Caroline Pugh-Roberts credits The Salvation Army for saving her life. After eight years of being a victim of human trafficking, she now dedicates her time, day and night, freeing young women from a life where they have no control.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking occurs across Ontario along the Highway 401 corridor, from Windsor to Montreal. Women and girls as young as 12 are being exploited and trapped in situations from which it is difficult to escape.<\/p>\n
Caroline now works with The Salvation Army\u2019s Human Trafficking Unit out of London, Ontario, where she was trafficked by a friend of a friend who took advantage of her grief after her husband, mother and two best friends all died within a six-month period.<\/p>\n
Before long, that love, support, care and strength she felt from her boyfriend, the man that became her pimp, developed into being trafficked out of strip clubs, bars, seedy motels, and even her car.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me he would make everything better and that I needed that at that time. And this is what they do, they sell you the dream and tell you not to worry about anything,\u201d Caroline says.<\/p>\n
She would bring in up to $250,000 a year for the pimp, but she saw very little of that money. Instead, Pugh-Roberts developed a drug and alcohol addiction, was assaulted, beaten and had all her toes broken for trying to escape.<\/p>\n
\u201dI finally got it, that it wasn’t me, it was the money he loved. But the problem is trafficking isn’t in our vocabulary. A person that I love wouldn’t do that to me, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each time she found the courage to flee to a Salvation Army shelter, the pimp would find her, drag her back home and continue to control her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out about The Salvation Army, and I lived at the Centre of Hope three times. But he kept finding me, and the third time, the shelter staff formed a human circle around me,\u201d Caroline says.<\/p>\n
She has been free of that life for 12 years, and Caroline now educates others, speaks publicly about the dangers of human trafficking and works to find safe places for women to live.<\/p>\n
With The Salvation Army, Caroline runs the Cornerstone Dignity Program and is a peer support worker with Support to Report. The program works with victims of human trafficking looking for crisis counselling, guidance in accessing the justice system, and most importantly, the support of someone who has been through it and survived.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to know that there is treatment, that there is a bigger world, and it\u2019s nice. The world can be beautiful,\u201d Caroline says.<\/p>\n