Tina Frundt is a survivor of childhood sex trafficking, right here in the U.S. Now, through her organization Courtney’s House, she dedicates her life to helping others out of sex slavery. For her work in guiding people to freedom, Free the Slaves has awarded her the Frederick Douglass Freedom Award.
Here is her story of survival. Via Huffington Post:
Tina Frundt says that no little girl dreams of becoming a sex slave when she grows up. That’s why Tina risks her life in the middle of the night to reach out to teens that are trapped. She knows their pain and fear. “The reason why I’m so compelled to do this work is because I’m a survivor of sex trafficking,” Tina says, “and quite honestly, nobody did this for me.”
It takes Tina just ten seconds to let a sex slave know that someone cares about their plight and can help them escape. She does it on the streets of Washington, D.C. at night. Walking casually along, she hands off a simple trinket that contains a telephone hotline number. It’s a covert encounter, and Tina works hard to blend in so that traffickers won’t become suspicious.
“If we were handing out papers or a big sign that said trafficking hotline, they wouldn’t call it because they know we didn’t know how to come at them correctly,” Tina says.
Tina’s innovative approach works. Sex slaves do call her hotline. And once they’ve made that call, to a hotline staffed entirely by sex slavery survivors, they know there’s a path to freedom.
