Are You A Day Tripper?

Alecia Driggins was only 10 years old when her dad's friend began to molest her. She lived with her dad because her mom died of a drug overdose. She soon tried to escape the hell boiling within her and was promise a better life through her much older boyfriend, who was in his 30's.

Ironically the promise wasn't any better. It actually was much worse. At 24 years of age, Alecia has been a prostitute for already a decade. She has spent a quarter of her life in jail. She never got a high school diploma. And, she is 6 1/2 months pregnant.

She says that pregnancy has hurt her job. Johns don't care if you are 10,12 or 18 years old. But, when they see her pregnant on the streets, the johns usually give her spare change but don't request her services.

On a typical day, Gloria, another prostitute in the South, works 11 am to 7 pm on one "track" or street. She gets a break from 7 pm to 9 pm. Then, she hits another track from 9 pm to 2 am. She makes $300 a shift, sometimes up to $700 total for the day. Her pimp takes all of it or she is beaten almost to death. If she is lucky, he will give her change to maybe make the payment on her motel stay for one night.

One night she thought her pimp was going to kill her. Fortunately, she was arrested and given a chance to go to Children of the Night. At 17 years old, she is now finishing high school, college is next on her agenda.

Lois Lee was the founder of Children of the Night. Thousands of male and female prostitutes have been helped in the 30+ years it has been instituted.

In 2009, thus far, more than 45 teen prostitutes have been saved in a national sweep in over 27 cities.

Desiree from Oakland was pimped on the internet and her pimp earned over a thousand dollars in one month. She got a very painful pelvic inflammatory disease and a busted lip. She never saw any of the earnings. She also was awarded a criminal record- possession of drugs and truancy.

Desiree felt comfortable with older men because her dad forced her to touch him since she was 12. When Desiree was arrested, she told the cops she felt comfortable with the john she was caught with. It was later discovered that the john had a machete and had planned to use it on Desiree.

A lot of prostitutes loss their valued commodity once they contrac sexual diseases. If they can't work, they can only give massages or stop working. These prostitutes are simply dropped off in another neighborhood, never to hear from the pimp again that they depended on to support them.

Project Re-connect and MISSEY (motivating,inspiring, supporting, and serving sexually exploited youth) have wonderful programs and services that will help get teens get off the streets and back to as normal of a childhood as possible.