Anti-trafficking groups urge community support

IF not for the intervention of anti-trafficking groups, Jennelyn (not her real name) would still be servicing male clients at a local club in Cebu City.

Jennelyn recounted her ordeal in an audiovisual presentation held during a prayer gathering held by anti-trafficking groups at The Terraces in Ayala Cebu Mall in Cebu City yesterday.

At eight years old, Jennelyn said she witnessed her stepfather rape her sister inside their house.

“My mother didn’t believe me, she believed my stepfather. My sister got pregnant and she had the baby aborted while I was placed in an orphanage,” she said.

Jennelyn stayed in the orphanage until she was 15 years old when the owner died and there were no more funds to support her and other orphans.

Having finished second-year high school, Jennelyn wanted to continue her studies.

Jennelyn and her four friends in Cagayan de Oro were approached by a woman at the plaza in Cagayan de Oro who offered them a job.

The four girls were transported and brought to Kamagayan, Cebu City where the woman told them that they would service male clients in a club.

She said they had no choice because they had no means of support in Cebu City.

Jennelyn wanted to stop but she was threatened by the club’s boss who told her and her friends that they still haven’t paid the food and money they owed him.

Somehow, she managed to contact some of the anti-trafficking groups who helped her escape from the club.

Jennelyn finished her nursing studies and now she works as an outreach worker. “I am a victim but I am a great survivor,” she said.

After the presentation, Cebu City-based Insp. Maria Theresa Macatangay told the audience that community support is essential in eradicating human trafficking.

Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale agreed, saying community support can eliminate prostitution.

Laurence Aritao of the International Justice Mission (IJM) called on the audience to pray for the country’s law enforcers, prosecutors and other agencies tasked with dealing in human trafficking. /Michelle Joy L. Padayhag, Correspondent