January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. This year, we wanted to use this opportunity to amplify the words of the survivors we serve—to invite them to do the educating. We offered the prompt “What I need you to know is…” and invited survivors we’re walking alongside to respond with letters to the general public.
Throughout January, we’ll be publishing these letters in a blog series called “Letters from Survivors”—they are directly from survivors in the REST community—to you.
This first one is from a survivor who was a guest at our Emergency Receiving Shelter.
Here is what she needs you to know:
Your car flies by in the night. I see your headlights as they illuminate the cracked pavement before me. You see my distant, jaded eyes as my weathered and well-worn stilettos clack against the darkened sidewalk that always leads to the same place.
From your social class and security, you look down on us for our lifestyle, our track marks, and the stereotypes we endure.
You don’t gaze at me in your rearview mirror, don’t see me climb into the Mercedes behind you. Your warm home and family awaits.
Out here, the street is my home—an urban jungle of tricks, gang bangers, street pimps, and hustlers. Our eyeliner runs with the tracks of our tears. We want you to know us as humans, and that we are people who matter.
Michael Connelly once wrote that everybody counts. Damn right we do. People can judge us, frown on us, look down on us, care less about us. F*** what people think.
Empathy comes from experience. We aren’t throwaways. No one deserves to be seen as such. There are things we’ve been through that you can’t imagine—but when you’ve been through hell and come back from it they call that spirituality. Maybe you can relate to that, too.
The world needs more love. So please think twice ‘cause life ain’t always nice. We’re here for a moment and gone the next. Life is precious, so never give up on your dreams and hold tight when the going gets rough. Family are the people who inspire us to go on and raise our spirits when we are down.
We did a little spelling/grammar editing to ensure the clarity of the message. We did not edit phrasing or content in order to keep the survivor’s real, raw words.