Tulsa 'Walk For Freedom' Brings Awareness To Human Trafficking

Dozens of people are getting ready to go for a single file, silent walk this weekend. The walk's goal is to bring awareness to the reality of human trafficking happening in our own neighborhoods.

"It's happening at this very moment to somebody and that's the sad reality," said Bambi Ortiz, Survivor.

The goal of this weekend's Annual A-21 Tulsa Walk for Freedom is to protect people who could be trafficked, identify victims, and help survivors.

This will be Bambi Ortiz's third time to do this walk; she's taking her pain and turning it into something productive.

Bambi was trafficked for 27 years and said a lot of people are too afraid to look at the problem until it's too late.

"When I was out there on the street, I felt degraded and looked down on and people seen me, but they didn't see me," said Bambi. "You know that they may be in trouble, but you look the other way so that's the problem. We need to face the problem and talk about it."

Bambi said she will never be the same.

"I lost that little girl. and I can never get her back," said Bambi. " [I]t's like I lost my whole childhood you know. I still grieve for that person."

Bambi ran away from the foster care system and said she met her first trafficker when she was 13; that led to years of self-harm and addiction.

"I had to numb my pain and to even be able to do what I did I had to be high, which caused me to go to prison four times," said Bambi. "I wish somebody like The Demand Project or A21 was there then that would've seen me and saved me. I didn't have that chance."

In 2016, a judge sentenced her to the Women in Recovery Program.

"At first, I was angry because of what I went through because it shouldn't have happened, you know what I mean? Growing up in poverty. Having stepdads try to rape me. You know what I mean? Going through the things that I went through. Feeling like my mother always cared about a man over her kids," said Bambi.

She spent 22 months in intense therapy and remembers being asked how many times she was raped.

"I was like counting. Maybe eight that I knew of, and she was like, sweetheart, you were raped every time," said Bambi.

Bambi is now 45, is six years clean and sober, and has her son back.

"I didn't think I'd ever say that today. I think I love everything about myself," said Bambi. "My therapist I am actually colleagues with. It's pretty cool."

She started a nonprofit, wrote a book, and works in mental health. Bambi is working with an attorney to get her record expunged and is raising awareness by doing things like the A-21 walk.

"If I can keep one child from going through what I went through then everything I went through wasn't for nothing," said Bambi.

Bambi said she is not a victim anymore. She's a survivor.

The A-21 Freedom Walk will be on Saturday morning, Oct. 15, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at The Assembly in Broken Arrow's Rose District; this walk is happening all around the world at the same time. 

Click here to learn more about A-21.