Not For Sale: Human Trafficking in Texas

On the second floor of the Refugee Services of Texas building, just off I-35 in Northeast Austin, a group of women chat and laugh as they craft handmade dolls. Dressed in vibrant outfits with skin and hair of all colors, the dolls are reminiscent of the women who so tentatively created them. One woman from Thailand bounces around, her long, orange-dyed hair trailing behind. There’s a woman dressed in black working quietly who only speaks Spanish. And there’s a Kenyan woman who hasn’t sat down or stopped smiling since the moment I walked in. Though they’re from opposite corners of the world, they all share one thing in common: They’re survivors of human trafficking in Texas.