“A woman contacted me telling me that I was going to be paid in dollars. She got my passport, and she paid for my flights. When I arrived in the Dominican Republic, there were many other girls. I had traveled with a friend of mine, but she disappeared and changed her number. There were eight girls in an apartment and three other girls in another place. It was very hard.”
ValentinaSurvivor – Sex Trafficking
At only 18 years old, Valentina was being trafficked for sex hundreds of miles away from her home in Latin America.
As is true for most people who experience sex trafficking, Valentina’s heartache did not begin with the fateful day when she boarded the plane. She had been vulnerable her whole life.
A childhood in poverty
Born to a young mother and an absent father, Valentina was left with her grandparents when she was very small. When she remembers her childhood, she remembers that it was always the three of them: her grandmother, her grandfather, and Valentina. They didn’t have much money, but her grandfather drove a bus and a taxi to keep them afloat.
Everything changed when he was diagnosed with cancer.
“Once he passed away, it was very difficult for us,” Valentina recalls. “I contacted my mother, who lived with her partner. They have two other kids, so financially, they couldn’t help. I had to drop out of school.”
Valentina was just 17 years old when her grandfather’s death forced her to start working. She picked up jobs wherever she could: waitressing, selling shoes, working as a teacher’s aide, and manning the meat counter at a supermarket. It was never enough.
“There were days when we didn’t have power at home because we didn’t have the money to pay. There were days when we didn’t have any food to eat, not even chicken broth or arepas (corn cakes). And then there were loan sharks that charged high interest,” Valentina said.
The financial burden became unbearable. So, too, did the immense loneliness that followed in the wake of her grandfather’s death. Valentina desperately wanted to take care of her grandmother, who she felt was the last remaining support she had left.
Looking back on those days, the teenager reflects, “I had to get money to bring home. That’s why I made the decision.”
The job offer came from a woman Valentina didn’t know, but it seemed legitimate: she’d be working at a bar and would be able to send money home to provide for her grandmother. It would be similar to waitressing work she’d already done in the past.
It seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.
The Dominican Republic is a small country in the Caribbean.
Trafficked to the Dominican Republic
Valentina, then 18 years old, boarded an international flight with her friend — paid for by her new employer. As soon as they arrived, the situation took a turn for the worse. The recruiter confiscated her passport. Valentina was informed that she would not be waitressing or bartending; she would be forced to offer sex to paying customers in a brothel — physically and emotionally abused if she resisted. The woman also informed Valentina that she’d have to pay back the cost of her travel and living expenses, a debt that increased with every day.
Those dark days stretched into three months.
“It was very hard,” Valentina says softly. “It was very hard on my grandmother, too. She cried every single day, but I couldn’t come back because I didn’t have the money. I had to just bow my head and continue.”
Valentina had a friend who was also missing after being trafficked to the Dominican Republic. That 23-year-old young woman managed to contact her mother back home in Latin America. The mother contacted the police, who reached out to The Exodus Road: we’ve heard about this transnational trafficking operation, and we think there are multiple girls trapped. Can you help?
The Exodus Road’s team, led by Latin American country director Arturo (a pseudonym for security reasons), went to work.
Communicating clandestinely whenever they could, Arturo helped Valentina and her friend craft an escape plan. Valentina was afraid at first, not sure who she could trust after experiencing such deep betrayal. Arturo called on the help of psychologists who worked on The Exodus Road’s team, asking them to provide trauma-informed emotional support, reassuring Valentina: “We’re on your side. We won’t leave you.”
“From the time that we got Arturo’s first call, he’s never left us behind,” Valentina says. “He sent me the tickets and the money to pay migration fees. He helped me to do everything.”
An urban area in Latin America similar to where Valentina lives.
Coming home
Working closely with the relevant embassies, Arturo coordinated Valentina and the other survivor’s return home. The team psychologists met them at the airport with chocolate and gifts. For Valentina, it was finally a taste of normalcy.
“They took me to eat because I was hungry. Then we went to a hotel, and I rested until the next day. We had lunch, and everything finally felt normal. And then they brought me home on a plane,” she remembers, her eyes lighting up as she thinks back to those moments, preparing to be reunited with her grandmother. “My family was in shock! They thought it was too good to be true, especially my grandma. That night, we went to bed hugging each other.”
Unfortunately, the experience of exploitation doesn’t end once a survivor is removed from actively being trafficked. They are left with agonizing trauma — and often, they are left in the exact same vulnerable state that led to their trafficking to begin with. That was true for Valentina.
She says, “When I arrived home, my grandma didn’t have a bed because her bed had broken. There was lots of rain in the following days. It rained more inside the house than outdoors, it felt like. There were times when we didn’t have enough food to eat, and then the anxiety started again because of being in need. My sister’s 15th birthday came without money to celebrate.”
Things quickly become even more complicated.
“When I got here, I also learned I was pregnant. It was very hard for me when I found out,” Valentina, who is still just 19 years old, admits. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with a little kid — to be in charge of another life at a time when I didn’t have my own life in order. Everything was piling up.”
The Exodus Road’s Latin American team stayed in contact with Valentina, their hearts aching when they heard her share about the challenges that she was facing. They knew that she deserved comfort and safety.
So, one weekend, Arturo gathered his team, and they traveled to Valentina’s home to repair her roof.
“Now there are no leaks in my house. They got us a bed with new mattresses and new linens. Before my baby was born, they put a fan in my room so it wasn’t as hot. Now I sleep like a queen!” Valentina says in amazement.
After everything she’d been through, Valentina was still nervous about being a mom. But the nurturing support from her new community through The Exodus Road gave her courage.
“Arturo has assured me that I’m going to be a good mother,” Valentina shares, emotion clear on her face. “I have made up my mind: I have to be a good mother to my son because it is like breaking chains.”
As part of that process of breaking chains, Valentina forgave her own absent parents, reconnecting and reconciling with her mother.
While the pregnancy progressed, Valentina shyly expressed to The Exodus Road’s team that she still dreamed of finishing high school. She frankly admits, “I thought that dream was very far away.”
But The Exodus Road helped her enroll back in school, encouraging her to pursue that dream. She began to look forward to graduation as a reality suddenly within reach.
“I want to continue studying, to go to college, and then to work,” the ambitious student shares. “I want to work in a school to help many other girls who have problems like mine, to let them know that there are some other solutions, there are some other options. I want to help. They don’t have to be negative. They don’t have to close their lives. I say that everything can be solved. Anything that you’re willing to do, you can do it.”
She continues, “I don’t want to be selfish. I want to be able to say, ‘I was in bad shape. I was in a very difficult time in my life, and I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to come out of it. But yes, there are solutions.’”
Valentina with diapers and baby clothes from The Exodus Road (identity obscured for security purposes).
A new baby, a new life
Eight months after she was freed from trafficking, Valentina’s baby boy finally arrived. Arturo accompanied her to the hospital, and The Exodus Road provided diapers and baby clothes. Valentina named her baby’s middle name after Arturo, who she calls “an angel.” The birth signifies a moment of profound restoration.
“Since the time that my grandfather died, I have felt very lonely,” Valentina shares. “But since the baby was born, I realized that I’m never going to be alone again.”
When her baby was three months old, Valentina graduated high school with The Exodus Road’s team cheering her on in attendance at the ceremony. She continues to dream of the kids she can help at schools in the future.
But Valentina isn’t waiting to make an impact: she’s changing the world now. After finding safety herself, Valentina voluntarily provided as much information as possible to law enforcement — despite threats from her trafficker.
“The lady who took me there contacted me and asked me not to disclose her identity because she would go to prison,” Valentina says. “It was difficult to share all of the details. It made me very weary. But I know that thanks to me, they were able to free some other girls.”
In fact, because of Valentina’s testimony, Interpol was able to recover 45 more girls who had been trafficked. Those girls are free and recovering because of Valentina’s courage in speaking up. Valentina is also boldly exploring more ways to share her story with school kids and with The Exodus Road’s community.
Arturo has witnessed Valentina’s journey over the span of a year, seeing firsthand how fitting the meaning of her name is: strength.
“Valentina is very quiet, very loving. When Valentina returned from the Dominican Republic with all the pain and wounds that she brought in her soul, body, and heart, she started changing the pain and anger, and she turned it into joy,” Arturo says earnestly. “With that joy, she went to school to speak to other girls. She has filled that joy up with love and shared it all over. That is reflected also in the birth of her son. She has taken a dry heart full of sadness, fear, and pain and replaced it with the joy, love, and humility that you see in Valentina’s heart today.”
With that humility, Valentina attributes her recovery to her deep Christian faith, to the kindness of Arturo, and to you — supporters of The Exodus Road.
“I would like to thank you because you don’t even know about all the lives that you save, all the lives that you change. You changed my life,” Valentina explains, her eyes shining. “Without you, I wouldn’t be here. I cannot even imagine where I would be today. You don’t know all that you’re doing. If you could hear about every situation like mine, you would realize that it is very difficult. We go through many things. But with your support, you save lots of lives. So I am very grateful for all the help that I’ve had and how it has changed my life.”
This fiery young mother is an example of a survivor-turned-overcomer. Valentina is an emblem of post-traumatic growth in defiance of all the odds. Her strength has carried her through impossible pain, and that same strength is propelling her into the world as a young mom with a message to share.
“I would add for everybody to have faith,” Valentina says simply, reflecting on what she’s learned on her journey. “Everything has a solution. No matter how dark the road is, the light is always there.”
Valentina graduates from highschool a year after being freed from sex trafficking
