SAN ANTONIO, Tx — A non-profit organization committed to preventing sex trafficking is sharing their latest tactic to stop it.
Ransomed Life partnered with Clear Channel to post 5 billboards around town meant to grab everyone’s attention with the goal of protecting children from sex trafficking.
“We really want to make people aware of this crime and be able to spot it,” Brooke Bobo said. “The more reports that are made, the more prosecutions that will take place.”
Bobo, the director of community engagement says the sex trafficking can happen anywhere, including San Antonio.
We spoke with a sex trafficking survivor who says she survived it twice. The first time was after she ran away from home when she was 11 years old. Karla Solomon says she then met a woman who groomed her for a year.
“She sold my virginity at a party,” Solomon said. “She had given me some drugs, and I remember waking up with a strange man. When I came out, she was celebrating like it something that was out of the way. She even told me, now that’s out the way we can make some real money. I didn’t understand what she meant at that point. After that she started selling me to drug dealers.”
The second time she was sex trafficked she was 29 years old and addicted to opioids she was prescribed after surgery.
“I thought he was my boyfriend,” Solomon said. “He told me he need me to do it just that one time. Well, that one time turned into me having a daily quota of $1500. He trafficked me all the way from Texas to Denver, Colorado.
With kids going back to school Ransomed Life wants to make sure everyone is aware of the signs a child is being groomed.
Signs a child is being groomed include:
- Sudden changes in behavior.
- Being secretive about how they’re spending their time.
- Having unexplained gifts.
- Misusing drugs or alcohol.
- Developing sexual health problems.
- Using sexual language you wouldnt expect them to know.
- seeming upset or withdrawn