Human trafficking nixed
with Ahava help

(WTNH) - Prostitution is a centuries old crime. But some women are forced to sell themselves against their will. News Channel 8 is the first to get a look at a home dedicated to helping victims of human trafficking. 

Ray Bechard heads Ahava Kids which will run the house he calls a sanctuary.  It's a safe place for young people forced into a life of prostitution.

"What we hear from law enforcement and criminal justice at every level is that when they find a victim of human trafficking, they have no place to put that person," Ray Bechard, of Ahava Kids, said.
   
Now they do. It's a place to get away from a troubled life, but most of all a place they can rebuild their life.

The reason News Channel 8 cannot show you any video, which would identify the house, is because in order for Ahava Kids to help these victims they need to keep them safe and that means keeping them away from the people who controlled their lives.

A woman, who we'll call Marie, was lured into prostitution because of a drug habit and forced by a pimp to sell herself mostly through the website Craigslist.  On an average day, she would have four so-called dates.

"Any kind of money I made, or found, belonged to him," she said. "I was his property."

Now with a safe place to stay, she's getting her life together.

"It gives you just an incredible amount of security which you probably have not had in that situation in a very long time," Marie said.

But unfortunately her pimp has most likely moved on.

"Their next thought is where's my next girl?" she said. "Oh well, this one's come and gone. Oh well next one."

Another girl who needs to know there is another life.

"When they see there's a glimmer of hope, when they see there's another option you can see their soul start to come back into they're eyes," Bechard said.

And that is what fuels their mission and this house. 

Visit Ahava Kids for more information.