Sex-trafficking survivor tells tale of horror, hope at Respect Life Convocation

Human trafficking isn’t often like it’s portrayed in the movies or on TV. Usually, its victims aren’t physically restrained with handcuffs or rope.

Gina Cavallo lived in the hellish world of sex trafficking for a few years as a young adult. Instead, she said her captors kept her in psychological chains — issuing threats, using food and sleep as punishments and rewards, and filling her with shame about her work as a prostitute. Those internal scars wreaked havoc on her for years after her escape.

Cavallo, a survivor and consultant for the N.J. Coalition Against Human Trafficking (NJCAHT) recounted her harrowing experience on Oct. 28 at this year’s Respect Life Convoca­tion of the Paterson Diocese. The event was held at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Morristown. NJCAHT gave a presentation on the crime of sex and labor trafficking in English and Spanish.

“Coming out of ‘the life’ [of prostitution] has been a life sentence with traumas and triggers. It affects your housing and relationships and affects you medically, legally, and psychologically,” Cavallo, who grew up Catholic in northern New Jersey. “But later [after my escape], I met God. I learned to surrender to him. This is his plan. He has carried me through every step.”

Also that day, Solanyi Rodriguez, assistant to the diocesan Respect Life Office, spoke on Walking with Moms in Need, also in English and Spanish. It’s an initiative in the diocese that helps parishes give support to pregnant and parenting mothers and their children — part of a larger initiative by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In her witness talk on human trafficking, Cavallo said that early on, she left her abusive home. In Florida, she befriended a young man who abducted her and gave her drugs and a new identity.

After a few years in prostitution, Cavallo had a chance to meet with a young woman she knew from her hometown in a Las Vegas casino. That night, she flew home.

Eventually, Cavallo got sober, married for a second time, and had a family — but kept the pain inside. She later joined a healing ministry.

“Things I remembered — and forgot —came flooding back, but eventually, I was freed from fear,” said Cavallo, who had her prostitution and solicitation convictions overturned. A book about her ordeal is set to be published next year.

That morning, Patti Pfeifer, a co-chair with NJCAHT, said traffickers prey on vulnerable people of any background or age.

The convocation opened with Mass celebrated by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, followed by a rosary procession to a local abortion clinic.

In his homily, Bishop Sweeney said we have a “responsibility to share the Good News of the Gospel in this culture of death. People need to hear that each human is given the dignity they deserve as a child of God.”

More information about human trafficking: safernj.org. More information

on Walking with Moms in Need:

https://rcdop.org/resources-for-moms-in-need