How an Ontario survivor is looking to help others escape sex trafficking
Global News
A sex trafficking survivor is hoping her new business can help other victims of sex trafficking feel loved and supported.
A sex trafficking survivor is hoping her new business can help other victims of sex trafficking feel loved and supported.
You’re Loved is a new business started in Orillia, Ont., by Sarah Dillon, 23, who is a survivor of sex trafficking.
“I’m a survivor of sex trafficking, and I’m out, which is great, but it breaks my heart that other people are still going through that.”
Dillon says she was inspired by a note she received in a backpack from police when she was still in the sex trade.
“There was a note, just a little piece of paper, and it was another survivor who just had an encouraging message for me. That piece of paper, I still have it because it was so important, and I just bawled my eyes out because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, someone else got through this; it is possible.’ It just really gave me that hope,” Dillon remembers.
From that came the idea of Freedom Boxes, each with locally made self-care items and a handwritten note from Dillon.
“I handwrite a card in each of the boxes, just encouraging and uplifting the survivors that will be receiving them because everything that the trafficker has taken away from them and used to keep them trapped, I’m trying to give them that back so they can get the courage to leave and realize they are worthy, they are valuable,” she says.
When she was being trafficked at 18, Dillon remembers feeling emotionally abused and manipulated to stay in the sex trade.
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