Speaker tells how she became crusader against sex trafficking

As Kimberly Ritter began a lecture at Southeast Missouri State University on Wednesday evening, she acknowledged human sex trafficking is an uncomfortable topic to discuss.

"It's a topic some don't believe," she said. "But tonight, open your hearts, open your eyes. Change the way you see it, change the way you think. There are going to be hard things to look at, but there's a way to fix that. And you are that way."

Ritter is a senior account manager for Nix Conference and Meeting Management and leads the company's corporate social responsibility trafficking initiative.

Together, Ritter and Nix have been dedicated to combating child sex trafficking in hotel properties since 2008.

Wednesday's event at Southeast was hosted by a Cape Girardeau-based not-for-profit organization, Unified Young Leaders.

Karen Muramatsu, president and founder of the organization, said its focus is creating the next generation of young leaders for the betterment of the world.

Eight years ago, Ritter said, the Sisters of St. Joseph asked her for a hotel that could hold 1,000 people and said the hotel also needed to fight sex trafficking.

Ritter thought sex trafficking wasn't happening in the United States.

But the sisters changed the way Ritter thought, she said.

She researched the topic online and found the average age of entry into the sex trade was 12 years old.

Her daughters at the time were 12 and 13.

"I wasn't going to stand for that," she said.

Ritter now brings awareness to the issue of sex trafficking through speaking engagements, written articles and interviews.

Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the United States and globally, according to the Polaris Project organization, which operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.

The national hotline and resource center has played a role in identifying more than 11,000 survivors of trafficking over the course of fielding more than 85,000 calls, according to Polaris.

Sex traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage and other forms of coercion to force women, men and children to engage in commercial sex against their will.

Sex traffickers may lure their victims with the false promise of a high-paying job.

Others promise a romantic relationship.

Sex trafficking exists within diverse venues, including fake massage businesses, online escort services, residential brothels, in public on city streets and in truck stops, strip clubs, hotels and motels and elsewhere.

When fighting sex trafficking, Ritter said, education is the most important tool.

Some child victims are brought back home every night, she said.

She advises people to look for warning signs, including: a child stops attending school, the child has an older or adult boyfriend, suddenly has money, toys or other gifts or refuses to talk about a secret shared with an adult.

At hotels, watch for those who are renting a room without luggage or whether several men are coming to the same room at unusual hours, she said.

Eighty-percent of trafficking victims are female, and more than 50 percent are children.

"This is hard to listen to, but if you are aware, and if you know it happens, you can end sex trafficking," Ritter said.

For more information on the warning signs of sex trafficking and how to prevent it, visit polarisproject.org or exchangeinitiative.com.

klamb@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, Mo.