Finding strength through trauma, Sacramento woman offers hope to other sex trafficking survivors

In Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood sits a nonprofit center that helps women who have been sexually exploited.The Community Against Sexual Harm, or CASH, seeks to support women however they may need help, whether it be providing clothes or food, medical checkups, or child care.It also provides case management, a program Executive Director Sawan Vaden describes as being able to take "a woman from being hopeless and not having anything to being a homeowner in the community where she was trafficked." In short, CASH, located at 3101 1st Ave., is there to serve people.But the fight against sex trafficking is an uphill battle, especially in Sacramento County. Vaden said within the span of five years, more than 13,000 women and children were trafficked in the area.While the number is jarring, Vaden is not surprised. She said CASH sees on average anywhere from 200-350 people a year alone.Federal law describes sex trafficking as when "a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age."The Department of Justice says coercion could be "subtle or overt, physical or psychological."But why are there so many victims? Vaden chalks it up to a lack of resources and education, along with a lack of focus on prevention. And while she believes the question of how to ultimately stop trafficking is a difficult one, what she thinks could really help is to stop the buyers."The reason why there are children for sale is because there are people who are seeking to devour children and women," Vaden said.Another challenge is how hard it can be to escape trafficking. It's not just about trying to escape your trafficker. It's also about dealing with the trauma of being forced to have sex. Especially when forced into trafficking at a young age, people may feel like they have no other option.That is why at CASH, Vaden said survivors can come and go as they please, even if they are still actively engaged in trafficking. Her goal is to make survivors know they have a place of support whenever they are ready to take the next step.Speaking from experienceWhen asked what it feels like to see women at the center who are still making the choice to stay in their situation, Vaden said she sees a little bit of herself in those survivors.Vaden recalled the time she was kidnapped when she was around 12 years old. She was walking down Stockton Boulevard when a woman approached Vaden and asked her if she wanted to meet the woman's father. Vaden agreed and went with her but then was held captive.They took Vaden to Phoenix, Arizona and then to Las Vegas, Nevada. At both locations, she was forced to have sex. Authorities did find her after some weeks of searching and returned to the safety of her home. But as Vaden learned the hard way, healing from trauma is a crucial step as a sex trafficking survivor.She explained that if work isn't done and no resources are put forward for a survivor, especially at a young age, the risk of getting back into being trafficked remains high. In her case, she started to rebel at home, skip school and get involved with substances.That is not a rare case, either. Vaden said that most sex trafficking survivors she comes in contact with experienced some type of abuse as a child. The dangerous spot children are inEducating children is an important step in combatting trafficking. And to Vaden, a lot of it starts with education. In her case, she described her upbringing as one that was not really aware of the dangers, so she said she did not know what to look out for to avoid. Her belief is that addressing the risk factors that make children susceptible can go a long way."I think that it's about time we start to really take a good look at that and think about ways that we can actively work preventing it," Vaden said.In general, children particularly are set up for failure if they get forced into trafficking. On top of trauma, Vaden said California legislation left younger survivors in a precarious situation. Senate Bill 1322 effectively made it so that the state penal code regarding prostitution did not apply to people younger than age 18, meaning that there is no such thing as a child prostitute. The intent was to rectify the fact that children being trafficked were often arrested and faced criminal prosecution, according to the National Center for Youth Law.The issue with what that legislation did, Vaden explained, is that it meant children were no longer being sent to juvenile hall and instead were sent to receiving homes. At receiving homes, there is nothing keeping survivors from leaving if they want to. For many children, that just meant they were able to go right back to their traffickers."It leaves children relatively on the streets," Vaden said. Turning grief into strengthAs horrifying as her own experiences were, she knew she wanted to help others who have gone through what she went through. CASH first showed up on Vaden's radar in 2013, when she was still in rehab at the time.She eventually became sober and went to school to become a substance abuse counselor. In 2016, a position for a case manager at CASH opened up and she went for it, working her way up to become the center's executive director.To this day, her conviction to help others remains unwavering, reminding other survivors that when they're ready to accept a helping hand, CASH will be there for them."My hope is to one day have a successful program right here in Sacramento that other countries can model," Vaden said.The story was produced as part of the KCRA 3 Investigates documentary "Escaping The Blade" about sex trafficking in Sacramento County. Watch the full report here.| RELATED | Is a California law meant to help victims making it harder to fight sex trafficking?