Voice given to sexual slavery victims

One of the guiding mottoes of Sister Helene Hayes's religious order is, ''One person is of more value than a world." It's a phrase Hayes has taken to heart as she works on a book that aims to give voice to women and girls who were manipulated into believing their value was not as human beings but as merchandise.

Hayes, who lives at the Sisters of the Good Shepherd's community in Marlborough, has spent the past year and a half in seven countries chronicling the stories of sexual slavery around the world. She is now back in the United States hoping to do a round of interviews in this country.

Between 14,500 and 17,500 people in the United States and 600,000 to 800,000 worldwide are victims of the slave trade, according to Department of Justice estimates. These men, women, and children are unwillingly part of a $7 billion global industry that exploits human sexuality, and are deceived, coerced, or kidnapped into a life of prostitution.

''They are voiceless, they are dispossessed, they are nameless. My intent is to write a book that opens up the experience of the women and the service providers that work with them," said Hayes, after giving a lecture on her work to a group of local women gathered at the Waltham Public Library last week.

At the end of her talk, Hayes showed the film ''The Fields of Mudan," a fictionalized story about a young Asian girl who is sold to a brothel in the United States.

So far Hayes has interviewed 55 women in Sri Lanka, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Belgium, France, and Italy. Hayes is working with local service agencies to document the experiences of 10 women in the United States as well.

Hayes entered the religious life in 1958, right after graduating from high school in her native Malden. Drawn by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd's work with troubled adolescents and their dedication to marginalized members of society, she took her final vows at age 26 and later studied social work, getting a master's degree from Fordham University and a doctorate from Boston College. Her thesis on Boston's undocumented Haitian, Irish, and Salvadoran immigrants became a book, ''US Immigration Policy and the Undocumented: Ambivalent Laws, Furtive Lives."

But it wasn't until about a decade later, in 2003, that she heard about the situation of trafficked women during an international meeting of her order. That year, the sisters identified slavery among their top five priorities. Hayes decided to make it her number one priority. Her research and travel for her book are funded by the sisters.

All the women Hayes has spoken to have escaped hellish situations and are in recovery programs -- most run by nuns in her order -- that provide emotional and material support to help them reestablish their lives. Hayes asks them about their lives before, during, and after slavery. Hayes tells of one survivor describing a fellow victim who ''jumped from a building and died, and I envied her."

''I am very bitter," another told Hayes. ''No girl goes into this on her own; a hatred grew within me."

They told Hayes of the deep shame they felt, of their worries that they'd be killed or that their families would be told they were prostitutes. They also feared getting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, as they were often forced to have sex without a condom. Many of those who became pregnant say they were forced to have abortions.

Hayes said the victms tend to be young women and teenagers from poorer countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Traffickers use a variety of ruses to get them involved. Some are lured with promises of lucrative, legitimate work; others are befriended by ''recruiters" -- perhaps a boyfriend, neighbor, or relative -- who sell or betray them to gangs. Some are simply kidnapped, stuffed into the back of a car, and taken over a border where they are sold, often to organized crime gangs who then sell them to brothel owners or pimps.

They find themselves trapped in a foreign place where they may not know the language or the culture. Some may be so isolated -- kept locked in rooms and barred from contact with anyone but clients -- that they don't even know what country they're in. Their passports and identity documents are taken from them.

The women's experiences were so horrific that Hayes said she had to be very careful not to traumatize them again by asking them to relive their memories.

''A lot of them said that as painful as it was to go back in memory, it was worth it if one woman or one girl didn't have to go through what they went through," said Hayes.

Some women, she added, have become outreach workers to others just like themselves.

''There was so much crying and talking about loss, after loss, after loss," said Hayes. ''I was gratified by the honesty the women shared in the interviews, but it was painful. There were no exceptions for the 55 stories -- they were all hard to hear."

Project REACH, based in Brookline, opened three years ago to provide crisis mental health services to victims of human trafficking and consulting services to agencies that work with them. Elizabeth Hopper, the organization's associate director, said that cases in the Boston area over the past several years number in the dozens.

''We've actually had both domestic servitude and sex trafficking cases from the suburbs," Hopper said. ''It's underground, behind closed doors."

Warning signs might include a household member who doesn't speak English, doesn't interact with others, and may seem perpetually frightened or upset. In cases of sex trafficking, Hopper said, another sign may be a home or other location where there are men going in and out at all hours.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has set up a hot line to report suspected cases of trafficking and for victims to get help, regardless of their immigration status: 888-373-7888.

Stephanie V. Siek can be reached via e-mail at ssiek@globe.com.