As Cleveland, Ohio prepares to welcome thousands of attendees to the Republican National Convention (RNC), the Dominican Sisters of Peace, in collaboration with the Cleveland Collaborative against Human Trafficking, actively supported efforts to prevent sexual exploitation and rescue victims of human trafficking during the Second S.O.A.P Up the R.N.C.

The event, led by S.O.A.P. (Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution), hosted an informative seminar regarding sex trafficking and the heart breaking testimony of sex trafficking survivor and S.O.A.P.’s founder Teresa Flores.

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(Sr. Rene Weeks, OP, is a Dominican Sister of Peace in Columbus, OH.)

For two hours on Saturday morning, May 21, I listened to an undercover officer with the Columbus, OH, Police Department speak to a group of parents and teens gathered at the Martin de Porres Center about the crime of human trafficking, which he defined as the exploitation of vulnerable victims for money and profit.

His message to the teen girls was clear and graphic. “If someone approaches you and tells you how pretty you are, how lovely your hair looks, how you could have a great career as a model or a singer and how he or she could facilitate this for you, run! Tell your mom and dad at once.  If someone is offering you a job that will make you lots of money and you are only 15 or 16, it won’t be a healthy job and it won’t be legal!”

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