Human trafficking survivor and activist Timea Nagy hosts book launch
Kingston based awareness and support coalition Fighting Against Sex Trafficking 101 (F.A.S.T 101) will be hosting a meet and greet with Timea Nagy, human trafficking survivor, activist, and author of Out of the Shadows at Balzac’s Coffee on Tuesday, Jun. 4, 2019 at 5 p.m.
Nagy has assisted in changing several human trafficking-related laws in Canada and continues to advocate for effective and systematic change to all levels of government.
She is the Founder and CEO of Timea’s Cause, which creates sustainable funding for rehabilitation initiatives for victims of sex slavery across Canada, as well as providing education initiatives on human trafficking.
Out of the Shadows is Nagy’s memoir of her experiences in the underworld of human trafficking and the Toronto sex trade. After answering a newspaper ad in Budapest calling for young women to work as babysitters and housekeepers in Canada, Nagy was lured in by a ring of international human traffickers pretending to be a recruitment agency.
Nagy arrived in Toronto hoping to be able to send money back to her family, but was told she needed to repay her debt in order to be free. Nagy was forced into sex labour at nightclubs, where, no matter how hard she worked, her debt seemed only to go up, not down. Her agents starved and controlled her, brainwashing her to believe she was to blame for her situation.
Nagy said that while she encountered difficulties during the writing process due to the triggering nature of the memories, she felt that her story needed to be shared.
“I realized that the story of human trafficking needs to be told in details from the victim’s perspective so people can finally have a real understanding of how this can happen to someone, and why is it so hard to leave and try to rebuild your life after,” said Nagy. “I think it is important to tell the story so we take it seriously and, as a society, make a decision that we are going to end this in our lifetime.”
Nagy said she felt “honoured to be celebrating the release of Out of the Shadows with the people of Kingston” and described the Kingstonians she had worked with over the past five years as an “amazing group.”
Nagy said she hopes that readers of Out of the Shadows “feel proud to be Canadian. After all, I was rescued and saved by Canadian people.” Nagy also said that she wanted Out of the Shadows to help readers realize that “human trafficking is still happening and that 89 per cent are victims now are Canadian girls between the age of 12 and 21.”
“We need to do better,” said Nagy. “We must do better.”
F.A.S.T. 101 can be reached on Instagram at @fast101_ygk or at the F.A.S.T. 101 fighting against sex trafficking Facebook page
Information about Timea Nagy’s life, writing, and activism can be found at: https://www.timeanagy.com
For more details on Nagy’s work educating the public and helping survivors of sex trafficking, visit https://www.timeascause.com
The 24 hour Canada Human Trafficking Hotline can be reached at 1-833-900-1010.