The human trafficker sells your body, sells your soul
they keep you under their control.
to them, you are just a piece of meat
for humanity to sit and eat.
the younger the victim, the easier to control
by the time they’re teens- their spirit is cold.
no longer do they have the will to fight
it’s become their way of life.
they never had a childhood or a family to love
or to even know what love’s about
for their hearts and minds have been turned inside out.
fear is the only thing they know
and in their face, it will show.
many are bought and put on the streets
if they don’t meet their quota – they don’t eat.
then there are those who are sold privately
those are the ones that you never see.
most are girls – but there are boys, and they’re all used as sexual toys.
we have to let all countries know
human trafficking has got to go.
A poem titled, human Trafficking Part Two by Louis Rams (January 2013)
Yolanda Schlabach is an amazing woman, and recently I had the pleasure to make her acquaintance and interview her for DOZ Show and DOZ Magazine. She creates awareness on the reality of sex-trafficking in the State of Delaware. In this interview, she uncovers the process by which girls are lured and trapped, and eventually lose their independent identity. When we look at a prostitute, we see a criminal who should be locked behind bars. When Yolanda looks at a prostitute, she sees a victim of sex-trafficking or a victim of sexual abuse. She is a member of the Human Trafficking Coordinating Council for Delaware and a Co-Chair of the Victim Services Sub-committee. Yolanda has served as Executive Director of Zoë Ministries, Inc. since 2012.
She has a background as a Registered Nurse, having worked in Obstetrics and NICU. She has obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Management from Regent University in 2004 and graduated in 2014 from Liberty University with a Master’s in Human Services with a Cognate in Counseling. She attended the University of Maryland, earning a Certificate in Working with Survivors of Violence, Trauma, and Torture. For the past few years, she has spent her time engaged in public awareness and professional education for the community to bring the reality of human trafficking to the forefront in Delaware. Hopefully, this interview will inspire you to take steps to help young girls and women who are victims of sex trafficking not only in America but across the world. Like Yolanda says, silence is complacency, to do nothing is to be part of the problem.
How and why did you get into this line of work?
I learned about trafficking in the United States in 2011. When I learned about it, I found out at the same time, that there was really not much discussions about this topic in Delaware, I knew that we really did not have state housing or access to services for victims and we really were not even identifying victims. And then I found out that we did not have state legislation against trafficking and that we had been covered by federal legislation, but we had no arrests and no prosecutions under that federal statute. And so, I started praying about what God would have me do, and I felt called and He gave me promises along the way that He would help me navigate through this because I didn’t know anything about this issue when I started and so once I found out about it, I didn’t want to be silent and I didn’t want to sit back and do nothing. I knew I was called to move; I just wasn’t sure how.
What does trafficking mean? How does the average person on the street recognize trafficking?
The definition of trafficking is simply modern-day slavery. According to the US Department of Justice, it involves the use of force or coercion to obtain someone for the purpose of either labour or commercial sex if they are over the age of 18. If you are 17 years of age, or younger, and you are involved in a commercial sex act, you are automatically a trafficking victim, and you don’t have to prove force or coercion. But it is basically modern-day slavery, where somebody has control over you, over your money, over your freedom of movement, and you are sold into slavery on some level and there are twenty-five different types of slavery in the United States.
So, if a person is removed from their country on the guise of a better life, or employment and then at their destination, their freedom is taken away, and they are forced to work it can be classified as trafficking?
Absolutely, and there is always a promise of a better life, or education or some kind of job in America and so many people want to come to America, and when they land in America they are sold to a trafficker who then takes away their passport, their ID, their visas, paperwork, maybe even puts them into debt bondage by saying you cost me 10,000 dollars to bring you here, and now you have to pay me back, and this is how you’re going to do it. And there are multiple ways in which people can be forced into labour.
Tell us about the luring and grooming of children. Who are these people luring and grooming children? And for whom are they grooming the children?
Well, I will tell you that one of the most frustrating things about trafficking is that there is no profile for a trafficker. And there is also no profile for a victim, so you can have a trafficker who is a grandmother, who is trafficking her 12-year-old grandchild on the weekend for sex in exchange for drugs, or food, or shelter or money. So, trafficking is not to be confused with human smuggling which requires a violation against the border; human trafficking is exploitation against the person. So, you don’t have to move the person from place to place; you can traffic somebody right in your own house. So, there are family members who traffic; there are 19-year-olds who traffic their 13-year-old cousins, there are aunts and uncles and parents who are trafficking their children, which becomes especially problematic because it doesn’t take any luring and grooming because they already are the main caretaker of the child. And the only person who can report a child missing in the United States to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is the parent. So, if the parent is the one doing the trafficking, then these kids are falling through the cracks. But I will say as far as luring and grooming, often times, it is not like in the movies where they may kidnap someone and force them into sex, it is more of a luring, where they go on social media sites to find kids who are vulnerable or find kids who are lonely or find kids who may be looking for a free college education, or a vehicle or whatever it is that these kids need. What they do is they find that need and they meet that person at the point of their need to fill that void, and so they often will have young women who they lured into a relationship over the internet or over social media have her fall in love with them online and eventually meet them and then the first thing that they do is try to alienate them from their family and their friends and start to control them and control their movement, and offer to manage her money and that they’re going to make money together so that when she turns 18, they can run away and get married. And so that’s usually how the luring and grooming process starts, it is through them dating or through them falling in love.
Do you think that some young people are more susceptible to luring and grooming than others based on their background, religion, race, that sort of thing?
The one aspect of a child’s background that has been shown, 99.99 percent of the time to be a risk factor to be trafficked is any history of sexual abuse. So any child that has been sexually abused or physically abused is at very very high risk for being trafficked because what happens in their psyche, and their developing brain is trauma, and that affects the way their brain functions and grows and develops but psychologically what happens is that they learn that my caretaker, the one that loves me is going to use me and abuse me, so when they get tired of that, or they decide to run away from that, they’re not running to something, they’re running away from something and then they run right into the arms of these predators who then say, well I am not going to abuse you, we’re going to work together and make money and I actually see you as something valuable, so we’re going to attach money to your acts of sex and so now you’re worth something. And so in a child’s psyche that has been abused, they then see themselves as something valuable and then they gain their self-worth from that for a little while, until the trauma is so complex and so compound that they can hardly stand under it and they almost become what has happened to them if somebody does not intervene.
So then if a child has had a traumatic experience it is best to get them help at that point, or they will run into the arms of predators? Because from what you are saying, a child with a traumatic experience is more susceptible to luring and grooming.
Yeah. That is correct. Anytime that a child even has been sexually abused one time, that exponentially increases their chances of being trafficked. And once that trauma happens, a lot is required in aftercare, once we finally get these individuals out of their situation. And there was an FBI agent I spoke with that said, that in his experience, the average lifespan from the time someone is lured to the time that they die, is about seven years. And so, they die of homicide, suicide, drug overdose or HIV and AIDS. So many of the “adult prostitutes” that we know and judge on a regular basis often became adult prostitutes because they were trafficked minors, and they still are actually being trafficked, but because we don’t know the signs of trafficking, we don’t investigate it as such. We don’t report it as such, and we don’t perceive it as such.
Obviously, parents have a great role to play. What can parents do to protect their children from being trafficked?
First, they have to learn what it means when somebody is lured into trafficking so that they can look for the signs of that. So, they have to educate themselves first on trafficking and how somebody is lured, and there are many websites that I can give you to look at that later on their own. But they also have to be really aware of social media and what kids are doing on their phones with their apps because these traffickers have gotten very very clever, and there are 12 particular apps that you can find on my website that I will give you later but there’s an app that’s called a calculator app, and it looks like a regular calculator on your child’s phone, so if you are looking at your kid’s phone it just seems like you have regular calculator on there, some of them, you tap on that calculator app, and there is actually a four digit code that you put in, and the trafficker or the predator has the code as well. So the only two people that have the code are the victim and the perpetrator. And that child or that individual is able to send pictures in the nude of themselves to the trafficker in their phone without anybody knowing about it because it is hidden behind the calculator app. So, it’s really, really important that parents understand that social media can be very very dangerous and apps can be very dangerous, and phones are often how traffickers gain access into their homes without parents even knowing it. So really communicating with your kids about the danger of this is and yes, they may roll their eyes, they may say you’re being overprotective, you worry too much but if you keep planting the seeds of truth, and let them know two things; that if they ever get in trouble and find themselves in a situation that they’re not able to control, that became bigger than them, and they’re worried for their lives of for their safety, that they can always come home, that they always will have a safe place at home, they’re not going to be turned out on the streets because that’ll turn them right back to the trafficker again. So the home has to be a safe haven where they are always able to come back home no matter what and receive help and unconditional love, first thing. Second thing is they need to help their child memorise the hotlines so that even if the hotline number’s in their phone, but they don’t have access to their phone, they know a number that they can call to immediately get help and that is a 1800 number for the national the human trafficking hotline, and I’ll give that to you at the end of the interview.
What can young women do to protect themselves from becoming victims of trafficking? Are there any red flags that women can look out for when they are involved with a man who is luring and grooming them for trafficking?
Yes, and that is part of educating themselves, so they understand what Romeo pimping is and what the lure looks like. But when they draw them into relationships and then want to alienate from family and friends, that’s the first red flag, because somebody who is really interested in you for who you are would want to get to know your family. Not try to pull you away and hide from your family. So, often times especially if they’re minors or 18/19-year-olds, if the man is 30, 35 0r 40 or older, he’ll say your family’s not going to be happy that I am this much older and that we’re dating so we’re just going to keep this a secret and not tell anybody for a year or two and then we’ll run off and get married. So anytime they start alienating or suggesting that they start making money together, or that he’s going to set her up on a date and she needs to help start pulling her weight and making some money, and he is going to manage the money. So anytime he tries to take control, and this is psychologically and with labour trafficking often you know it is an issue of controlling their documents because they use the threat of deportation or arrest over the victim’s head to keep them in control, and what everybody needs to understand is that through the federal law, The TVPA of 2000, The Trafficking Victim’s Protection Act, that piece of legislation protects even non-citizens in the United States from being trafficked, and there are certain visas that people can get when they’ve been trafficked but of course, that includes cooperation with law enforcement but they can receive visas to make sure that they are not deported and that they are protected, as victims in the united states.
So basically, only ignorance would keep a young woman trapped in a relationship like this?
Well it really depends on her psyche, it depends on her history, it depends on her family support, it depends on a lot of things. Because there are women and girls, and there are boys and men too who are trafficked, but the stigma with males is so much worse than it is with women that they often don’t come forward and they don’t report. And so while I am saying she and her a lot, it is important to understand that there are males in sex trafficking and in labour trafficking as well, including boys and so there’s a market, unfortunately there’s a market for everything and so I think that with the rise of how traffickers, I mean they’re sort of on the alert now that people are becoming more aware of this, we’re talking more about this, so the thing that they do, is that they take one of the girls out of the stable. The stable is a group of girls that they control. And there is one girl generally in that stable who generally rises to the top as the leader or the most loyal, or she’s stayed the longest, and they call her, the bottom. And he often will send the bottom out to do recruiting because the girls don’t trust guys luring them in, they might trust someone who looks like an all-American girl, who’s a couple of years older, who has really nice clothes and great hair and great nails and a good phone and a really nice car, who says, hey I want to be your friend. And she lures the girl in. So there’s a lot of different things that individuals have to be aware of in the luring process because their tactics change because they’re very clever. They’re very evil, and they’re very clever.
Wow! This is all very interesting. So, what impact has Zoe Ministries Delaware had on victims and how have you been able to prevent others becoming victims?
I’m going to answer that probably in a twofold answer. The first way indirectly that we’ve helped victims is that we’ve brought education and awareness and training to the medical community who’s the first responder. We’re partnering now with the state police and homeland security as partners to bring training and education to them to work in partnership as a network. We have trained the kids department, we’ve trained social workers, we’ve been in the community bringing a lot of community awareness to churches and local organizations, we’re working to partner with the Rotary and the Salvation Army more directly to bring long term housing and support services to victims of trafficking in Delaware and my hope is that we’ll eventually be able to bring services and long term housing to survivors on the I9-5 corridor that’ll go beyond Delaware because the I9-5 corridor is well known as one of the main highways that traffickers use in the United States to traffic the victims.
What is your most rewarding project to date?
I will say the most rewarding aspect for me has been working one on one with survivors and hearing their hearts and hearing their stories. And that’s why I do what I do, to be a voice for the voiceless. But as far as the most rewarding project, probably I will say, last year November of 2016, I held a statewide, professional trafficking conference and we had 650 attendees, and about 150 on the waiting list and about 50 showing up just hoping that they could get in. And so that’s 800 people that took off work and showed up that day in an effort to learn more about this and just five years before that, I was hard-pressed to find two or three people that even agreed with me that this was even an issue in our state, including law enforcement. I had law enforcement tell me; we don’t have this problem here in Delaware, perhaps it’s in New York or Miami or California, but it doesn’t happen in our three lower counties in Delaware. And so I spent four years, full time bringing awareness and education and training to many different sectors all across the state and once they realized that this was happening, I said, now the next step is further in-depth training all-day conference, and by the way I am holding one in November in Dover in Delaware, and so we filled out 650 seats in less than a week, and had many people on the waiting list. And so I would say that that was really rewarding for me, to see that we went from zero to a hundred, in about a three or four-year time period, with many people wanting to know more. So I would say that when we look at the numbers of people I have spoken to or did awareness or did training, I think this year we hit 10,000 people. So if all those people educate two other people, that’s thirty thousand people that are now spreading the word, and I couldn’t connect with five before. So awareness has to come first before you can be trained. Because you can’t be trained in something that you are not aware of.
So, how can people support the work that you do?
The best way to support us, if you’re a person of faith, is to pray. Because I am a firm believer that prayer is what has and will continue to push this work ahead because I can’t change the state, but I have watched God change the state. And He promised me that He would, and He is doing exactly what He said He would do. So that’s something that everybody can do that doesn’t cost anything. The other thing that people can do is watch my TED talk; I actually have a second TED talk coming out, it should be out in the middle of December, this year, of 2017. So they can watch my TED talk and push that out on their social media. They can just search for my name on YouTube and put the year in, and both TED talks should pop right up. So people can watch that and push it out on their social media, that will be very helpful, and it’s a great 14 minutes talk on what sex trafficking looks like in the United States. Also on our website, if you go to the donate button, there is a PayPal where people can donate if they want to donate, that would be fantastic, and not just supporting the work that I do but finding a local organization that fights trafficking and seeing what you can do to plug in there. Because it really is about victims, it is not about Delaware, and it is not even about the United States, it is about trafficking globally which has become the second largest criminal enterprise that we have. And it’s surpassed weapons because weapons you can buy and sell one time, but a human body can be sold, over and over and over again. And so it’s become a 32 billion dollar a year industry.
What training or qualifications are required to do your job?
Well, I have sort of created my own (She laughs). When I started there wasn’t anybody doing what I do, and so I didn’t know of about qualifications, but I can tell you my background is that I am a registered nurse and I have my bachelors in Organizational Leadership and Management. I have my masters degree in Human Services and Counseling, and then I got a one year’s certificate in working with survivors of violence, trauma, and torture. And my goal is that within the next one year, if God directs that way, that I will return for my doctorate in Counseling and become certified as a traumatologist. However, everybody, no matter what they do, has got a role to play. If you’re a foster parent or willing to become a foster parent, we need to folks that are willing to get specialized training that can take these kids into their home and are well equipped, because if you’re not well equipped as a foster home to be able to take these kids, you will re-traumatize the kids, and you will traumatize the family. Because what happens is that this child crosses over the threshold into safety, and the mindset is because they’ve been trained to survive, and they become more of a perpetrator where they start recruiting the kids in the home because the trafficker said, if you bring me a kid, I’ll give you three thousand dollars. And so there are things like that that we have to be aware of. So if you are not able to take a child into your home, you can at least support a family that is doing that, or you can give money to the cause, or you can organize a walk but I will say that if you can go to my website and look under the resources and the volunteer information that we have, I list some really great resources and documentaries that you can watch and familiarize yourself with this, and there are so many things online that if you punch in human trafficking, a million different things will come up and there’s no reason for anybody to have their head in the sand about this anymore because this is sort of the new topic that’s sprung up. It’s sprung up in Hollywood there’s a lot of movie stars talking about it, and so there is no reason why anybody should have their head in the sand anymore and so when you know about this problem, and you choose to do nothing, then silence is complacency and you become part of the problem rather than solution. And so, everybody has a little part to play. And so, it really is just a matter of saying, where’s my tiny piece of the puzzle and what can I do to help?
Great. So how can people contact you?
The best way to contact me is to go to my website www.zoe-delaware.org, and there is a contact button on there that you can send an email and request that I email you back. You can also book a speaker through the website. We require at least a hundred people, minimum in attendance and at this point, I have a very small team of people who are trained to go out and do presentations, and we enjoy going into high schools because we love doing preventions. I would much rather spend my time doing preventions than aftercare, but at this point, we have to do both. We’re always looking for people to learn about this and be able to go out and educate in their own service system. So, if you’re a nurse, learn about this, get training, specific training, and take it back to your hospital or to your service arena. If you’re a social worker, if you’re an educator, it doesn’t matter what you do, you can learn what it looks like in your service area and then bring training back.
Yolanda, thank you so very much for talking with us today, do you have any final words before I let you go?
I want everybody to make sure that they know what that 1800 number is. And if they ever suspect trafficking they really need to call local law enforcement and call the 1800 number which is very easy to memorize. That’s 888-3737-888. And that number is in a hundred and seventy-two different languages. It’s open 24/7 you can be anonymous when you call. All you have to do is just suspect. You don’t have to know for sure because you can’t know until it’s investigated. But if you know the signs, and again it comes back to educating yourself. You don’t know when to call if you don’t know what the red flag and indicators are and in order to learn that, you have to educate yourself. And so, on my website there are a small list of really great books and documentaries that you can watch, and there are multiple TED talks on trafficking, mine is not the only one there, so I suggest that you watch all of them if you want to learn, there’s a lot of really great speakers on TED, labour trafficking, sex trafficking and domestic trafficking.
Thank you for coming on DOZ Show, and we wish you the best in your future endeavors as you continue to create awareness about trafficking.
Thank you, and I know this is a difficult subject for people to listen to, and it’s really just easy to stick your head in the sand about it and think if it doesn’t affect me and my house, it really doesn’t affect us, but in reality, it really does. We can’t have an evil like this and be pervasive in our country without thinking that it’s not hurting us so I just really encourage everybody to just do their little part. Thank you for having me; I really appreciate you and your show and all that you are doing to bring awareness to many different issues.
