Six Sex-Trafficking Survivors Will Soon Have a Safe Home at samaritan’s village

A month ago, Heart of the City Foundation partners helped make it possible for Samaritan Village to host a virtual fundraising event called One Village. Through the event, they were able to raise over 200 thousand dollars, which will help create a new home for six more survivors of sex trafficking.

Day after day, traffickers hunt the streets and the Internet for vulnerable women to sexually exploit. Once the traffickers charm the women and bond with them, often using tactics to brainwash them into believing the traffickers love them, the traffickers manipulate the women into performing sexual acts with clients for money. It’s not uncommon for these women to be raped up to thirty times a day.

Orlando has the third highest rate of sex trafficking in the nation. And studies show that 90% of sex-trafficking victims would leave their trafficker if they felt like they had another option. So often, these women feel too afraid and too helpless to leave their traffickers. 

Thankfully, Samaritan Village is striving to give as many sex-trafficking survivors as possible a safe home where they can heal. Right now, Samaritan Village only has the capacity to rescue nine women. 

Samaritan Village was able to host a tremendous virtual event and they will soon be able to provide healing, safety, and hope for six more survivors of sex trafficking. During the event, several survivors courageously shared their stories. Advocating for all the women who are still stuck in sex trafficking, they inspired hundreds of people to give. Now Samaritan Village is so close to their goal of $350,000. Executive Director Dee Coleman believes that by the end of the year, they will even exceed their goal!

Once Samaritan Village reaches its goal, they will purchase a second home that will serve survivors of sex trafficking. They will equip the home with security, and finally, six more survivors will have a safe home where they will receive trauma-informed care. The survivors will finally have a chance to recover and heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

Dee says, “It is inspiring and encouraging to see our community—here in Central Florida and across the country—come together to build and expand pathways to freedom, safety, and hope for victims and survivors of sexual exploitation.”