Queens Sex Trafficking Survivor Gets National Award

CORONA, QUEENS -- The American dream turned sex slavery nightmare of one Queens woman is being touted a national success story after she managed to not only escape, but launch a nonprofit to help other sex trafficking survivors.

Shandra Woworuntu, 41, watched her American dream play out on a national stage Wednesday evening when L’Oréal Paris named her its 2017 "Women Of Worth Honoree" for her work in helping other sex trafficking survivors get back on their feet. The award honors "extraordinary women who find beauty in giving back to their communities, according to L’Oréal's website.

Woworuntu, founder of Mentari, was selected from 10 nominees in a nationwide vote for the honor. She will receive a $35,000 donation toward her nonprofit, which has helped hundreds of sex trafficking survivors reintegrate into society by offering them resources, advocacy, education and mentoring.

Patch first spoke to Woworuntu in early November, when the Corona resident found out she was in the running for the national honor. In many ways, Woworuntu said, she felt like she'd already won. Having escaped sex slavery, followed by years of living on the streets, she felt happy to finally be able to help other survivors like herself - A life she now calls her "American Dream."

"It's just a dream," Woworuntu told Patch. "My first American dream was to get money and go back to my country, but that was wiped out."

That dream began 16 years ago, when she stepped off a flight that had taken her across the world from her home country of Indonesia to New York City's JFK Airport. After losing her job as a financial analyst, Woworuntu came to America in 2001, leaving behind her then 3-year-old-son, for what she thought would be a six-month waitressing gig in NYC. For an initial $3,000 employment fee, she said, the job was supposed to pay $5,000 per month and cover food and living expenses.

The "job" turned out to be a hoax. Instead, Woworuntu was forced into a world of sex trafficking and violence that lasted months until her risky escape.

"I was sold to many different traffickers within a few hours of my arrival," she said.

Woworuntu said in the months that followed her arrival in June, she was trafficked between brothels, hotels and apartments along the East Coast. She doesn't know exactly how long the trafficking lasted, only that the weather had grown cold by the time she managed to escape.

With nowhere to go and no help from law enforcement - officers, she said, didn't believe her when she ran to a local police station after escaping - Woworuntu was forced to live on the streets for three years.

Her luck only changed after telling her story to a kind stranger who offered to help, contacting both police and the FBI on her behalf. Since then, Woworuntu has worked to pay that kindness forward to others like herself, employing, advocating for and at times housing sex trafficking survivors.

"I had so many difficulties to survive this situation," Woworuntu said. "There is not enough help."

In 2014, she launched Mentari to offer other sex trafficking survivors the resources she never had - like counseling, job connections and other means of support - as they try to get back on their feet and reenter society. To date, her nonprofit has helped nearly 200 survivors find employment, Woworuntu said.

The organization also raises awareness in countries like Indonesia of the risks of sex trafficking in the United States, and provides resources for the country's poorest families to sell and eat so they are not forced to sell their children to traffickers, she said.

"I do this with my heart," Woworuntu said. "I don't want what happened with me to happen to someone else."

Lead photo via Getty Images for L’Oréal Paris.