How bar of soap can save human trafficking victim

A few weeks ago, at the beginning of national Human Trafficking Awareness Month, at seamy metro Detroit motels where rooms rent by the hour, Aleksandra Andjelkovic and other members of the Grosse Pointe Soroptimists came calling.

The Soroptimists brought flyers bearing information about Michigan runaways, and they offered the proprietors specially-wrapped bars of soap. Save some money by placing these bars of soap in each room, the Soroptimists pitched the motels. ... And maybe save a life, the volunteers said.

The bars of soap were wrapped in labels that feature the National Human Trafficking Hotline Number (888-373-7888). The wrapper asks: "Are you being forced to do anything you do not want to do?''

"We go to the kind of hotels most of us wouldn't walk into," says Andjelkovic, 47, of Grosse Pointe Park, a licensed mental health therapist. Some motel operators signal total disdain, but she starts the conversation by talking about missing children because "it's hard for them to turn away when you say you are looking for a missing child."

Every January for the last several years, the local Soroptimists have passed out the soaps at motels, strip clubs and other spots. A similar effort is under way this week at motels in Phoenix, in advance of the Feb. 1 Super Bowl.

Special events, with large diverse audiences, such as the North American International Auto Show and the Super Bowl provide an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the issue of human trafficking, says Homeland Security Supervisory Special Agent Michael Ball, who leads a metro Detroit human trafficking task force with other law enforcement personnel.

"It's a global problem, but it's taking place here locally, too," said Ball. "This is an ongoing process where we have these outreach campaigns throughout the year. It's just that awareness seems to be heightened at these times when we have international visitors to this area.

"One of the biggest problems is that you have victims or people who know the victims, who are aware," said Ball. "But they are afraid because of the countries they come from, or are intimidated by the people involved, and they are afraid to report their situation to law enforcement."

A way to freedom

Human trafficking moves through a world of misery and hurt — from foreign-born women smuggled into the U.S. to work as indentured servants to local teen runaways who find comfort with drug dealers who pimp them as prostitutes them on the streets.

The toll-free number and message on the soap bars, said Ball, can make a difference.

That's what Theresa Flores, 49, a onetime Birmingham school student, thought when she came up with the idea. Flores started the S.O.A.P. program (Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution) because she thought hard about what might have helped escape her torture.

Flores was a track-running sophomore at Birmingham Groves in the early 1980s, when another classmate and his older cousins drugged her, raped her and blackmailed her for more than two years as they trafficked her to older men in the suburbs. They kept the money for themselves, threatening to reveal humiliating photos of her if she told her parents or the police.

It took Flores years before she could talk about what happened to her, even as she received bachelor's and master's degrees in social work. Now living near Columbus, Ohio, she has become an advocate for human trafficking victims and is the author of "The Slave Across the Street."

"People are drawn to her story because they're shocked that this happened to her. She's the girl next door. She isn't the typical person you think would be trafficked," said Heidi Lenzo, the outreach director for Be Free Dayton, an Ohio nonprofit working against sex-trafficking. Flores' S.O.A.P. program is run under its auspices.

It started when a boy in school gave Flores attention and compliments. "I thought it was courting, but it was grooming." One day when he gave her a ride after school, he took her to his house. "He ended up drugging me and then raped me," says Flores.

Ashamed, she didn't tell anyone, including her parents. Several days later, the boy told her his cousins had taken pictures of her being raped and "you have to earn them back or else," she recalls.

"They would take me to homes all over Birmingham, Rochester Hills and Farmington areas to different men," Flores says.

The physical abuse ended when her father was transferred out of state, but the psychological scars continued for decades. She's never confronted her abusers, she said, and when, as an adult in her 30s, she talked to police, she was told too much time had passed.

"They didn't even have the word trafficking. Whenever I got up the nerve to do something, I hit a brick wall," said Flores. In Michigan, for her to have a chance at bringing her tormentors to justice, she would have had to come forward within six years of the crimes.

That has changed with new Michigan laws designed to thwart human trafficking, including a provision to remove the statute of limitations for people who were forced into prostitution as minors. The new law is named the Theresa Flores Act.

This week, Flores is in Phoenix, passing out the soap bars with other volunteers.

Grosse Pointe Soroptomist Andjelkovic won a Liberator award from Flores' group for her efforts locally to promote awareness of human trafficking's impact.

Andjelkovic said one clerk last year recognized a face on the flyer, and gave the group some more details — the young woman's street name and even a description of a tattoo. They passed the tips on to authorities and they heard it later led to the girl's rescue.

"It does produce results," said Andjelkovic. "It's raising more awareness, because it would be very ideal if we can prevent this instead of react to it."

But even Flores has had doubts about whether her efforts make a difference.

But last summer, Flores said she was addressing a group in Columbus, Ohio, when asked what kind of impact her program had.

"I had to say I don't really know," Flores recalled. "I just have faith that it does."

Right then, she was approached by a young woman in the audience. The woman said she'd been a prostitute getting beat up by a john in a motel in Romulus. Running into the bathroom, there was a bar of soap with the hotline phone number. Flores says the woman told her that was her first step to getting help and into a recovery and rehab program.

"We approached 95 places, and 86 accepted a total of 17,000 bars of the special soap" in metro Detroit, Flores says. "I have faith someone will call."

Contact Patricia Montemurri: 313-223-4538, pmontemurri@freepress.com or on Twitter @pmontemurri.

New Michigan human trafficking laws

Among some of the provisions:

■ There is no longer a statute of limitations on prosecuting anyone who forced minors into prostitution, pornography or forced labor. Previously, such victims had to come forward within six years.

■ Minors arrested for prostitution will be treated as victims rather than criminals. The law now says minors are "presumed to be coerced" into prostitution. The change makes them eligible for services such as state-sponsored medical and mental health care.

■ Harsher penalties for human traffickers. Human traffickers of minors also can be charged with kidnapping, which could bring a lifetime prison sentence.

■ Making it easier for victims of prostitution to have prostitution-related offenses vacated.

■ Making it easier for human trafficking survivors to seek damages and compensation from traffickers.

Warning signs of trafficking victims

Here are some behaviors that are warning signs of people who may be victims of human or sex trafficking. Help from law enforcement is available by calling the Human Trafficking Hotline number: 888-373-7888.

■ Does the person appear disconnected from family, friends, community organizations, or houses of worship?

■ Has a child stopped attending school?

■ Has the person had a sudden or dramatic change in behavior?

■ Is a juvenile engaged in commercial sex acts?

■ Is the person disoriented or confused, or showing signs of mental or physical abuse?

■ Does the person have bruises in various stages of healing?

■ Is the person fearful, timid, or submissive?

■ Does the person show signs of having been denied food, water, sleep, or medical care?

■ Is the person often in the company of someone to whom he or she defers? Or someone who seems to be in control of the situation, e.g., where they go or who they talk to?

■ Does the person appear to be coached on what to say?

■ Is the person living in unsuitable conditions?

■ Does the person lack personal possessions and appear not to have a stable living situation?

■ Does the person have freedom of movement? Can the person freely leave where they live? Are there unreasonable security measures?

■ Does the person appear to have all their belongings in a plastic bag, easy to grab if forced to quickly move locations?

■ Is the juvenile using a false ID or lying about his or her age?

■ Does the person have tattoos on the neck or thigh?

■ Does the person appear to not be familiar with his or her surroundings, e.g., not know their location?

Source: U.S. Homeland Security

How to learn more

The PBS network begins a three-part series on human trafficking, "A Path Appears" at 10 p.m. Monday locally on WTVS-TV (Channel 56), Detroit

National Human Trafficking Resource Center: This is the agency that handles the hotline, which operates around the clock and can provide assistance in multiple languages. The resource center also can provide resources and handle tips about possible human trafficking situations. Call 888-373-7888. www.traffickingresourcecenter.org

Michigan Commission of Human Trafficking:www.michigan.gov/humantrafficking

Be Free Dayton and the S.O.A.P. initiative:www.traffickfree.com.

Grosse Pointe Soroptimists efforts against human trafficking:www.grossepointesoroptimist.org

The Soroptimists are cosponsoring a Human Trafficking Forum 5:30 -7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Wayne State University Student Center Ballroom. Among the speakers are representatives from the state Attorney General's Office and local agencies that help human trafficking victims. The event is free and open to the public and does not require registration.

Metro Detroit trafficking cases

Within the last decade, federal investigators broke up a ring that enslaved a dozen Ukrainian women to work as strippers at a Detroit club.

When the FBI conducted a nationwide sweep in July 2013 targeted at human trafficking rings in 76 cities, agents arrested 18 pimps in metro Detroit, the most of any of the 76 cities targeted. That same sweep rescued 10 children from the sex trade in metro Detroit, second only to San Francisco. The children were recovered from private homes in Flint and Romulus and motels in Madison Heights, Farmington Hills, Southfield and Detroit, according to the 2013 Michigan Commission on Human Trafficking report.

Federal law enforcement has stepped up efforts against human trafficking. In 2014, federal human trafficking investigations resulted in 828 convictions and the identification of more than 440 victims, according to government statistics.