JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Whether you’re aware or not, the person to your left or right could be a survivor or victim of human trafficking. It’s a disgusting reality, an often-invisible issue that’s happening right here in Jacksonville.
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It’s a sense of pride in American culture to be self-sufficient, but Silvia Almond, the President of the Jacksonville chapter of Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution (SOAP), said that it can be hindering when it comes to the topic of human trafficking.
“The American culture is so self-sufficient I can protect myself. This is not going to happen to me. No way. It’s gonna happen in my neighborhood. It’s nothing happened in the school. It happened somewhere else,” Almond said.
It’s true this happens all over the world, but it’s also happening here in Jacksonville.
For over two decades, Almond has been an advocate to stop the invisible issue and for 17 years, she’s been doing everything she can to stop it here in Jacksonville.
“But I started by myself, hands on, asking for nothing, saying let me see, How can I help,“ Almond said passionately, ”I’ve been blessed that I never have any of those issues, but my heart was always going to help people.”
While she’s helped women overseas, in South Carolina and now Florida, she said this isn’t just in one area.
“People don’t realize that those houses people live in, it’s happening in there,” Almond said.
Almond is going to Jacksonville-area hotels to raise awareness. She said what America thinks of as a “brothel” is only what we see on TV or in the movies, but in all actuality, the real brothels in America are the hotels.
“The girls are all by themselves,” Almond said. “They have a lot of cash, a lot of money, they stand there in the lobby for, they don’t look like a prostitute, they look like normal girls.”
She leaves a package to a hotel manager explaining what the mission is, flyers of the current missing children in the Jacksonville area as well as flyers with human trafficking signs and prevention. They even have bars of soap and makeup remover wipes that can be given to housekeeping to put in rooms or in the lobby bathroom, with ways for victims to contact someone for help.
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But the second most popular place where this is happening is online through gaming and apps.
“It’s not like the movies say. It’s not like the TV says, they’re going to snatch you. They’re gonna take you down. That’s a 0.1% of the snatching of them. They really have a grooming process,” Almond said.
Almond said groomers are even on social media. She said she teaches parents how to talk about human trafficking with their children.
“They want somebody to listen to them. They want somebody to sit with them. They want affection from parents,” Almond said.
In April, Ohio passed a law that makes child grooming for sexual abuse a criminal offense. Almond is hoping something similar will be considered in Florida.
The law classifies grooming as a misdemeanor, with the potential for felony charges for repeat offenders or if the child is under 13 years old.
If you, or suspect someone you know, is involved in a threatening situation you can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text BE FREE to 233733
