The Prostitute's Story

Last week I went somewhere I had never been before. A few of the G42 girls met up in town with a woman named Betsy who lives Granada. We got in the car and drove for the better part of an hour. For a while, the view outside offered a shimmery Costa del Sol, bustling beach towns, and sunny ocean front properties. After a while though, everything seemed to turn grey. In place of bright and cheery houses, we saw square, dull buildings – rows of warehouses, distribution centers, and cheap Chinese shops.

This was where the girls called home.

For some reason I had envisioned in my mind that the girls would be standing in a line altogether on the street, waiting for their clients. But as we drove through the street blocks I realized that each girl had her own corner, her own “territory” you could say. Rounding the corner, I saw a row of bushes with two pristine high heels delicately sticking out from behind. There she was.

Waiting for business.

As we drove a little further down the quiet street, her dark, smooth skin came into sight, adorned only by lacy lingerie and sheer pants didn’t leave much mystery about what was underneath. She had long eyelashes and bright colors on her black eyes.

Most people would call this woman a whore. Most people would think of her as a slut.

We found out she had a story.

Her name was Favor. She’s 24 years old and has been in Spain for 2 years, 8 months, and 13 days. She’s working to pay off the €50,000 debt she owes to a man who promised to get her out of Nigeria and take her to Spain where she could find a good job and earn money.

Back at home in Nigeria, her family doesn’t talk about what she does, but they and all the other families boast about their daughters “working in Europe.”

We asked Favor if she wanted to get off the streets. She defeatedly, and quickly, huffed “Of course.”

But she has no education and no way out. She’s never been to school, and no other jobs offer enough money for her to pay off her debt.

 Someday, she dreams of being a hairdresser. She even wants to open her own salon, just like her mom.

She did have one job offer.

A man she met on the streets said she could work in his bar in the evenings, as long as he could have her whenever he wanted.

“When I leave the streets, I am leaving the streets.

I don’t want another job where I have to keep giving away my body.”

This is reality. 

There are 1 million other women just like Favor in Europe, smuggled in from Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Spain alone has 300,000 women forced into prostitution.

Women looking for jobs, yearning for a real future, and desperately seeking a life that doesn’t degrade their bodies… but they’re stuck. They see no way out.

We have to do something to stop this... 

to help them.

Betsy is planning to open a women's home in Granada for the women who get the courage to leave their lives on the street and fight for a better life for themselves. The home will offer opportunities for education, job training, a safe place to stay, provisions, community, and protection.

A few G42 interns and staff members work with an organization called MATTOO - Men Against the Trafficking of Others. MATTOO has traveled all over Europe and the U.S. this summer, recruiting men to join the movement against human trafficking and publicly display their decision not to participate in these girls' continued enslavement.

People are taking a stand.

Men are taking a stand. 

Will you?