Sewing a New Story - Three sex trade survivor stories of hope

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In Jacksonville, FL Rethreaded is helping women sew a new story. Find out how they are truly changing lives, empowering women, and changing the world.
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TRANSCRIPT: Here's the trick. The top needs to go with every pair of pants and every skirt in your capsule wardrobe, so that it's interchangeable. You need a great cardigan, because sometimes you can wear this instead of a suit jacket. These are enough to start building a proper wardrobe.
K: The sex trade industry has the same effect on women all over the world. It steals who they are. It steals their worth and value, and they're basically rejected.
J: A lot of us didn't know how to dress for success, and then we also didn't really have the money to do it. Kristin called Hope's Closet and made arrangements for us to be coached in how to dress, watch a few videos, and then be able to go shopping. I got beat up in a hotel room by two guys and fractured my cheekbone.
M: I was in an abandoned house on a porch to where I had to use the bathroom outside, take showers in people's water hoses.
A: I was taken from several different hotels, transported by this guy. He put me on drugs. He fed me with crack cocaine. He took me off it so I could withdraw and beg him for more crack.
M: It was filthy and it was dirty and I didn't care. Death looked great to me.
A: He let men come in and out of the hotel room for $20, $30, for a piece of my innocence.
J: I didn't see any hope. I didn't see any way out. That's how I ended up out there and that's what kept me out there. It was the shame.
K: They come in, and they're identity is horrible words like ****, ****, rejected. A lot of women already carry self-shame and they think everything's their fault.
Rethreaded's mission is to break the cycle of the sex trade by creating viable and creative work for those affected by the sex trade. We define the sex trade as human trafficking, prostitution, strip clubs, pornography, basically wherever sexual exploitation is happening for the sake of profit.
We believe that the sex trade industry seeks to exploit people's weaknesses, and we want to be a company that meets people in their weaknesses and seeks to empower them.
At Rethreaded, we have a woman wait six months to tell her story, because we want her to be able to first identify herself as a business woman that is successful and is able to point to her work at Rethreaded and be like, "Look what I can do. Look what I can accomplish," and have her be a part of the business, first.
J: I learned how to sew and make pillows. I got to make all sorts of different types of jewelry. One day, they pulled me into the office and asked me if I'd be interested in pursuing a career here in marketing.
A: I worked in inventory, but now I work in finance. I just love it, seeing the money that comes in and seeing the business grow.
M: I'm in production. I make scarves. I make anything out of the recycled t-shirts that we make.
I teach the grace-making classes that we have here. That's a new things. It's really a lot of fun. Basically, I'm an expert scarf-maker. [laughs]
J: I can put this on my resume now. I could go out into the world and I can work in an office, and that's huge for me. That's huge.
K: To see our women have pride in what they're doing and what they're able to accomplish, and have the language that they use towards themselves change is really why we exist.
K: You're in the 8-10s. M: OK, wrong place. [laughs]
K: Since our beginning in 2012, we've provided over 10,000 hours of work to women in Jacksonville. We've had over 18 women come through or be part of our company. Currently, we employ six women, almost all full time, all of them, and our hope is to get to 12 by next year.
M: Do you like it? Woman: Oh, yeah.
K: Basically, you economically empower a woman and you greatly reduce her chance of being exploited.
If you buy a bag from India from us, you are giving support to that woman in India who made the bag. Then we take all the proceeds and reinvest it back into our company, so you're helping a woman in Jacksonville, as well. You're literally changing the world by buying this bag. That's the path to world domination that we see.
J: There's women out there who don't have the same privileges, who don't know about Rethreaded, who don't even know that there is a way out. What I want for my life is for those women to know.
A: I know I'm going to move on one day. I want my own non-profit organization. I want to have safe houses for women.
M: The shame or whatever that you're living in can be overcome. I'm just so grateful to be who I am right now.
K: No one can tell me to give up on someone. No one can tell me that she needs to be written off, because we've seen women come out of hell. Now they're successful and whole and fighting for other women to have a chance.

[@carlsmith8855]

Simply amazing

[@michellefarnsworth3378]

This is such a great program for these women. It warms my heart to see how much help and support they are getting, after having gone through such horror.

[@OnlineMarketingGoddess]

Thank you for your courage, thank you for sharing. I am so proud of each of you. My heart fills with joy knowing each of you.