Survivor of human trafficking helping other survivors

(WJBK) - Debbie Monroe had just turned 13 when she became a victim of sex trafficking.

"I was at the county fair, met a man and during that day he spent time with me and bought me something to eat," she says.

Monroe says he drove her from Jackson to Detroit and that is when her nightmare began.

"I was introduced to prostitution soon as I got to Detroit and prostituted until I was an adult," she says.

Stories like Debbie's prompted Birmingham realtor Edee Franklin to create Sanctum House, a rehabilitation center for sex trafficking victims.

With grant money and private funding Franklin, is ready to go; there is just one problem.

"We're looking right now for a home," Franklin says. "We had one and it didn't work out and are looking for a home in Wayne County and one in Oakland County.

"It could be in Southfield; it could be in Detroit, Farmington Hills; wherever one is."

Now 12 years free of sex trafficking, Debbie counsels women who have gone through what she has gone through.

"I let them know they're not alone," she says. "That recovery is possible, that they can get their lives together and be successful. I try to give the support they need along the way."

While never a victim of sex trafficking herself, Franklin says events in her own life prompted her to form Sanctum House.

"In my youth 28 years ago, I'm in recovery 28 years I look back and anytime in my life I could have been a human traffic victim," Franklin says.

"Had there been a place like Sanctum House, help might have come a lot sooner," Monroe says.