Patricia’s Story
“Patricia” is a mother of two, “Marta” (7) and “Luis” (2). Patricia was sold to a local gang at the age of 16 because her parents could not afford to support their family. She was trafficked at a cantina in her rural community in Central America before being brought to New York by an abusive boyfriend. Once here, he moved Patricia from one brothel to another. She had no contact with her family and never had enough time in any one brothel to form friendships. Other than her relationship with her trafficker, she was completely alone.
Patricia was trafficked in this way for almost a decade. While being trafficked, she gave birth to Marta and Luis. When Luis was one, Patricia reached out to an organization serving domestic-violence victims. She was identified as a trafficking victim and referred to Restore.
Today, Patricia and her children are in long-term housing while she receives services from the Restore team. She has applied for a trafficking visa and is working to access all the benefits available to Marta and Luis, who are U.S. citizens. Marta, now in third grade at a local public school, loves the zoo, while Luis enjoys taking the A-train and is in a universal pre-kindergarten program.
Patricia is now enrolled in Restore’s Economic Empowerment program. She’s demonstrated interest in food preparation and longs to be connected with one of our business partners in the hospitality industry. Patricia’s primary goal? To give Marta and Luis safety, health and opportunity. She wants work that is safe and sustainable and will break the cycle of poverty in her family.
*Name has been changed to protect the identity of the survivor
We partner with Restore NYC to help place survivors in sustainable, life-giving, safe employment through their innovative worker-owned cooperative. We do this so that woman like Patricia can find dignified employment to provide for the next generation. You can find out more about Restore here.
