Like a Diamond: Shining a Light of Hope Beyond Sex Trafficking with Arzo Yusuf
In This Episode…
How Arzo got involved with the anti-sex trafficking crusade
How sex trafficking affects us
Ways to protect your kids (prevention)
How to help survivors of sex trafficking
Signs to watch out for
Key Points
60 to 85% of sex trafficking victims in the United States. Are you from the foster care system.
Sex trafficking is a subcategory of human trafficking. And just because somebody is a prostitute doesn't necessarily mean that they are a sex trafficking victim. Some people are prostitutes on their own accord. they don't work with a pimp orange trafficker they work independently, and that is different than what someone that is called a sex trafficking victim or someone that's been involved in sex trafficking. And victims are usually under age 18.
International airports definitely high risk areas, and anywhere close to state lines because traffickers like to keep their victims moving around, so they capture them and get them lost through the system and then they become harder to find.
What You Can Do
The best chance that we have against sex trafficking is through prevention, giving them that sense of self esteem, teaching them so that they have a powerful line of defense, to be able to protect them, which is self esteem, self love and self respect.
There are signs to look for that could be suspect of a sex trafficking victim:
Check to see if you notice any sign of physical abuse.
If you're in school and you notice there's a young girl that has unexplained absences from class, maybe she's inappropriately dressed or exposing too much skin, really tired in class all the time, or displaying a lot of sexualized behavior, those are signs.
Maybe all of the sudden there's a change in behavior and she starts to become withdrawn, depressed, distracted or checked out. Those are signs.
The person that all of a sudden starts coming into lots of money and they all of a sudden, start having expensive luxury purses and luxury shoes, which they didn't have before.
Traffickers tend to brand their victims with tattoos, so the student may have a new tattoo.
This young person is seen with an older boyfriend or a new group of friends that looks like something is out of place.
It could be a mix of a few of these different signs. But if you notice it and feel it in your gut, reach out reach out to somebody that you trusted authority person like the police or a school counselor and bring it to someone's attention that this person might need help.
Connect
Arzo Yusuf is the former President of the Board of Directors of a non-profit organization called Angels Nest where they provide homes, food and resources to youths that have aged out of foster care or are homeless. This work inspired her to produce and direct a documentary about the problems youths face in the foster care system called Breaking The Cycle.
She is also the CEO & founder of a company that launched a new indie beauty brand called Sexy Boss Babe. The brand promotes women empowerment, positive body image and inner confidence. The company is also a social enterprise and a portion of proceeds of each product is donated to charities that help foster youth and victims of sex trafficking.
Resources
Like a Diamond (100% proceeds are donated to Journey Out)
Journey Out charity organization rescuing girls from sex trafficking
Marlene Carson, survivor of sex trafficking and survivor advocate and educator (previous episode from Season 1)
Tomeka Winborne, filmmaker of Aged Out about foster care (previous episode from Season 4)