Boardman audience learns about tragic toll of human trafficking

Boardman audience learns about tragic toll of human trafficking

Staff report

BOARDMAN

One photograph shows a 15-year-old girl named Grace looking like many teens: short, styled blonde hair, blue eyes and an innocent smile.

Another taken two years later, however, shows her with disheveled hair, a faraway look and a discolored face – all obvious signs of long-term abuse.

Welcome to the world of human trafficking.

“At age 17, she looks like she’s been run over by a truck three times,” said Isabel Seavey, a co-director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition on Rescue and Restore, a 3-year-old organization dedicated to stopping and educating others about human trafficking, often known as modern-day slavery.

Seavey gave a brief presentation today at Evergreen Seventh Day Adventist Church, 7668 Glenwood Ave., about forced prostitution to roughly 50 people who also attended a screening of “Nefarious:” Merchants of Souls,” a 90-minute documentary that explores the complexities of human trafficking, a billion-dollar industry in the United States and abroad.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.