Monday, November 07, 2011, 2:25 PM Updated: Tuesday, November 08, 2011, 12:26 PM
Jeff and Sue MartineauA plan to build a home for Michigan children caught up in the sex trade is nearing completion, its backers say.
Hope Project Executive Director Jeff Martineau said he expects the home could be open by spring and begin offering psychological treatment to children who were sexually abused to make a profit for adults.
The Hope Project recently received a $5,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County's Greater Muskegon Women and Children's Fund to support counseling for victims of sex trafficking, which was just one step on the long road to fund a shelter for six victims, Martineau said.
After about three years of work, an existing home at an undisclosed location in Muskegon County has been purchased, with just a few items left to purchase, along with ongoing fund raising to support its operations, Martineau said.
On any given day, at least 100,000 children are involved in the sex trade in the United States alone, Martineau said. The FBI has rescued about 1,600 children since 2003. And there are only about five or six homes nationwide for the victims, with a total of about 45 beds available, Martineau said.
Michigan is one of the worst states for trafficking because of its proximity to the Canadian border, Martineau said. That came as a shock to him and his wife Sue, of Blue Lake Township, when they went to Washington, D.C., to learn about human trafficking, he said.
“I believed it was in other countries — Third World countries,” he said.
One Hope Project board member was sold into the sex industry while a child in Hesperia, he said. Most kids don't get out unless either law enforcement busts the trafficker, or police pick the child up for prostitution and realize it's not voluntary.
“It's kind of a secret thing. The kids don't want to relive it. They don't want to talk about it,” he said.
There's no one profile of a trafficker, or of a victim, Martineau said. Sometimes, a parent will sell a child to get money for drugs. Some kids are kidnapped. Many others run away from an abusive home life, only to fall into a criminal's net.
“The Internet's definitely made it much easier on the trafficker because they have a means of advertising,” he said. “You've got to have a demand in order to have a supply.”
The average child enters the world of sex trafficking at age 12, Martineau said, though some are as young as 6. About 80 percent of the victims are girls, and a victim has a life expectancy of about seven years from the start of commercial abuse, because of sexually transmitted infections, injuries and drugs used to keep them compliant.
“A child can be raped 15 to 30 times a day,” he said. “They get them hooked on heroin, and keep them high and them doing their 'job.'”
Email: mhart@muskegonchronicle.com
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