Nelia's Story
We partner with Restore NYC to offer English classes, job readiness training, and job placement to survivors in New York City through Restore's Economic Empowerment program. Your advocacy & donations during Dressember not only help to provide prevention and rescue but also to empower survivors with the skills they need to thrive. Learn more about our partnerships here.
Nelia* grew up in a shanty town in a major city in Asia. When she was 13, her family told her she had to work. An acquaintance arranged for Nelia to live with and clean for a local family.
After four years of working with this family, her employers’ friends from the U.S. visited. They remarked on her diligence and friendliness and offered to take her to the U.S. They promised that they would help her pursue an education if she would live with them and help care for their son, also promising they would pay her five times as much as she was currently earning.
Nelia made plans to move to New York. She knew no English and had a middle school education.
When Nelia arrived at JFK, a man with a sign in her language met her, telling her that he would take her to her new employers. He drove her to an apartment building that was a residential brothel.
Nelia shares, “this was the end." Alone in a strange apartment in a new country where she didn't speak the language, Nelia was sexually assaulted at the age of 17.
Two days later, she was told that she would "see" three men that day. Nelia was sex trafficked in this residential brothel for seven months. She was told that she owed her new employers $4,000 for airfare and a tourist visa and that they would report her to immigration if she didn’t work it off.
Later that year, Nelia’s traffickers moved her to a massage parlor. She remembers it being the holiday season when it was raided by law enforcement. She was arrested.
What happened next was a blur. "I was dead. I learned that in this world you could trust no one," she shares.
Nelia was angry. She felt judged and misunderstood. She felt she had no choice but to stay with her traffickers so she could work and have a place to live. And she was here illegally as her tourist visa long expired.
Nelia was processed through the Human Trafficking Intervention Court in Queens, where she was seen as a victim rather than a criminal. She was offered five counseling sessions with Restore NYC to dismiss her case.
The Restore community helped Nelia regain hope. She moved into Restore’s Safehome and a partner organization helped her obtain a trafficking visa.
Nelia also enrolled in our ESL class to improve her English proficiency and joined our Economic Empowerment program to prepare for job placement. Through Restore’s co-op staffing agency, Nelia was offered a job at a small coffee shop in the Village, her first safe job in the U.S. She made five times as much as her first job back in her home country.
After working in the coffee shop for three years, she became a kitchen manager and remained in that role for two years before moving into hospitality at a boutique hotel. Today, she is married with a baby on the way.
Reflecting on her experience at Restore, Nelia shares, “Restore showed me that there are good people in the world. This team fought for me. I feel like we have won.”
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the survivor