A Survivor of Sex Trafficking

While doing some research, I came across the story of, Tina Frundt, an amazing women who is fighting to free the slaves! She recently won the Fredrick Douglas Freedom Award, an award given to an individual who has survived a form of slavery and is using his or her life in freedom to help others!!!

I thought Tina's story and the wonderful work she is doing should be told......

Tina was forced into prostitution by a young man in his 20's who she met when she was 13 years old at a neighborhood store. He befriended her, gained her trust all while planting seeds of manipulation. As time continued, they developed a romantic relationship and Tina thought she loved him. Around the time she turned 14, he convinced her to go with him to Cleveland, OH, to meet his family. She had no idea that his "family" meant herself and three other girls. From there on, he picked out her clothes, told her what to say, how to walk, what to wear, what to say to "Johns" and how much money she needed to bring back to him. When she did not bring the right amount back, she would then be beaten and burned with cigarettes in front of the other girls along with being locked in a closet during the nights as her punishment. For more than a year Tina was forced to serve up to 18 men a day.

She finally made it out of this earthly hell during a raid by the police when she was 15. Instead of being treated like a victim and receiving proper services, she was treated like a delinquent and sent to a detention center where she did not receive counseling or treatment for the trauma she had endured. She remained there for a year and came out with no referrals for any services.

Through all the abuse Tina had experienced, she made a decision to turn something awful into something beautiful, to take those life experiences and use it for a purpose, a purpose to help others to freedom. With her knowledge and her beautiful heart, she developed Courtney's House and Shea's Place.

Courtney's House is located in Washington D.C and reaches victims through street outreach. They meet the boys and girls where they are at...on the streets of D.C.. Tina and her outreach team causally walk the streets handing out small trinkets with a hotline number on it. It's a disguised encounter that her and her team work hard on so the traffickers do not recognize them. I only wish I lived in Washington D.C right now so I could be involved in this!!!! It's an aaaaamazing program and something I may consider starting in Nashville.

Shea's Place is the group home for Courtney's House and it is located in Northern Virginia. It is designed to be a long term home for girls between the ages of 12 and 18 with the maximum stay of three years and a two year aftercare program. Shea's Place has many services they provide for boys and girls involved in trafficking. These types of services are intake assessments; medical services; education, home, school, and life skills; group therapy' survivor-led support groups and intensive case management.

If you live in the D.C/Northern Virginia area and would like to learn more or maybe even get involved in this great organization, check out their website, http://www.courtneyshouse.org/default.html

Find out how YOU can help break the chains of human trafficking!

Love, Megs