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Aja Houle
She/Hers
“Expert, Mother, Author”
Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking – PACT Consultant
About The Work
Aja’s piece is a narrative that highlights her experience of returning to care as a youth, taking legal action against her trafficker as an adult, and why she believes informing youth of their legal rights should be a priority whilst serving youth. “We can work to improve how we provide youth knowledge and resources they are entitled to but often don’t learn about until adulthood. Specifically, I think there is an opportunity for child welfare to partner with Minor Counsel (Foster Youth Attorneys) to ensure that youth know their options, connect youth to the appropriate legal teams and resources, and provide support— whether youth choose to take legal action or not.”
About The Artist
Aja Houle is a human trafficking survivor, mother of four, advocate, and author. A Public Affairs candidate, she graduated from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
On her journey, she came to realize the importance of spreading awareness about combating trafficking. She also came to acknowledge how valuable survivor empowerment is and its extraordinary capability to spread throughout communities. Public Affairs has become an area of focus in her life because trafficking policies do not currently reflect the fair & just policy that survivors deserve.
Aja is passionate about working together in communities at city levels to stand for anti-trafficking policies by sharing her experience as a professional in the anti-trafficking field as well as her lived experience. She has dedicated her life to preventative & reparative efforts for all forms of trafficking.
A Form of Prevention
Inform Youth with Lived-Experience of Legal Rights
When I was fifteen years old, I successfully escaped the man who trafficked me. Living in East Oakland at the time, he sold me throughout the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area and on Craigslist. This man used me as his primary source of income, forcing me to have sex with men for money, controlled everything that I did, and physically tortured me.
On a December night in 2006, he had a small house party with friends. He asked me a question while I was in the living room. Feeling completely hopeless, exhausted, and truly sickened at the sight of him, I replied in a sarcastic tone. He used a strand of Christmas lights to strangle me. That was the incident that prompted me to make a plan to try to escape. I was successful and finally got away from William Rickman.
I’d recruited a friend of mine into Billy’s trafficking ring. I felt immense guilt for leaving her behind. After my escape, I’d call her to make sure she was still alive. During one of those calls, William took the phone from her and told me that he would kill me if he ever found me. His words were not a threat. They were a vow. The countless beatings and violence I experienced at his hand were reassurance to me that given the opportunity he would murder me.
Eventually, I returned to care. I was close to turning seventeen and self-motivated to complete probation and get my life on track before becoming an adult. I knew that would take time, so I turned myself in at Juvenile Hall and went to placement at Sierra Girls Center. By the time I turned eighteen, I’d completed probation, graduated high school with my GED, had my first semester at Santa Rosa Junior College, worked for Starbucks, got my license, and purchased my first car. The relationships I built with social workers and the things I learned while at Sierra were a foundation for the “Rebuild” of my life.
In November 2019, I visited the Oakland Police Department with a colleague. My work in direct services with ILP Youth, my relationships with fellow survivors, and my dedication to advocating in this work, all influenced my decision to finally take legal action— something I’d wanted to do for thirteen years. Detectives took my statement. I continuously followed up with OPD and advocated for William’s arrest. In August 2021, the detective working my case shared with me that a warrant was finally issued for his arrest.
William had moved to Washington. He was dating a woman named Gloria Choi. Gloria was a mother. She managed a hotel her family owned in Chehalis. According to several sources, Gloria contacted police at least a dozen times between December 2021 and January 2022 to report violations of a court-issued no-contact order she’d obtained against William. He was arrested and held for a short period on one occasion. He was not held on the warrant Oakland allegedly issued.
Tragically, on January 2, 2022, Gloria was murdered while she was on the phone with 9-1-1. Gloria told dispatchers that William was chasing her. He was arrested a few days later and charged with aggravated murder. According to a charging document that references a conversation Gloria had with her best friend, “Choi told the friend she was fearful of breaking up with Rickman because he told her if she broke up with him, he would kill her.”
I can’t say that Gloria would be alive if I had taken legal action when I was younger. I can’t say that she’d be alive if he’d been arrested, held, and charged with child sex trafficking. But I’ll always wonder, had something been done differently, would it have saved her?
When I returned to care, nobody spoke with me about my trafficking experience. Although folks were aware of what happened to me, there was a “move forward” approach to my care. I was terrified of William back then. Had I known my legal rights at seventeen, I don’t think I would have come forward— but, I can’t say for sure. If traffickers aren’t held accountable and provided resources for rehabilitation they will likely reoffend and continue to exploit and abuse.
Providing legal resources to youth who have experienced exploitation can be a preventative measure. Should a youth choose to pursue legal action against their trafficker, it may prevent further abuse, exploitation, or even murder. We don’t have to wait for youth to figure it out on their own, later in life, or to come to us and ask what they can do. We can do more to inform them of their rights, connect them to legal resources, and support them through the process.
Aja Houle at 15 years old (left), William Rickman (center), and Gloria Choi (right)
Angelica Zuniga
She/Her
“Redeemed, Restored, Free”
Former CSEC Action Team Advisory Board Member, PACT Consultant, Redeemed Home Founder
About The Work
Angelica’s submission is a photography collection entitled “Just a Glimpse of My Reality.” Angelica had the opportunity to work with other survivors and take pictures of places where she experienced exploitation in Kern County.
Unseen: This is my childhood home where I was groomed until I was 12 years old taught the ropes and everyday dos and don’ts of the lifestyle. As a young girl, I always felt unseen like I was drowning in chaos, and never able to take a deep breath.
Trade: At the age of 12, I began working in the sex trade.
Affiliated: For 18 years of my life, I became affiliated with the sex trade.
Hustle: I begin to learn how to hustle and make money to support my family and my addiction. Union Avenue in Bakersfield California became my Las Vegas.
Bait: I became bait. I was sold like a product for 18 years of my life.
Alone: When I was finally able to open my eyes, I realized I was alone with no money and nowhere to go. In 2013 I started my healing journey where I’m now restored, redeemed and set free. I am no longer a product of my past
I am a lived expert sharing my story of hope.
About The Artist
Angelica Zuniga has been a consultant with PACT since 2020. She is a Survivor Leader who is contracted through the Department of Human Services to provide supportive services to high-risk and adjudicated youth throughout Kern County. She also currently sits on the advisory board with the National Center for Youth Law, is a member of the steering committee of the Coalition Against Human Trafficking in Kern County where she also co-facilitates awareness training with Common Spirit Dignity Health. In 2023, she became the Executive Director of ENOUGH HT. She is also the Chief Executive Officer of Redeemed Home; a safe haven for women over the age of 18 in Bakersfield, Ca. Her mission is to give those individuals still lost in the sex industry hope and to show restoration and redemption is possible. You can learn more at www.Redeemhome.net. Angelica believes in recovery; with the collaboration of other organizations, victims can turn into victors. She has collaborated with various organizations, safe houses, and recovery programs since 2013. Starting in 2013, Angelica oversaw Twilight Treasures, whose focus is to reach individuals still active in the commercial sex industry. When not busy with anti-trafficking related work, Angelica loves to spend time with her husband and take drives to the mountains where she recharges.
Cari Herthel
She/Hers
“Burden's Not Mine”
"Esselen Birthing Rock"
"Indigenous Prayer Song For Survivors"
Former CSEC Action Team Advisory Board Member, Vice-Chair of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County
About The Work
Cari’s original piece “Burden’s Not Mine” is a poem and song, which Cari describes as “her voice as a strength to ground through trauma.”
Cari’s submission also includes a poem entitled “Esselen Birthing Rock” and a song entitled “Indigenous Prayer Song for Survivors.”
About The Artist
Cari is a survivor leader based in Monterey County, California. Following her own recovery from sexual exploitation and experiencing labor trafficking, Cari worked for 27 years as a Recovery Resource Specialist in the areas of trauma, drugs and alcohol. Her training goes beyond trauma into complex intergenerational and traditional trauma. Due to her personal experience and as a child of the California welfare system, she focuses on issues concerning the welfare of children. California agencies seek her advice and consultancy to create Native American policies and procedures for children around education and prevention of human trafficking. She is on the advisory leadership council of Sovereign Bodies Institute, a former member of the CSEC Action Team’s Survivor Advisory Board, and is the the vice chair of Esselen Tribe of Monterey county
Diana Cisneros
She/Hers
“I am a lotus flower”
Consultant
About The Work
Diana’s submission is an reflective collection of graphic design and visual art entitled “Messages to self”
Diana shares, “the overall theme of this art is self, self-discovery, and what we are made up of in the depths of us. I wanted to hold space for depths of self that are so often neglected, but become mandatory to explore and access in difficult times when life doesn’t go how we plan despite our best efforts. People say hardships have a way of making us or breaking us but I find that there is very little space held for them doing both. Yet, so often, it is both. These pieces were my message to those deeper places inside. First within myself and also within others. A message of love, courage, and hope. “
About The Artist
Diana is a PACT Consultant, human trafficking trainer and advocate. Diana has provided human trafficking trainings across the state of California and beyond for a variety of agencies including child welfare, mental health professionals, hospitals and medical staff, as well as schools. She created specialty trainings and curriculum for both school districts and foster youth. Diana has provided direct services for survivors of all ages, led survivors groups, and pioneered multiple anti-trafficking efforts in her county.
Diana has been a guest speaker at many engagements including the National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. She has been a consultant for the CSEC Action Team Advisory Board and the Child and Family Policy Institute of California. Diana dedicated many years of work to the Kern Coalition Against Human Trafficking in its founding years, and filled many roles including co-director.
Diana’s work in the anti-trafficking field led her to be named 2016 Woman of the year at California’s State Capitol. Diana earned her degree in Crisis Counseling and is passionate about her engagement in the anti-trafficking movement at the individual, community, and policy levels.
Jess Torres
They/Them
“Artist/san, Community Organizer, Educator”
Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking – PACT Consultant
About The Work
Jess Torres’ submission is a short film featuring spoken word and visual art entitled Fire Flower…
- a poetic investigation on the concepts of relationships, ancestry, cultural identity, struggle, sovereignty and perhaps a guide for those suffering on how to be your own deliverance.
- a mental mapping of loss, pain, tragedy and uncertainty purposely and precariously balanced with concepts of transformation, resilience, hope, declarations of power and the illumination of a future.
- a portal and collective landscape of what is left behind, what is inherited, what is chosen, what is personal and universal.
- a reclamation story, reframing the memories and the resulting thoughts and feelings surrounding them.
- bridging understanding and knowledge bases, a remedy that can be shared.
- a story about who I am, not “the story”
and the freedom to tell another at any time.
*Content Warning: themes of human trafficking, child abuse, and transphobia.
About The Artist
Jess Torres (they/them) is a Trans Indigenous writer, educator and organizer dedicated to community building, direct action and policy work for the marginalized and criminalized. They are of Lenca linage born on the stretch of earth now called El Salvador; displaced on unceded Matinecock land in so-called NYC as an “undocumented” immigrant for twenty five years. Jess is a systems-impacted youth with lived experience of child trafficking.
Today, Jess resides on Tongva territory or colonially known as Long Beach, CA. They are a birth and abortion doula, prison abolitionist and harm reductionist whose activism centralizes community health based economic justice, healing justice, disability justice, Indigenous sovereignty , Trans liberation, and the dignity, and self-determination of people impacted by drug use.
Their autonomous organizing prioritizes unhoused QTBIPOC through the distribution of food, clothing, hygiene kits, condom/syringe/narcan/testing strips, and other harm reduction supplies. Holding healing circles for youth who identify as survivors of interpersonal, community and/or state violence They facilitate teach-in’s /skill shares, curate experiences of JOY, and provide mentorship to child trafficking survivors. They have also spent many years protecting first nation People’s rights to their connection to the land, our culture, language and ceremonies. They work to protect the fragile ecosystems and clean water that wildlife and people depend on and seek justice for MMIW.
Jess brings their knowledge of community control over land, community-serving land use, and water rights. In addition to this work, Jess has fifteen years of advocacy in the anti-trafficking and sex worker rights movement, serving in the following leadership roles: Training/Technical Assistance, Communications, Capacity Building and Policy and Program Development consultant and later, as the Artisan Relations and In-House Production team manager, lead product developer and social justice communications specialist with The Little Market, the Survivor Leadership Program Coordinator at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) co-coordinating a self-determination group for LA- based labor trafficking survivors and coordinating a national human trafficking survivor network organizing for social chafe rooted in labor rights, peer developed programming and outreach, displacement/im/migration protections, harm reduction, de/anti criminalization, racial, gender and sexuality equity. They are a Trainer and Communications Specialist with Rising Worldwide, a standing Consultant with Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking (PACT), the former Community Liaison for the NYC Mayor’s Office to End Gender-Based Violence, a Qns/BK Farmers Market Manager with GrowNYC and Facilitator with Grow to Learn; creating dozens of sustainable gardens in NYC public schools and participating in various water rights actions and food sovereignty efforts.
Using an anti-oppression framework and a social justice lens, Jess serves as a guest lecturer in academic spaces, a keynote speaker, and as an independent trainer and consultant. They have won several awards and their work is recognized by the City of Los Angeles and the State of CA. They have also written and co-authored various human rights and public health-based state and federal legislation, reports, essays, articles, curricula, poetry, and more. Jess collaborate with various agencies and US-based/International nonprofits to build diverse anti-trafficking and harm reduction initiatives and programs, in addition to facilitating workshops at various conferences and symposia, including work with the TransLatin@ Coalition, the Women’s Foundation of CA, the ACLU, and the United Nations.
Reshay Collier
She/Hers
“Poet, Mother, Follower of The Way”
Former CSEC Advisory Boardmember
About The Work
Reshay describes her submission as a piece about “black women who have experienced countless abuses from society, exploitation and just life. In a world that seems to never see who we are nor appreciate how valuable we are, God does and so this poem is to encourage them.”
About The Artist
Reshay is a training associate at WestCoast Children’s Clinic providing trainings about commercial sexual exploitation for caregivers and providers throughout the state of California.
Her lived experience has given her the hands-on experience to relate to important matters. Reshay has been a Survivor Leader for the past 7 years with ”Love Never Fails” an organization that fights against human trafficking along with providing housing services to youth, women and men who have been exploited. She is also a house manager there as well. Reshay is an active member of the California CSEC Advisory board where she sits among other lived experience experts who consult, create and educate other organizations on the subjects of exploitation.
She endeavors to be a voice to those who may be considered voiceless, gain knowledge and network. Outside of her work in exploitation advocacy Reshay is an entrepreneur and has a food service business, she is also a poet. Reshay believes that every experience is important and coming together collectively will create a necessary change.
Russell Wilson
He/Him
“Anti-Trafficking Expert, Consultant, Researcher”
PACT Consultant, CSEC Action Team Advisory Board Member
About The Work
Russell's piece is a written narrative entitled Thistles, about a defining memory and the impact of an experience where he discovered his own power.
About The Artist
Russell graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Anthropology and South & Southeast Asian Studies. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, Russell completed a research project in Cambodia looking at the factors of resiliency for male survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.
Russell recently worked with the National Human Trafficking Training and Assistance Center as a Human Trafficking Leadership Academy Fellow (HTLA).
Russell has also spent extensive time living and traveling throughout South and Southeast Asia, providing him with a deep understanding of the cultures as well as knowledge of the systemic mechanisms of human trafficking in those countries. As a CSEC survivor and former foster child, Russell has a unique and insightful perspective on the issues that male trafficking victims and survivors face in their daily lives. It is through these experiences that Russell brings authenticity and passion to his research and his life.
Ummra Hang
She/Hers
“Visioner, Thriver, Creator, Radiant, Passionate”
PACT Consultant, CSEC Action Team Advisory Board Member
About The Work
Everyone deserves to receive care and attention. Far too many children, women, and men are neglected when seeking services and support. Sexual exploitation plagues communities unfortunately and many don’t realize nor are they even aware that they have been victimized. My hope is that my poetry can help individuals, communities, and professionals open their eyes to the realities that for some, cannot escape, and how crucial it is to not miss the important details that are revealed and made aware of from those who are exploited. As providers, allies, and any person in position of support, it is necessary to do the inner work with self and prioritize self-care as well, so that meaningful support is not missed for those who are presenting danger signs right in front of you.
About The Artist
Ummra Hang is a second generation Cambodian American, consultant, advocate, trainer, and speaker born and raised in Oakland, CA. She is dedicated to working with those who have been impacted by child sexual exploitation as well as formerly incarcerated people. Ms. Hang has an M.S.W. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in Psychology from San José State University. She focuses on research and education in anti-trafficking, particularly around the importance of trauma, the impact of narratives that are placed on people, and language/label usage. She uses her academic and lived experiences to promote the power of healing from trauma through agency, self-empowerment, and pursuing authentic selves to realize one™s passions and goals for self-sufficiency. Ms. Hang shares her story to uplift the many others who are still silent and continue breaking barriers to help others reach a place of healing and not only survive but thrive.
Jamelia Hinds
She/Hers
“Parent, Reslient, Goofy”
Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking Consultant
About the Collection
Jamelia’s poetry collection entitled “Freedom or Perception,” highlights the constant struggle to free oneself from past trauma that resurfaces during the continual healing journey. Jamelia describes that even though she was physically free from her trafficking situation while writing these pieces, they describe the fear during her time seeking immigration relief to eventually become a U.S. citizen. She shares that poetry as her “art form, a way to escape, process feelings and leave the pain on the page. Poetry is therapy, it’s a way to release and pick up to face another day.”
Artist Biography
Jamelia Hinds survived 12 years of human trafficking as a domestic servant for an American woman. She was trafficked from Belize at the age of 12 and has currently been free for 10 years. In that short time, she secured a T-Visa, graduated with her GED and began work in advocacy. Jamelia has engaged in public speaking at local, regional, statewide and national events, integrating her experience and lending its application to the anti-trafficking movement. She initiated the first survivor support group in the greater Fresno-area of California; continues to collaborate with numerous CBO’s including the role of Survivor Leadership with Breaking the Chains, as a Survivor Coordinator for MadeForThem and has participated as a PACT Consultant since 2014. She recently received her U.S. Citizenship status.
Jamelia, a mom of two children (who were also a part of her trafficking situation) shares, “my babies are my everything and they motivate me every day to move forward and stay strong. Today I have my green card, something I thought would never happen, but I never gave up hope. Now I’m on the next chapter in my life with my kids by my side” and a future.
Survivor Leadership in California
The Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking PACT Consultant Network and the CSEC Action Team’s Advisory Board provide guidance and consultation to inform anti-trafficking programs across California’s counties. To request consultation or learn more about their respective work visit their websites.
About Our Partnership
The Human Trafficking Prevention Month Online Gallery and live event have been made possible thanks to a collaboration between the Child Trafficking Response Team (CDSS), the Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking Project (Child and Family Policy Institute of CA) ,the CSEC Action Team and National Center for Youth Law.
Re-Use/Reproduction?
Any image, photograph, video, audio recording, written material or other artform showcased as a part the Human Trafficking Awareness Month Online Gallery, are featured with the express permission of the artist/artisan who retains sole ownership and should not be reproduced and distributed without further permission from the source, unless otherwise noted.
