Human trafficking survivor shares her story with Thomasville community

THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WALB) – Each year millions of people become victims of human trafficking worldwide. January is human trafficking awareness month and one victim is trying to save others from that nightmare.

Sula Lael said she has experienced human trafficking five times in her lifetime–the first time when she was just a toddler. Human Trafficking is defined as the unlawful force, fraud or coercing of a person to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Lael said that was one of her first memories in life.

“I just remember all of these mattresses on the floor, hiding in closets, big body parts over my little body parts and moving from different mattresses,” she said. “Because of all the abuse I had been through, it was very hard to recognize okay this is another trafficker because it had been so normalized for me.”

According to the Polaris Project, human trafficking is a $32 billion dollar industry. The U.S. Department of Justice also says the number of people prosecuted for human trafficking increased from 729 in 2011 to 1,343 in 2020—an overall 84% increase.

“Someone can sell a drug once but they can sell a person 15 to 40 times a day,” Lael said. “And the risk as far as getting arrested, prosecuted, caught for the traffickers is very minimal because they've learned how to put all of the risks on the victim who looks like the prostitute and the criminal.”

Lael said her faith allowed her to heal and become a human trafficking advocate. She now partners with other advocates like Kristine Young.

“Coming from a background of trauma and sexual exploitation myself, I didn't really realize the things that I had been through weren't right and a lot of times victims don't,” Jones said.

Both ladies own their own non-profits. Lael established Take Flight Survivors out of Florida and Jones founded Priceless Jewels in Thomasville. Jones said it's important for everyone to learn prevention methods against human trafficking so no one ends up like her.

“It could be the everyday student that sits next to you,” she said. “It could be a person walking inside Walmart. A trafficker could literally an officer. It could be a teacher. It could be a parent, unfortunately, so it's really teaching awareness, paying attention to the person next to you.”

Cpt. Steven Jones, Thomas county Sheriff's Office public information officer, said in his years at the department he hasn't seen a lot of cases pertaining to human trafficking.

“We've been very fortunate in our area and in this jurisdiction—fairly little if any cases that are considered human trafficking. That doesn't say it doesn't go on,” he said.

Jones added that a lot of people mistake human trafficking for something it's not.

“And that would be like a semi-load of humans being smuggled somewhere or taken especially young children,” Jones said. “That's what comes to mind when I say or think of the word human trafficking when actually it can be as simple as for lack of a better term someone prostituting out a person against their will.”

According to the United States Department of State, an estimated 24.9 million people fall victim to human trafficking worldwide. As one of those victims, Lael said it's important for her to save other victims so they don't end up like her.

“The number one value of sharing my story, of doing prevention awareness is that it allows those who don't identify yet as victims to realize what happened to them so they can start healing and start finding the help that they need and forgive themselves for any ways that they blame themselves or shaming themselves for the horrific things that they've endured,” she said.

If you're experiencing human trafficking or know someone that is, you should call the human trafficking hotline at 1(888)-373-7888.

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