Saturday: Body and Sold

If you ever do think of child sex trafficking, you probably picture it happening in some far-off place.

Maybe a port somewhere in Thailand - someplace most definitely unlike your own, quiet Midwestern town.

But the bald fact is that children are being sexually exploited here, and by that I mean here - in your community and mine.

Just last week, two Omaha women were arraigned on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges for allegedly prostituting underage girls - at least one girl younger than 14 years old - in Council Bluffs and Omaha.

There are other cases, too, of local girls as young as 12 who are forced or coerced into prostitution. For every case that does come to light, there are many more we'll never hear about.

It's one of the reasons trafficking is so hard to investigate and prosecute - the silence. Victims are too scared to come forward, police and witnesses don't know what to look for. Nobody talks about it.

“People kind of stick their heads in the sand,” Karen Vlasek told me Tuesday. “They don't want to hear about it.”

Vlasek, 65, has been trying for years to raise local awareness about trafficking. She understands it's a complicated and uncomfortable issue - when she brings it up to friends, the table goes quiet - still, she tries. “It's got to stop,” she said.

Vlasek is president of the Soroptimists of Cedar Rapids/Marion, which will present a staged reading of the documentary play “Body and Sold” on Saturday in the Commerce Club - 16th floor of the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel, downtown Cedar Rapids.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., the play starts at 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $10 at the door and all the profits will go to local agencies for children and to aid Tempest Productions in its campaign against sexual trafficking.

The play tells the story of six girls and two boys who are seduced, lured or kidnapped into a life of violence and sex slavery. It's based on interviews with actual survivors - a few of the thousands of American children who are lured or forced into that life.

It examines the interconnected issues of child abuse and runaways, and will be followed by a panel discussion. Parents, it's not for young children but it is for you - for all community members. I'll see you there.

It's past time to pay closer attention to this growing industry - to stop the coercion of young kids into prostitution right here in our own neighborhoods.

And isn't it always the case? The first step is opening your eyes.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com