Freedom Fighter
Introduction to Nicole
Meet my friend Nicole. Nicole is a modern-day freedom fighter against human trafficking in Canada. After being trafficked herself, she is on a mission to bring restoration and education to Canadians from Coast to Coast. Take a minute to read her miraculous story.
Freedom Fighter
By Nicole Neufeld-Hunter
My name is Nicole Hunter and I am a survivor of Human Trafficking.
I believe God has stirred His Holy Spirit in me to join the fight against Human Trafficking because of the bondages I know come through the horrors that are involved. I’m also passionate about fighting the stigma and shame attached to the individuals that suffer through these ordeals every day.
As someone who grew up in a small Mennonite community with strong Christian parents, I understand the mentality that “it could never happen to me” but unfortunately that is just not true. The truth is that human trafficking happens often right under our noses. It does not just jump out like the devil in a red suit yelling “I’m here to get you”. Just like most other evil, it can happen slowly and progressively until the victim’s mind has been desensitized completely to what is happening to them.
This was exactly what happened to me. I had already dealt with personal issues of low self-esteem because I was attacked by a dog at the young age of seven. The attack left my face brutally scarred and throughout early childhood and into my teens, I received numerous reconstructive surgeries to repair the damage done to my face. I never felt beautiful and I certainly didn’t think I was deserving of any man’s love or attention.
My crushing self-loathing turned into a need to feel accepted by my peers and I found little acceptance within my own circle of Christian friends, so I turned to partying. It was easy to feel accepted when people only cared about you being a good time. I soon made a lot of friends who had the same interests, or at least I thought they were my friends.
At about 20, I had met one girl in particular that made me feel like I was cool and pretty. One night for her birthday she convinced me to go to the strip club with her and I agreed. We met a lot of the girls that night and I instantly felt accepted by other people who were just as broken as I was.
At my friend’s prompting, we both started working at the club as waitresses and that’s where I met “him”. This man was good-looking, he was smooth, and he made me feel like a queen. When he asked me out I felt like I had hit the jackpot, and when he brought me to fancy restaurants and bought me expensive jewellery, I felt special.
It wasn’t two months after I entered a relationship with him that his demeanour started to change. At first, it began with sarcasm and degrading comments but quickly turned to complete mental and emotional abuse. He told me I needed to start stripping because the money was better, so I agreed because his approval was something I needed at this point.
Two months after I started dancing, he started grooming me for prostitution. I wanted to die every single day over the course of the following year, he removed every sense of individuality and feeling of self-preservation. He repeatedly humiliated me and shamed me. When I tried to fight back, I was isolated with him and “corrected”. Sometimes he would be the same as when I first met him and that’s how the Stockholm syndrome developed. He never needed to physically restrain me because I was mentally his puppet.
I look back now and see God’s hand on my life, even in the worst and darkest moments. I can see Him weeping over the things that were done to me and now I weep knowing these things are being done to other women and children right now in this very country.
I refuse to be a victim any longer, I choose to be a warrior and fight against the injustices being done to the innocent and the broken. I will be forever grateful to Joy Smith for taking me under her wing and allowing me to raise the sword of truths for those who cannot yet stand and fight.
