

organized by Children at Risk,

to visit international shelters.

Our first stop: the Center of Hope in the Philippines.

I became a nurse that, when girls come to the hospital

after they're sexually assaulted or trafficked,

I take care of them, take the pictures,

testify for them in court, and do that as a nurse now.

Once I realized, when I was a nurse,

this is what happened to me growing up,

and it wasn't my fault.

That wasn't me, it was something that was done to me.

And I realized I need to heal.

Because I just pretended like it never happened,

and I was ashamed and I never told anyone my story,

I wanted to hide it.

But once I started sharing my story,

I realized there was other girls who had similar stories

and that everybody's story may be different

but the pain inside is still the same.

It means that survivors like you

can be the support system of each other.

You will be a family. Aren't we a family?

Are we a family?

Yes!

We are a family here.

That's what we should remember, right?

If your own family is not good for you,

you can still build your own family.

That's good, right?

Is the message good?

Yes...

It gives a very beautiful message

that you give to them.

To get to that root

and to truly make them feel valuable again,

in and of themselves, and to pour into them and love them,

that's what I love doing is to be able to give back

from what was taken for me, to give them a voice back.

Any victim that's rescued and becomes that survivor

and gets back into normal life,

they're going to need to know what it means

to be a normal person and assimilate back into society.

And it takes a village, it takes all of those skills,

it takes everyone.

- Dumbest question of the day, "Are you okay?"

"Do you feel okay?"

Does it look like I feel okay?

I'm gettin' surgery on my hand on Friday.

When you were in the hospital,

what inspired you to maybe seek healing or a program?

What was that like?

- Something came over me where I just felt like

I was going to be okay.

And from that moment, I felt like I was

in the palm of God's hands and I was going to be okay.

I knew then that I was beginning to change

and I knew I had to change my environment

and I had to go somewhere where I could get help.

It took a lot of humbling to, you know,

understand and be receptive of the fact that

these are the steps that I need to go through.

You know, there were a lot of things that I needed,

I needed adjusting to in society.

I was afraid of men.

Like I was afraid of, you know,

men that fit the profile of a sex trafficker

that might not have been, but I was just so traumatized.

After I got my, my therapist,

we were looking at different options for housing

so I could be safe.

So I ended up in a house in the suburbs of New York

and the house was ran by three nuns.

They were just so selfless and willing

to help the girls in the house.

We had a curfew, so if we left out,

we had to be in by 10 or they're locking the doors.

And if it was 9:30,

they would call me and ask me if I was okay

and going to make it home.

How long did you stay there for?

Almost a year.

I felt like going to that home,

even though my family told me that I was crazy,

it was the best thing that I could have done

during my transition and the best thing I could've done

for myself.

And had I not gone to that house and experienced the life

with the other survivors, then I don't think that,

I don't think that I would be here today.

I do think that I would have been more vulnerable to fall

back into my old lifestyle and more exposed to fall back

into my old lifestyle.

When I got home is when I started

to feel a little bit better,

but I didn't have a home to come back to.

When I got off the bus,

I went straight to the police station.

The line of questions was totally inappropriate.

"Well, you were out here for New Year's drinking, huh?"

"Yes, sir, I was."

"Well, how much had you had to drink?"

Just, it was very condescending, very demeaning,

very, "Well, you said you met him in a strip club?

What was his name?"

And I was like, "Is there anybody else I can see?"

And he's just like very short and, "Well, are you sure?

You know, you didn't want to go?"

And it got to the point where I was like, you know what?

That's okay.

You know, I don't have to worry about it.

And I walked all the way to my friend's house

and it was a really long walk.

I felt like it was a walk of shame because now the cop

made me feel even worse about my situation

and that I didn't deserve help.

Everybody knew that I had went missing,

but when I came back,

it was not something that everybody talked about.

Nobody knew exactly what happened.

They just, you went away, something bad happened,

and you came back and you were Kendra again.

You were, you know, you were great,

you're tough, you got this.

You know, and it was a very toxic household

that my friend lived in.

Everybody was still a dancer,

everybody was still drinking, doing drugs.

I went back to the club for the first week, but it was like,

I felt every single dirty look from these men

and I felt every single dirty hand on me

and it was just something overwhelming,

like it was so overwhelming I couldn't stay,

I couldn't.

It was to the point where I was having so many PTSD attacks

that I thought he followed me back into town.

Any tall dark person was him and any dark corner

had him standing in it.

And every club, he was in his car waiting.

So it was very, a very paranoid time.

- It was very awkward coming back into society.

It was like I got out of a time capsule.

I didn't know what was going to happen or how long I was

going to be safe, how long I was going to, you know,

be free.

It wasn't until after I got home,

I had one drink and it like violently made me sick.

I kept getting sick after that

and I didn't understand what was going on.

And, and my friend said, "Let's just stop at the store.

And get a pregnancy test."

No, no, this can't be it.

And it wasn't, it was never a,

I don't want to have this baby.

It was a... I feel like he was going to share in my shame,

like, how could I let him down

and I haven't even had him yet?

You know, I was already in love.

Like I never, in my mind, questioned giving up my son.

It was from God to keep my feet on the ground.

He was my purpose,

but I put off taking the test because I knew there was going

to come that day where I would have to explain to him

the way that people would look at him when they found out

or when he found out.

And I thought, you know, oh, my God,

what do I say? Do I lie?

His dad died in the war.

You know, do I just not tell him?

Well, what if somebody else tells him?

Everybody would tell me, just lie, just lie.

And I'm like, I can't do that.

I can't, I'm not ashamed that I have him.

He is my everything.

He is what saved me from going back home and overdosing

on drugs and alcohol,

and going right back to that lifestyle.

And I have never been the same person I was before my son,

as I was after I found out I have him.

And that purpose is to make him grow into the man

that he was meant to be.

It was not his fault and he does not have a capable bone

in his body to do anything like what this man did.

That is not his father.

That is not his dad.

I'm those things to him.

Escaping is never the end of the story.

If they manage to get out and what a big if that is,

the life doesn't just disappear.

Whether it's their environment, their friends,

or their family, they're still vulnerable as targets.

Kendra tells us she was saved by her son,

but that saving grace is missing for so many who fall

right back into the life they fought so hard to leave.

Survivors need a safe place to go.

So, shelters are key.

The next leg of our journey,

visiting shelters overseas, took us to Ethiopia,

where we visited Ellilta Women at Risk,

a nonprofit shelter that helps prostituted women

by providing therapy and jobs.

Among the survivors was Haymanot,

who after nine years,

had finally managed to escape the life.

When I was 12, my father's brother raped me.

Then, my mother got married and took me with her.

I did not tell this secret to my mother, that my uncle raped me.

Afterwards, a person who had a disagreement with her raped me.

I was raped again.

I was sick from this.

I was seriously sick.

I was raped 3 times when I was just 12.

The third time was my cousin's husband.

Afterwards a person told me about Addis Ababa.

I was in Jimma when I heard about Addis Ababa. I considered it to be like America.

But moving to the big city

wasn't the transition she hoped for.

Haymanot spent her first year in Addis Ababa,

living with a mechanic who abused her daily.

She got away from him, but only by falling in with an agent,

the Ethiopian term for a pimp.

While working the streets as a prostitute,

a man attacked her with no provocation,

destroying many of her teeth on her upper jaw.

I kept thinking, how can you heal?

How can you be happy if you cannot smile?

So what would it mean for her to have teeth?

As I haven’t laughed for a long time, I’ll be happy.

This is my answer, and lots of women know about this.

And when they ask me why I don’t laugh, I ask them what’s there to laugh about.

Oh I would laugh very much because I would be very happy.

After our visit with Haymanot,

we were deeply touched by her story and felt compelled

to fundraise for the 15 teeth and five root canals

she needed.

We launched a Facebook fundraiser

and thanks to 49 caring individuals,

we were able to cover her dental treatment.

Now, with the education I have received.

Now I am going to training.

It’s called practical training…

Housekeeping. I am going to train in cleaning.

When we returned to Ethiopia,

five months later, to attend her graduation,

she was blossoming.

- Besides Ellilta, you went through training and have now graduated, how does it feel?

I am so overjoyed.

I have never once been happy in my entire life.

But now I am so happy and filled with joy.

I will work and provide for myself. I won't be idle from now onwards.

From Ethiopia,

we went to India where we connected with an organization

called Kranti, which means revolutionary,

that provides shelter, therapy,

and a new beginning to survivors.

It was there that we met Zarina.

How did you end up here? At what age were you sold?

- I've to tell that? - Yeah.

I was eight years old when I was sold off.

Then, at the age of eleven,

at that very place, I was forced into prostitution.

I started working.

After a few days, a customer of mine took me with him

and married me.

After my marriage, I became a mother.

My husband was a bad father to my children.

I was forced to come back to prostitution.

I came back to it and raised my children.

We were guided through Mumbai's

notorious Red Light District.

It was chilling.

I used my phone sparingly to take some video,

but was asked not to use it too much

as it would upset the ladies living there.

People are here,

is it okay to film?

Okay, do I go all the way up or right here?

We went into the living quarters

of prostituted women.

This is a family room?

Yes.

- Sometimes, there is a pimp or madam involved

and sometimes, prostitution is their,

or their family's, only means of survival.

It's what Angie calls, "survival trafficking."

- The women do this just for the sake of their children.

They don't do it as a hobby, or because they like it.

They are in this profession to raise their kids.

I retired from prostitution five years ago.

Now I'm working at Kranti.

Zarina's mission now is to help those

who are still in prostitution get out of the life.

We did what we could to help her mission.

With my spiritual teacher spending time with the girls,

teaching them healing techniques through breathing,

yoga, and meditation.

The same teachings and techniques that he taught me

to fight my own pain and PTSD.

I fell in love with the way Kranti inspires girls

to be revolutionary.

The way they teach them that they can bring

about world change,

that their past or the situations they come from

does not stop them from achieving their dreams.

The women there, like all survivors, inspire me.

After spending five days with the Kranti girls,

we took them out to a nice restaurant for our last meal.

It was the best way to end our trip to India.

- Until I learned about it in nursing school

and found out the term "human trafficking,"

I had never even thought

that I was a human trafficking victim

or that I was commercially sexually exploited.

Those are big words that we don't understand.

You were surviving, you were hustling,

you were doing what you had to do.

And even as a child, I thought it was my fault.

I thought I chose it.

Despite the amazing work shelters

do to help survivors heal,

there are many survivors who are not ready

for any help at all.

When I was 11,

I learned a close friend was being abused by their father.

My parents talked about it with me, sharing the gross acts,

to illustrate that those things were wrong

and shouldn't happen to a child.

My body froze.

I felt a ball in my throat.

I wanted to tell them so badly

that something had happened to me.

I remained silent.

How can you heal from a pain you refuse to acknowledge?

A hurt you don't fully understand?

- Looking back as an adult, I know that I was a child,

I was a teenager, I didn't choose those things,

but I felt guilty,

and I felt ashamed because I thought that the things

that were happening to me were my fault.

And I didn't want anybody to know. I was embarrassed.

Growing up a military brat and you know,

your dad's a Marine,

you kind of already have that mentality.

Like your problems aren't as big as you think they are.

You know, you need to be a big girl about everything,

you know, not everybody asked me about it either.

So it was easier to try to,

to go back to what I thought normal life could be like.

Did you ever feel normal after that?

I don't think I've felt normal.

I think the moments that I feel normal,

I feel are distractions, are just events

and occurrences that get me from one moment to the next.

Then, when everything's silent again,

then you kind of sit with the reality

of what happened to you.

But then also, I'm the type of person where if I,

when I sit with those feelings and emotions and I'm like,

no, no, I'm okay, you know, I'm not what happened to me.

I'm bigger than that.

But it was that mentality that just helped me

bury it further.

Instead of saying "No, that did happen to me

and it needs to be felt,

and it needs to be accepted, and it needs to be respected,

and it needs to be acknowledged."

And because back then, there was no sex trafficking.

I was kidnapped and I was raped.

So when time moves forward and then the Me Too Movement

rolls out and then everybody starts talking

about sex trafficking, I had to sit with myself like,

"Is that what happened to me?

I got sex trafficked?"

And then you start realizing there's a name

and there's a following of people

that have had this happen to them,

and then you don't feel so alone.

And then you don't feel so shameful.

And then you start to understand what happened to you

and then you start to put down some of that guilt

that you've carried for so long

that so many other people put on you, the cop,

the club owners,

everybody that made me feel like what happened to me

was my fault.

Seeing so many other empowered women come forward

and put their traffickers in prison, made me feel empowered.

Like, you know, this wasn't my fault.

I didn't do this to myself, you know?

So that kind of helps you not feel normal,

but a part of a society that understands how badly you hurt.

- With my PTSD, I have like blackout memories.

It's like, is there something wrong with my brain?

Like, and is it from the trauma

or is it from the blows to the head?

I can't remember a lot of things.

And I can't remember like,

just like memories of me and my family.

Some things I want to remember, but maybe like she's saying,

like, maybe I am, you know, protecting things that I,

I don't want to relive,

but I have to face my pain to get through my pain.

Like I just want to be free and healthy.

And to think something's wrong with your brain is scary.

Like, will it get worse when I get older?

I'd be curious to,

there's some doctors, like Doctor Amen

and they actually do...

Studies.

Brain scans.

I'm going to try and reach out to him

to see if there's something he can do.

I don't know if we can. He's in California.

But... 'cause I think it brings, in some ways,

some comfort to know, clarity, and you know, it's not,

it's just to get some answers.

You out?

We've gotta get you some water.

Come on in here.

- Do you want to position my hands in any way?

- Those would just go down by your side or on your belly,

wherever it feels more comfortable.

Just making sure your head,

you want to kind of straight up from the shoulders,

facing forward, yep.

Angela, you're all done.

You did a really good job of holding still, we got good images

Ok.

We look at your brain...

I've been hit back there.

At rest.

There's a lot.

- But you see, one side more than the other.

What does that mean?

That means you got hit right here.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to say,

"Oh, she's got emotional trauma," right?

'Cause you do.

Yeah.

But you can actually see the signature

- of it - A lifetime of it.

in your brain.

We need to take care of this PTSD stuff

that I think is real, that you have.

And that's where something like EMDR

can be really helpful.

And then, I also talk about killing the ants,

automatic negative thoughts.

That's why, when you feel sad when you feel mad...

- I have something in my own mind that I created to do that.

So anytime I think something toxic or negative,

I just pray.

So I don't know that's my home remedy.

I would just pray like that instantly, quick,

pray like, and please reverse whatever I was thinking and.

If that works, I love that.

Given what you've been through, the strangulation,

the multiple head injuries, the substance abuse,

the chronic stress that you've been under,

we both should be on our knees thanking God

your brain's this good, so.

Thank you.

- I would bet if you do what I asked you to do,

six months later, your brain is going to be healthy.

Healthier.

- Well actually, it'll be healthier tomorrow if you sleep tonight.

Yes.

- I'm disappointed to say I didn't have a great therapist.

Instead of helping me figure out all these emotions,

she just taught me to bury them.

She was like, "Well, maybe you should get a hobby."

I was like, "That's not,

that's not what we're here to deal with."

She said, "But a hobby will distract you."

I said, "But distracting myself Is what I did for so long.

I need to be so knee deep in the hurt

that I feel like I'm not going to breathe

so that I can breathe."

And she told me, she said,

"Well, you're such an empowered woman, you're so strong,

you work out, what are you afraid of?"

When she said that, it literally kept me up all night.

I was like, "What am I afraid of?

He's so much older.

I'm so much physically more strong.

I'm so well equipped, my house, my alarm, my security.

I'm surrounded by cops in my neighborhood

to the left of me, the right of me,

across the street from me.

What am I afraid of?"

And it's, I'm afraid of my past.

I'm afraid of the person I was.

I'm afraid of dealing with those emotions.

I'm not afraid of him.

I'm not afraid of him finding me or him encountering me.

I'm more afraid of dealing what I didn't deal with.

That's what hurts the most.

And are you working through that

with, do you have a trauma informed therapist

at this point?

- No, I have a situational training instructor

I brought her sight unseen.

Mutual friends told me that she was a quality person

that I should help.

And so, I wanted her to show her a little bit

about what I do and I read people for a living.

So I was able to find out really quickly

as I'm just doing the intro,

that there was a little more of like an onion

to peel back the layers.

And so, I just kind of let it happen organically

where I was just like,

"Okay, this is flashlight,"

and her reactions to the simple training that I had,

I could tell there was something deeper.

So I just let it kinda,

I let her share with me when she felt comfortable.

- Hey, hey, can you wait a minute so I can go by...

And go get into my car?

Hey, excuse me.

Whoa, whoa.

- Give me a minute, let me get to my car, okay?

You can go ahead and go wherever you're going.

I'm just here looking for some cans.

No, no, no, you're good.

Bye, have a nice night.

Scenario.

That was cool, okay, what'd you see?

The rule of thumb is you resort back

to your lowest level of training when you're under stress,

the lowest level.

And then, you're going to be half as good as that

when the time comes.

So we call that the 50% rule.

You're going to resort to your lowest level of training

and then you're going to be half as good.

And then Murphy could step in there.

If it can and will happen, it will.

So that's how we practice in here and we role play.

Quit resisting!

Quit resisting!

Quit resisting!

Scenario.

I'm so sorry.

And when you did and you actually

grabbed up I was like, "Oh, no, okay,

how do I get out of this?"

Okay, I know I've spent so much time

with all these drills actually,

but you know, it's different.

That whole situation is so different.

So, situational training,

I think has been better than any therapist I've had.

It literally ripped out my insides.

I was so exposed in front of all these people.

We trained in so many things, especially, you know,

sex trafficking things.

And I cried and I screamed and I got to wear the gear

and you know, carry the gun.

And what would I do in this situation?

And how do I walk to my car?

And what do I look for?

And doing all those things allowed those scary parts

to not be so loud because if that happens, it's okay,

you know, I know what to do.

For Kendra,

her way of moving on was to focus on preparing herself

to be ready if a situation like hers arose again.

For Angie, she focused on healing her body and mind.

Haymanot hoped that leaving the big city of Addis Ababa

and reconnecting with her family would bring her joy.

- I am so happy that I get to go to Jimma, it feels like a dream.

When I get there my dreams shall become a reality.

And I am going there after 10 or more years,

so it's a different feeling.

But she learned that even with healing,

there is new pain to be found.

Dad!

- How are you? - I'm good!

Daddy, how have you been?

Are you alive?

- I am. - Oh!

How are you?

Are you alright?

- It's okay. - I know I was not able to be here for anyone.

I didn't bury my brother, or anyone else.

It's okay, please just drop it.

I am always crying because of this, it really hurts me.

I wasn't able to be there for him!

He loved me so much, he went all the way to Addis Ababa to look for me.

He used to tell me that we will be able to live together one day.

He said, "We will live together, okay?" He used to call me "Momma."

Please stop, I have just started to be okay with this.

It was all for the best, everything will come to pass.

Pain is hidden beneath the surface and sometimes it's buried

and pushed down so deep that we forget about it

in order to survive.

I know I'm not the only one.

While on our way to Angie's very first interview,

executive producer, Jeannie Mai,

asked me to reveal my childhood trauma.

So I'm just sharing my story

of what happened to me when I was six years old.

So basically a painter took me into my bathroom.

And that's when it started. He...

You want me to go into the details?

If you don't mind?

Okay. Yeah.

- Honestly, it actually helps me feel better

when I hear somebody.

So, I just have to go to that place.

So, the painter takes me into the bathroom.

He's wearing his red shirt, his black pants

and he props me up, he puts the toilet seat down.

And he puts me on there to stand.

And that was like the first time, like, a kiss happened.

So I felt his tongue, I felt all of that.

And I was just like,

you know my mouth is open and he's just making out with me.

And I'm just like standing there.

At six years old.

At six years old, yeah.

Oh my god.

And then he put me on the ground.

And then, well because I was wearing a dress

he rolled it up, took my underwear off.

And he put his mouth there.

And I just remember just looking off to the side.

And then he removed his pants and his penis was hard.

And then he tried to put it in my front

and he tried to put it in my back.

I felt empty inside.

I felt dead inside.

Should I tell grandma, should I tell mom?

I couldn't, he told me he would kill me.

I was six years old.

Like you can say it,

like there are times where you're just like,

oh, I was sexually abused and it's just like surface, right?

But of course this is a very transparent,

honest conversation,

so the vulnerability comes out.

Yeah.

- I could have totally been a victim of trafficking

if I was exposed to it because I was enough

of a victim of sexual abuse

because I was raised to be...

You would've been an easy target.

Easy target.

- Right, like okay, so what would the signs be?

A guy would have just known

like through your timidness and your,

your demeanor and your submissiveness, just being like,

'cause a lot of the girls that were trafficked around me,

they, I would say half over half

of them were sexually abused and in their youth,

and they had lower self-esteem.

Even if they were beautiful,

they would just have a little shyness to them.

And for some reason, the traffickers just had a sixth sense

to be able to pick it out on that.

Feed on that.

Yeah.

And then they use that as their leeway.

Like your mother didn't care about you enough to protect you

from what happened to you.

I'll make sure that nobody ever hurts you like that again.

Not realizing you're basically being raped over and over

and over again every day 'cause it's not your will,

but they make you think that you're doing

what you want to do.

- When you're being raped, especially over and over,

the first time is traumatic.

Your body experiences it,

your brain experiences it,

everything's on 1000 and you feel it everywhere.

But as time goes on,

when it happens and you expect it and you know,

this is what's going to happen, it's just,

it's easier for your mind to shut off and go somewhere else

and become lifeless.

- We all have continued to survive in some way.

Imagine all the survivors,

victims of abuse or trafficking,

that we don't even know about.

Will the survivors ever heal?

Will I ever truly heal?

When we were in Budapest, I left lunch

and I walked out and I walked down the street,

had had a camera man a little bit behind me,

but I'm just out for, for a walk.

And I come up to this car and there was four guys.

(men speaking in Hungarian)

No habla inglés.

I'm American.

From the start, they just started trying to recruit me.

You are a beautiful girl.

Thank you.

You live here?

We live here, yes.

We are Hungarian.

How much?

And they're like, "How much do you want to make?

You can make millions.

Who do you want to make money for?

You wanna go?

You can travel the world."

Rachel had done undercover work before,

so she thought it was a good idea to capture on video

how these traffickers behave.

There's no one style.

Some are aggressive and some are charming.

We are a bad guy.

You're bad guys?

Yeah.

You said you were a good guy.

Why are you a bad guy, Richard?

We,

We find another time, just the two

and I'll say.

You'll tell me why you're bad.

Yes, I tell.

You don't have to be bad.

- What? - You don't have to be bad.

Can you give your phone number?

Can I or will I?

Will.

Will?

Should I?

Yes, you should.

Why? Why should I?

Because he's a nice guy.

He said he's bad guy!

But, nice guy.

- A ni, - A good guy.

you're good at being bad?

He's have a girls.

You have girls?

No!

Tonight, but tomorrow.

(men speaking in Hungarian)

Pimp.

Pimp, he's pimp?

Pimp? Pimp?

You're good at being a pimp?

- Yes, I said-you remember, I said I am bad guy.

So you can get me some work.

Yes.

I can give work.

From here?

- Yes. For example, here or in Switzerland,

everywhere.

Is it legal here?

No.

Oh.

So, are you really a pimp?

- Yes, but not, - You can find people?

no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yes, but not here in Hungary.

In Switzerland.

Switzerland?

Yes, and Amsterdam.

- The guys have lots of money there, right?

No, no, no, no.

I have a lot of girls.

You understand?

Daughters?

No, not daughters.

No, but, your-is it red?

You are recording.

Oh, my god. That just happened.

Those four guys called me out

and approached me

and they said, you're beautiful.

He pulled out his wallet and he offered me money

and asked for my number and said he has a lot of girls.

You know what I mean?

I'm a bad guy.

If I was in a different state right now,

I would've taken his number.

I would've taken the money,

and I would have explored the opportunity.

Because, that's what it presents like,

is an opportunity.

And even if I make that choice to accept that opportunity,

it's not too long after that, you realize,

you no longer have a choice.

Many law enforcement agencies when they,

when they do a bust, they'll arrest the girl and the guy.

When I train law enforcement,

I make sure they understand they're not a delinquent,

they're not a runaway, don't treat them like that.

They're lost, they need love, they need your help.

To be a real hero, offer them what they need when you go

and you do that.

You ready? Standby.

It was the same desire that drove Kendra

to start her own nonprofit, Liberation Team.

A rescue team that works in cooperation with law enforcement

to identify traffickers,

locations that could be hotspots for coercing women,

and prepare others the way she has prepared herself

for any situation.

The biggest thing is respect

when it comes to working with the police.

They want to feel like you are not a mass group

of vigilantes that want to go out and step on their toes or,

you know, cause chaos.

Yeah, that's nice.

Ooh, it looks so awesome.

It's important for me to focus on rescues

so that I can be that help I didn't get.

Nobody came to get me.

There was a missing persons report filed on me.

And since he had my cell phone,

they were calling my cell phone over and over and over.

He brought me out to the car and said,

"You're going to handle the situation."

And I got on the phone

and it was the Orlando Police Department.

And they said, "We need to know if you're okay."

And I hesitated for quite a while.

He put around in the chamber and he held it against my head

and he said, "You make this go away right now."

And there was, you could hear my voice cracking.

You could hear the stress in my voice,

you could hear my distraughtness.

You could hear me cry and say "I'm okay."

And that's it, you just close it?

Nobody comes for me?

Nothing happens?

To know firsthand how it feels to be

in that situation and not want to be there

is the reason that I'm doing what I'm doing.

What are your feeling

towards your pimps now,

the traffickers, do you hate them?

Do you hold a grudge against them?

Have you forgiven them?

That's a good question.

I definitely went through a phase where I had

a bit of Stockholm Syndrome and felt sorry for them,

and after therapy and clearing my own mind

and realizing things for what they were,

I grew heavy resentment for them.

If I could take my old trafficker,

I would put him in front of the courthouse

and beat him with a nightstick the way I was beaten.

Or let my brothers beat them up.

But violence doesn't solve violence.

So it's just an inner feeling.

But I hate them all.

My name is Angela Williams.

It has come to my attention that my ex-trafficker,

Jamal Rashid, is awaiting sentencing for a crime

he pled guilty to you.

A crime in relation to his career in the sex trade industry.

Once I was given an employee number,

at one point I was number seven,

I would provide sexual services to multiple men

and in exchange for money.

And I would be instructed to deposit the amount plus 7 cents

to identify me.

I was stripped of everything I knew and loved and turned

into a professional trained sex worker.

Please consider my existence.

And the many other women he exploited when sentencing him

for his crime because every soul counts.

Respectfully, Angela Williams.

It's easy for us to move on

after we hear a survivor's story.

After all, why not?

They moved on themselves.

Angie's smile lights up a room,

Kendra strength inspires, Rachel's work gives hope.

I've learned from spending time with them

that there is no quick fix to heal them.

Even as they move on, they still have their scars.

I used to think that by helping others,

my pain would go away.

But instead, I realized I needed to heal myself first,

before I could help others.

It took me telling my own story in detail,

to lose the shame and be free.

Sharing their burden helps them survive.

We must carry their pain with them and for them,

connected to our own.

We need to invite their stories,

listen deeply, and let them lead the conversation.

We need to help the organizations who help them.

With the right support, survivors can heal.

Probably, yeah.

Ready?

♪ Take all the time you need ♪

♪ I dare you to breathe ♪

♪ Claim all the space to be the one you're meant to be ♪

♪ I can see it clearer, lookin' in the mirror ♪

♪ Somethin' inside those eyes ♪

♪ Tell 'em you go deeper ♪

♪ Now's the time to be alive ♪

♪ Inside those diamond eyes ♪

♪ I found a perfect chime ♪

♪ Mm ♪

♪ Darling, it's okay to cry ♪

♪ Even if you don't know why ♪

♪ Take a breath and lead your life ♪

♪ But it's your time to shine ♪

♪ Shine like a diamond ♪

♪ Shine like a diamond ♪

♪ Follow the road that takes you to the quiet place ♪

♪ And let the moment find you ♪

♪ Inside those diamond eyes ♪

♪ I find the power to shine ♪

♪ Mm ♪

♪ Darling, it's okay to cry ♪

♪ Even if you don't know why ♪

♪ Take a breath and lead your life ♪

♪ And it's your time to shine ♪

♪ Shine like a diamond ♪

♪ Shine like a diamond ♪

♪ Somethin' inside those eyes ♪

♪ Tell 'em you go deeper ♪

♪ Now's the time to be alive ♪

♪ Shine like a diamond ♪

♪ Shine like a diamond ♪