Human Trafficking Presentation at SRCS

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery where people profit from the control and exploitation of others. Slavery is thought to be a thing of the past, but human trafficking is thriving in the United States and globally when traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control other people for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex or forcing them to provide labor against their will. Many people think it only happens in poor countries but it happens in every corner of the world including the United States.

A $32 billion a year industry, human trafficking is the world's fastest growing criminal enterprise, according to the U.S. State Department. It is the third most profitable enterprise for organized crime in the country. An estimated 27 million people are victims of the crime with an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 are child prostitutes. At one point or another, vulnerable victims are often exploited by someone they trust and are then stripped of their dignity and subjected to horrors.

Tina Frundt, founder and Executive Director of Courtney's House and a sexual trafficking survivor, talked honestly and openly to students at Salmon River high school, on May 5, 2015, about her story and her life's mission to help other victims and survivors. "I don't like the words 'human trafficking' because that's not really what it is", commented Ms. Frundt. "Let's call it what it really is and it's prostitution and a human trafficker is a pimp".

Ms. Frundt's story starts when she was abandoned at a hospital when she was two years old and shuffled in and out of foster homes. "Ninety percent of children were sexually abused prior to being in a trafficking situation", explained Ms. Frundt. "They already don't feel good about themselves and take ownership and blame themselves for what happens to them. I lived in abandoned buildings before age nine and in a family controlled situation where I was sexually abused. My foster family was heroin addicted and addicts can't take care of anyone. I stole food to feed everyone and didn't tell anyone because what if someplace else is worse than where I was at? I didn't want people to judge. There were a few times that I tried to tell someone in a roundabout way but people would think I was lying".

At twelve years of age, Ms. Frundt was adopted into a nice family and things seemed like it was going to be okay. One day while walking to the corner store she met a man about fifteen years older than her. They struck up a friendship. "He was nice to me. He didn't try to have sex with me and he told me that I should finish school and go to college" stated Ms. Frundt. "I was running late one day and he gave me a ride to school. He told me that I was more mature than girls his age. He also told me that he had been in foster care growing up and that he had been adopted but the family sent him back. He was trying to compare his life with mine so I would trust him more."

The man bought Ms. Frundt expensive items like cell phones and Air Jordans. "It's not that my family couldn't afford these items but they wanted me to do something silly like work for them quipped Ms. Frundt. The Man told her that she could keep the items he bought her in his car. "I wanted something good to come out of it. I was trusting words not actions when I should have been trusting actions not words."

On Ms. Frundt's fourteenth birthday she got into an argument with her parents over what time she was to come home that night. They wanted her in by 9:30 but she felt she should be able to stay out later. She called the man to come and get her. She lived in Chicago and he was in Cleveland but he did come to get her and this began her nightmare for a year. "At first I didn't think I was running away and I fully expected to come back. The guy told me that I could call my parents when we got to Ohio but that was a lie," said Ms. Frundt.

Ms. Frundt was taken to a large house where there were four other girls living as well. She was told that she could go into a room and call her parents. "I didn't notice the dead bolts on the outside of the door and as soon as I went in I heard the door being locked on the outside. Two men came in and that's when the "seasoning 'happened and I was in trouble.

For about a year Ms. Frundt was prostituted and made to meet a $500 a night quota. She would get beatings with a lead pipe until one night she was able to get away but not until after the pimp broke her arm. The ironic part of it all was that Ms. Frundt's freedom was short lived because she was sent to juvenile detention for a year but nothing happened to the pimp. When she was released she was not given any referrals for counseling or support.

To help other victims and survivors, Ms. Frundt founded Courtney's House in 2008, in Washington D.C. as a safe haven for boys and girls who have been rescued from child prostitution. "Some people think that this doesn't happen or that it happens in poor countries to poor people. I have to make people believe that what I went through is real and that it happens in the United States. It happens at malls, large sporting events, neighborhoods, just about anywhere." warned Ms. Frundt.

Courtney's House is a supportive, non-judgmental drop in center that provides direct services such as counseling, clothing, food and mentoring. 150 volunteers and 65 staff run the center. "I wanted to provide support and services to help victims with the trauma. Services that I did not receive." said Ms. Frundt.

Ms. Frundt was asked to speak to the students by the St. Regis Mohawk Social Services Department. "We were told about midway last year that funds were made available to us, by the Safe Harbor Project for New York State" explained Clarissa Terrance-Chatland, Deputy Commissioner for Social Services Division. "The funds are available for three years to bring awareness and education on human trafficking to Akwesasne because we have the main ingredients for it, which are the border and the casino."

Ms. Terrance-Chatland went on to say that they are in the second year of funding and have formed a partnership with Courtney's House to continue the awareness and education. Ms. Frundt was also spoke at the SRMT Social Services building on May 7th for the community. "We have been busy setting up ongoing awareness." said Ms. Terrance-Chatland. "Last year we offered the Child Safe Summit in October. We also put up a bulletin board about trafficking that says "from instant message to instant nightmare" and we are in the process of putting up a new picture on the billboard. We are also going around to other schools, we have met with the tribal police to have a table top meeting to answer any questions and have met with the North Country Human Task Force in Plattsburgh. January was Human Trafficking Awareness Month and we showed the movie "Kidnapped Cousins". This is an ongoing, all year process of educating and providing awareness to the North Country about human trafficking."

For more information on Courtney's House go to http://www.courtneyshouse.org or contact the SRMT Social Services at 518-358-9184 for information on human trafficking.