Human Trafficking Victims Share Story

By Kirsten McIntyre, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- About 200 people gathered in Norman Wednesday for a conference to learn more about human trafficking, and victims used the event to share their own personal experience as a victim of human trafficking.

Representatives from churches, law enforcement, social service agencies as well as the general public were in attendance. Organizers said the purpose of the conference was to raise awareness about the problem.

They said it's not just something happening in foreign countries, but it's also here in the United States, including Oklahoma.

Theresa Flores shared her story at the conference. She said when she was 15-year-old, she was date raped by a young man in her school. Flores said days later the young boy produced an envelope with pictures of the encounter inside. She said the boy told her she would have to "earn them back" or otherwise, he would show them to her parents and even her father's boss.

Flores said she was from a Catholic home and felt she was to blame for no longer being a virgin. For the next two years, she was forced to have sex with hundreds of men. It ended when she moved away.

Flores has now written a book and travels the country sharing her story. She's also in the process of opening a safe place for young women who have been victimized to live and heal.

"So it's really a movement about re-educating people that prostitution of a child is human trafficking and it's slavery," Flores said.

Kristy Childs is also a survivor of human trafficking. At age 12, she ran away from home and spent the next 24 years as a prostitute.

"I think they think it happens with foreign nationals. They also think there has to be movement. There does not have to be movement," Childs said. "When I escaped, I knew I was a victim and I knew it wasn't my fault. And I wanted to bring out the truth of my experience and educate the public on what I had experienced."

Mark Elam is the director for Oklahomans Against Trafficking of Humans. He said Oklahoma's highways make the state a prime location for trafficking.

"They come into Oklahoma through I-35 or 1-40 going east to west, and we are what's considered a pipe line state. We've always had lots of trouble with drug trafficking, and now we're realizing with human trafficking as well," Elam said.

Officials said America is now the number one destination for child sex trafficking in the world.

Learn more about the movement to stop human trafficking in Oklahoma