The marginalized group we presented on were victims of sex trafficking. I really enjoyed the interview portion of this assignment; the person we interviewed wishes to remain anonymous, so I will not mention her name here. I enjoyed the interview because it seemed more real than the book we read; it’s completely different when someone tells you their story in person. Our interviewee was very willing to tell us about her experiences and about other women she knows who have been sex trafficked. I thought the presentation was very difficult to discuss; educating our classmates was difficult with such a vulnerable topic. The hardest part about educating others was discussing the terrible offenses that others have experienced because they were sex trafficked. One of the scariest points we made was this could happen to anyone. Sadly, it happens to girls who are very young. I learned that we, as occupational therapist, can provide an environment for healing and help victims of sex trafficking to perform basic activities of daily living (ADL’s) like taking a showers again; this can be a struggle after suffering from abuse. Many times an abuser will force victims to perform ADL’s at specific times, against their will; when they come out of captivity, many times they are psychologically unable to perform the daily activities that we take for granted. As occupational therapists, we can help them overcome this sad product of their abuse.
