FORT MYERS, Fla — Human Trafficking is a topic you've probably heard more about in the last few months than you've probably heard about in the last few years.
As interest in the issue and how to stop it surges, we wanted to speak to the people who have been impacted by it.
FOX 4 spoke with Myra Williams, a human trafficking survivor.
She shares a bit about what life is like after trafficking.
"Even though I'm 41, I'll be 42 in October, it feels like I'm 15," Williams said.
To understand why Myra feels like a kid again, you have to understand where her life was about a year ago.
"She befriended me," Williams said.
"She said she was my friend, and she ended up being my trafficker."
Her escape from that situation triggered a rebirth of sorts.
She's a survivor and now one year sober.
But the recovery process hasn't been easy.
"When you're starting over, it feels like every mistake is just a big setback, and it kind of sent me into a spiral," Williams says.
She says the latest test to her recovery came from things we often take for granted, like buying a gar and opening a bank account.
She was recently able to do the first but not the second.
She says its all because someone she once thought of as a friend.
"This person used the account to do fraudulent activity," Williams says.
And though she tried to explain her situation, it fell on deaf ears.
Williams says this is the reality for many survivors trying to rebuild their lives, and it can often trigger relapses.
"If I had been on my own, been alone with no one to support me to be by my side to walk me through the process and let me know that everything was going to be all right," Williams says.
"In addiction, I would have went back out. I would have used."
In this case, she had the support of an advocate, but she says Southwest Florida's trafficking survivors deserve more programming.
"You need help from the inside out as well as shelter," Williams says.
And as she continues to rebuild, she's also looking forward to the future.
She hopes to take the lessons learned from this second swing at teen-hood and create a camp for at-risk kids.
"To let them know that they are loved. They are cared about," Williams says.
"They are smart and intelligent no matter what is being said to them or told to them."
The National Human Trafficking Hotline says it identified almost 2,000 victims of sex and labor trafficking in our state in 2019.
And according to the Polaris Project, Florida is one of several states in the U.S with high levels of trafficking activity.
California, Michigan, and Ohio were also identified as hot spots.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING RESOURCES:
National Survivor Network
Porlaris Project
Human Trafficking Hotline - 1 (888) 373-7888 / TEXT: 233733
Shared Hope
