Ima Matul was born and raised in Indonesia. As a 17 year old teenager she was offered a job to work in the U.S and have a better life and better opportunities. The labor recruiter told Matul that everything that needed to be done for her to come over would be taken care of, such as passport, tickets, and visa.

After arriving, Matul was offered $150 a month for working as a housekeeper. She was expected to cook, clean, do laundry, caring for the children, garden, and wash the car. It wasn’t ideal but it would be more income than she would receive in Indonesia and would allow her to pursue her American Dream.

When Matul got to L.A. she found out that the labor recruiter was a trafficker.

The house that Matul was staying in became a prison. She worked eighteen hours a day or more, and she worked seven days a week. Matul had no days off and never saw a dollar of the money she was promised.

Sadly, Matul’s story is far too common; there are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today. According to the U.S State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year, within these numbers 80% are women and half are children.

There are many types of slavery that just get pushed under the rug and aren’t brought to our attention. Matul is just one woman out of millions who have been “a common day slave.” Worldwide there is about 4.5 million victims of sex trafficking both adults and minors. Women and children are typically taken to escort services, massage parlors, motels, hotels, strip clubs, and are prostituted on the streets. They are forced to participate in pornography.

In the world today more than a quarter of the world’s slaves are children. The children are trafficked into domestic work, sexual slavery, hazardous child labor,  illegal adoption, and other illegal activities.  Globally there are 168 million child laborers and half are in hazardous work conditions.

Matul was forbidden to talk to anyone or do anything other than what she was asked for. Everyday she was physically and verbally abused by the trafficker. One time Matul had to get stitches because the trafficker hit her in the head with a ceramic salt shaker.

“The abuse was getting kind of worse and worse. I had bruises on my face and forehead and even been to the emergency room to get stitches. I cried. I couldn’t sleep at night,” Matul said.

The young girl wanted to run away but she barely spoke any english and the trafficker would tell her that if she ran away she would be thrown into jail where she would be abused and raped.

After three years of being abused and treated like a slave, Matul secretly wrote a letter to the nanny next door asking for help.  

A few days after Matul gave the nanny the letter she planned Matul’s escape of the house she’d been held captive for three years. They drove far from the house and she never onced asked where they were going. She was just happy to leave the house.

The nanny took her to the offices of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) in Los Angeles. They provided Ima Matul with support groups, counseling, job training, and legal assistance.

She finally learned how to write and speak English and joined a leadership development program offered by CAST.

Ima Matul now works there as a Survivor Organizer. She is a speaker and advocate for the rights of immigrant laborers in the United States and brought the real issue of human trafficking to the surface.

“Instead, I spent the next three years in domestic servitude being abused” Matul said at the U.S Democratic Convention. She finished by saying “I have hope we can end human trafficking.”

Just like Ima Matul there are many people out there that have survived horrible days just like hers. Other woman have been sold on the street for money as young as 12 years old. There are many women out there that have been in Matul’s shoes and lived to see the future.