Nonprofit raising money to build safe haven for trafficking victims

NAPLES, Fla.- A nonprofit is raising money to build a safe haven in Southwest Florida for victims of human trafficking.

“Ninety-percent of human trafficking victims, prostituted individuals, were sexually violated as children, and I was one of them,” said Dr. Brook Parker Bello. “This issue does not care whether you’re rich, poor, black, white, Latin, or whatever status your family comes from. It is driven by lust and money,” said Bello.

Bello has made it her mission to help victims of human trafficking and sexual violence. She opened More Too Life in Sarasota, a place that addresses the root causes of human trafficking, offering victim’s services and prevention.

“Letting males, females know they’re not alone, that there is people out there that are helping them,” said one victim. “I’m a survivor and I’m, I’m growing out of it. I’m growing and it’s amazing.”

“It needs to happen here in Naples,” Bello said, referring to Path2Freedom, a local nonprofit organization looking to build a $20 million campus to provide housing and counseling to help rehabilitate human trafficking victims.

“We’re in the process right now, we’re actually looking at a particular property and speaking with the zoning department,” said Ana Stevenson with Path2Freedom.

The organization has an idea of where they want to build the safe haven, but they’re not releasing the location to protect the victims.

In the meantime, Stevenson says they’re already helping people, “matter of a fact, yesterday there was a girl that was being trafficked at a hotel and they called the hotline and we were able to pick her up there and take her to a shelter.”