Trafficked: A Survivor’s Will To Give Back
Sophie Hayes was living a relatively normal life in the UK, maintaining a steady job and fostering close relationships with friends and family. One friend, to whom Hayes refers to as “Kas,” invited her to visit Italy as part of a friendly excursion. For Hayes and so many like her, what seemed to be the trip of a lifetime transformed into an abduction into the realm of sex trafficking.
Upon arriving in Italy, Hayes met with Kas who swiftly exposed his true intentions. For days, Hayes suffered physical, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of her abductor, who then eventually sold her into the sex market. For six months, Hayes was forced into prostitution on the streets of Italy, returning all profits to her abuser.
“I was a product and a vehicle to make money,” said Hayes. “But I am a survivor.”
Hayes made her escape when she received the opportunity to call her mother using a telephone at a local hospital. Although Hayes refers to her recovery as a long process, it was during this time that she developed the inspiration to create her own foundation: The Sophie Hayes Foundation. With this organization, Hayes aspires to help others who have been abducted and forced into sex slavery.
“Since my ordeal, I have been determined to turn the experience into a positive one,” said Hayes. “Everyone deserves freedom and their basic human rights. I am determined to do everything in my power to make a difference and to share a story of Hope to others.”
The mission of The Sophie Hayes Foundation is to facilitate greater awareness with regards to human trafficking and to provide support to victims. As per its doctrine on its website, The Sophie Hayes Foundation, “Will support survivors of human trafficking by assisting them with gaining service provision, encouraging and inspiring them and ultimately assisting in their full recovery.”
Apart from helping victims, the foundation also seeks to help the families of victims. In Hayes’ experience, she recounts her mother’s distress and difficulty with finding the appropriate response and approach to Hayes’ circumstance. The foundation recognizes the trauma that family members of victims also experience and works to tend to their needs, their questions and their concerns as well.
“I know when people hear a story like Sophie’s, some of them ask, ‘Why did she stay? If that happened to me, I’d just go to the police,’” said Bex, charity worker for Stop The Traffic foundation. “But the men who groom girls for trafficking are clever. They are good at identifying a particular girl’s issues so that they can use it to manipulate and control her.”
Hayes hopes that her foundation will empower survivors of trafficking and will educate as many as possible to one of the world’s fastest growing crimes.
For more information regarding Hayes’ story, The Sohpie Hayes Foundation or how to become involved with combating sex trafficking, visit sophiehayesfoundation.org.
