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Human Trafficking Victim To Speak At Awareness Event On South Coast This Week

Photo by Soroptimist International of Ventura

There’s an effort on the South Coast this week to fight human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Dawn Schiller, a survivor and now advocate, will be at a Community Walk and Speaker Forum on Thursday in Ventura where she’ll talk about how she felt as a human trafficking victim that started when she was only 15 years old.

"Hopeless.  I wanted to die everyday.  I tried to commit suicide multiple times," she says.

Schiller says after 5 1/2 years, she finally became free but it was still very difficult for her.

"When you leave an abuser like that, things don't go away.  You have such emotional trauma and scars and bleeding that it's really difficult to be in your own skin," she says.

Sponsored by Soroptimist International of Ventura, this Stop Human Trafficking event takes place at 5:30 pm on Thursday at the Museum of Ventura County.