**WARNING: This story contains content about human trafficking and abuse that may be upsetting to some readers.**
January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month and although there are only a few days left, the efforts to raise awareness are ever-present. An instance of that effort was seen in East Cleveland on Saturday afternoon at a prayer vigil held to raise awareness of the issue facing Ohio at the Starlight Missionary Baptist Church.
During the event, Rachel Socorro shared her experience with community members to show that trafficking comes in many different forms. For Socorro, it was being controlled for 15 years by a man who groomed her in a vulnerable moment and through manipulative tactics, married her and ran her entire life.
"Human trafficking is not getting picked up, kidnapped, in a white van and taken to what it looks like in the movies," Socorro said. "It doesn't look like what you think, I think people have a skewed vision of what human trafficking looks like because of media, because of movies, and those are created for entertainment. What it truly looks like is your local nail tech, or your local service station attendee, or the person running your business, or behind your local department store counter—the mom you drop your kids off with at school—all of those things."
Socorro has two children of her own. While being trafficked she worked full time. From the outside many would imagine her to be a successful wife and mother. What they couldn't see is a man—who she was encouraged to be with, sold to by a family member—who helped her in a vulnerable time as a young mother with little resources, was trafficking her in the form of domestic servitude.
"I remember we moved to this communal house...I remember going out for coffee and a paper the first Sunday I was there, and this is when things changed. I walked back up to the front door and I opened the door and I had a coffee in one hand and the newspaper int he other and *BOOM* I caught the butt of a Glock 40 across my face," Socorro recalled. "And he put the barrel of that gun to my head and he said, 'You don't ever leave this house again without my permission.'"
From that moment, Socorro's abuser isolated her from her friends and family, keeping her a captive of his in a domestic setting for 15 years. She had no access to medical or personal documents without him providing them. She feared disobeying orders of housework and cooking. Her employment was at his discretion, her affection to her children governed by him.
"Trafficking is a mindset, you're captive in your mind, you can't just run out. When you're told every day for 15 years I own you and if you leave here I'll kill you, and you watch and hear people held captive, beat in your basement—I saw things happen to humans that nobody should see right downstairs in my own home—you believe it. You believe if you try, that will be you," she said.
Socorro stayed because she was controlled physically and psychologically by her abuser. Being trafficked when she was at her most vulnerable made her susceptible to that. But over time and after a conversation with a woman in Akron who simply asked about her life while she was working, Socorro broke free of his control.
"I remember laying there all night next to him, and I remember thinking, I probably won’t make it, he’’ll probably find me and kill me," she shared. "But, if that happens, then at least some attention will be drawn to this house and the other people and my children will get out. There was four to six adults in our trafficking ring at all times, plus my two children. And I thought that would be worth it, that would be worth me trying."
The experiences of Socorro exemplify how other forms of human trafficking manifest here in Northeast Ohio.
The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center says that there are numerous forms of trafficking taking victims across the state.
"There are many forms of trafficking, which include domestic servitude, forced labor and agricultural work where you're coerced or forced to work," said Donisha Green, director of community engagement at the center. "Traffickers and perpetrators generally maintain power and control over their victims through physical, psychological or substance abuse."
Ohio has been proven to be extremely accessible to human traffickers, exploiting the traits of cities and rural areas across the state to find and control their victims.
"Human trafficking can happen anywhere, any city," Greene explained. "Particularly in Ohio, we have large urban centers and several counties with rural settings. And so in addition to our state having a large number of immigrants and transient population, these features have made Ohio incredibly vulnerable to human trafficking."
In fact, the state is among the top 10 in the nation for human trafficking.
That statistic was one of the reasons Socorro has made it her mission to share her story and educate people in this area what human trafficking can look like and spreading awareness to the ongoing issue.
"I'm committed to sharing my lived experience because I remember in my trafficking experience, holding on to that if I could get free that there would be purpose in all the pain," said Socorro. "It really, for me, gives purpose to the experience I went through—but for others, I believe that sharing our experience, our strength, and our hope is what will make a significant impact. It rallies our community, and it educates and empowers those that truly don't know what trafficking looks like."
Groups like the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Socorro's organization Women Revived Ministries and Collaborative to End Human Trafficking are among the many resources available to individuals being exploited and trafficked.
"We provide trauma-informed crisis intervention, advocacy and counseling to survivors of sex and labor trafficking in our community...We also provide counseling to survivors who have been victims of sex trafficking at any point in their lives....We offer empowerment workshops, financial classes, job readiness, things like that," said Greene. "We tailor training specifically to law enforcement, medical staff and mental health service providers as well."
The goal of organizations is to raise awareness, not only to help those being trafficked now, but to eliminate the issue altogether.
Socorro encourages those in the community to have conversations with people who they believe may be victims and create a safe space for them to open up and receive resources to escape their situations and regain control of their lives.
She escaped her abuser and is raising her two sons, both who are growing into successful young men in college and with thriving STEM interests. They have since been able to experience a true loving relationship, going to movies, dining out at different restaurants—small and simple joys that were not their to experience for years while Socorro was being trafficked.
By sharing her story at the prayer vigil Saturday, she hopes she can continue helping individuals being trafficked by the power of education and awareness.
"I hope that the community feels educated and empowered to do something if they see something," Socorro said. "We need to help the survivors we have, but we need to stop people from becoming survivors."
Here is a list of human trafficking prevention resources available across Northeast Ohio:
—Collaborative to End Human Trafficking: Resource Guide
-Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Human Trafficking Drop-In Center
- 10450 Superior Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106
- Monday – Friday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
- Office Phone: (216) 619-6194 | Human Trafficking Hotline: (855) 431-7827 text, call or chat online at clevelandrapecrisis.org/chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
—Women Revived Ministries: Website
—Strong Hands United: Website
—Bellefaire JCB’s Homeless and Missing Youth Program: Website
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