Adult Survivor of Child Abuse...

"I'm the vice-president of NAASCA, the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse. We work with adult survivors, but we fight for children's rights because children don't have a voice; we all know this. So what we do as survivors is we go around  and work with different organizations. We do our best to get help for everyone. Many times, kids are in a situation where it's family members who abuse them and they don't dare tell. They've been threatened, they've been told that they're going to get killed if they tell, or they're going to kill other family members, so the kids keep their mouths shut. When children don't get the help they need, like I didn't, they end up, many times, out on the streets, they turn to alcohol and drugs, they get into detention centers, and also in foster care. If the foster care is not a good foster home, those kids run from those homes, and then we have to worry about those kids being pimped out. They get into human trafficking. So when you go into Walmart and you see those missing kids on the wall, they may be dead, they may be alive. Many of them are a part of the 'Underground Railroad' trafficking. I was kidnapped and raped when I was 12 years old in Staten Island, and I was lucky because I was brought back. I was one of 14 he abused and that guy only got three years in prison. He ruined 14 little girls' lives. For years I suffered from panic attacks--I even wrote a book called 'Panic Child.'  And statutes of limitation have to be addressed because when a child has been abused and they can't speak, they push it back in their minds and a lot of times they don't even tell their friends. Also, first time offenders--it doesn't mean they've had only one victim. It just means that it's the first time they got caught. So that's something that's near to my heart, that they get heavy sentencing just like all the rest. On one of our streets, we have 72 pedophiles. Seventy two. And there's children all over the place. Law enforcement has to work harder; we have to come together. If we have everyone's backs we can cut down on these crimes in our own neighborhoods."

You can find her website at www.naasca.org.