Volunteer Blog

For a large portion of my volunteer hours, I attended training that Lisa, the leader of My Life My Choice, gave to teachers and professionals across Boston. These trainings are optional and free, and last anywhere from all day trainings to a 4 hour training. Typically, in the trainings, Lisa would go through an extensive powerpoint presentation she had created as well and lead an interactive discussion and question and answer session. The point of these trainings was to provide the teachers with knowledge on sexual exploitation of children. She taught them how to identify a girl that was in danger of sexual exploitation how to identify one that was already being exploited, and what to do next. She also went into vast detail on what the life of such child looks like. She instructed the participants on proper terminology to use as well as appropriate means of intervention.
My summary is definitely not doing justice to how powerful the experience was. The majority of the information I had never, ever been exposed to. It was astonishing to me that there is like a whole other world out there. She gives these trainings to inner city schools, and generally does not come into the suburbs because the problem is almost non existent there. Consequently, I have never really heard about this stuff. But, there is so much out there that we don't know about. There are so many dangers out there that we are so fortunate not to have to worry about. When some of the teachers raised their hands and shared their experiences, I was floored. They talked about girls they had been prostituted against their will as well as girls who had no other choice but to do so. One teacher told the group about a 5th grade student she had who was a prostitute for a gang and had her own child. The father of the child was 21 years old, and when confronted, the mother of this student expressed how happy she was and what a great guy the father was. I was utterly disturbed. I have never heard of such a broken, abusive home before.
Hearing these stories and the absolute torture some girls are subjected to made me feel so grateful for everything I have. I never have to worry about my parents coming home drunk or drugged up and hitting me, and I never have to worry about a neighborhood pimp holding a gun to my head and forcing me to do something. These are things I've honestly never thought about, and have never had to give any concern too. Previous to these trainings, I did have appreciation for everything I had, but not to this extent. My parents would never let any of the terrible things I learned about happen, and for that, I am truly blessed. Although sometimes I am resentful to the supervision I receive, I have never realized how imperative it is to my successful upbringing. I was never tempted to spent the night in a strange place or take strange drugs because I knew my parents would intervene before it happened. That is a privilege I have taken for granted. Not everybody is as lucky as the majority of children in Brookline. A lot of inner city kids don't have a child hood, and are forced to grow up almost immediately. This seems incredibly difficult, and I have infinite amounts of admiration for people who are able to this, and make something of themselves.
One of the most powerful things I took from these training's was Lisa's rejection of the word prostitute. She said that prostitute was a deeming word, and the correct term is "sexually exploited female." She takes the stance that every women involved in prostitution is forced to be, whether it by means of violence or a choice in the presence of lack of choices. She believes no women enters it voluntarily. This belief has huge implications, and was a lot to take in. I still don't know if I agree that every women who exchanges sex for money was forced to, but it is an interesting topic to mull over, and a controversial one at that. That means that even the women working in the legal brothels should be considered exploited, even though it is a career path they allegedly chose to take.