I don’t want my boys to act, to even think about it, you know. I want my boys to make sure that they know that you don’t – you can’t treat a woman any kind of way, you know. Like no way. The same respect you have for your mom, you better have for all these girls out here too. Like that’s real.
[…]
There’s not a lot of actual shelter here….Like you have to be on a waiting list to get into a shelter…he was still at -large, you know, and they were trying to find him and did you know, let me tell you, I was right next to him in an apartment complex…where I was staying with a friend…And I didn’t even know it. And I was in fear for my life. I was in fear for, like, you know, because they were out there looking for him, and he was on the run...not having a place to go…that’s what women are faced with; there’s no actual room for you to come right then, at that time, when you actually needed it, you know.
[…]
I think maybe just providing something like that, like, maybe restitution…for medical bills and stuff like that. Cause, I mean, going to the ER and stuff like that, it costs a pretty penny. You know? And I have bills on bills on bills, back from that. Like, MRI’s…that’s, if you don’t have no type of insurance and stuff like that…
[…]
Just you know, having good support…I kind of just, you know, stepped back and was like, okay, I need to, I need my family. That’s what I need is my family and my real friends. You know. And that’s what I learned that there’s a lot of people that, like, I mean, out on the streets, there’s not, you know, they’re not your friends. That’s what I definitely learned, I learned. You know. It’s more your family and people that, you know, you call your actual friends.
[…]
So, I think maybe, like, maybe something, some kind of support, like, for the, like, the actual parents, too. You know. Like information, like, letting them know that it’s okay to go ahead and come forward.
[…]
Making sure, like, before, rehabilitation, you know, before they get out of jail, so they don’t go and do it again… I want to make sure that he’s rehabilitated and knows what he put me through, you know….like, keep re-offending and re-offending, there needs to be something.... maybe that should be looked at, you know? Like, they have to go to a certain, maybe a certain program after.
[…]
Yeah, ‘cause my daughter…she put up there she was, you know, 19 and she was of age, and she wasn’t. She was only 14 and she had, like, different men. And I looked up one of them, one of them was a sex offender. And I’m telling you I about hit the roof. You know? I’m like, “Oh my gosh!” You know? And, I don’t know, like, that, would, not only if that would, you know, that, what I went through, when it happened to me, but if my child, you know, how my child, well, man, if that happened like that to one of my daughters, I’m telling ya, they’d better be ready, you know what I mean? I mean...making sure that young women are educated about it…to teach them how to be careful. Because suddenly, maybe, the person they are inviting to be your friend is a sex offender.
Narrative as found in Shireen S. Rajaram and Sriyani Tidball, “Nebraska Sex Trafficking Survivors Speak —A Qualitative Research Study,” Faculty Publications, College of Journalism & Mass Communications (2016)
