Donna Simmons' lived experience is different than most. But the trauma she endured as a child and young adult -- the torment she faced for years -- has made her who she is today.

Rather than curling up in a ball, never to speak of her past again, Donna has taken hold of that trauma and transformed it into purpose -- a purpose to help other survivors of human trafficking reclaim their lives and dignity and move forward in life. Just as she has.

And for that we are grateful.

Today, Donna serves on the Advisory Board of the Bakhita Empowerment Initiative, where survivor-led care is central. Her lived experience brings vigilance, humanity, and accountability to the work of supporting survivors and educating communities.

"Suffering does not deepen because it is unseen, but because it is seen—and dismissed,” she said.

She speaks not as a clinician or volunteer, but as a survivor whose life revealed how exploitation can hide in plain sight when authority goes unquestioned and vulnerability is misunderstood.

Human trafficking does not always announce itself with chains or locked doors. More often, it moves silently through systems meant to protect -- homes, institutions, and relationships where trust is assumed and obedience is seen as a virtue. It thrives where harm is reframed as "discipline," and control as "care."

Never Enough

Donna grew up in what appeared to be a perfectionistic home. Behind closed doors, however, she endured relentless verbal and physical abuse. Small mistakes were met with beatings; her dreams of becoming an actress or singer were mocked; her body and worth were routinely compared to others she was told were more deserving. Even as a straight-A student, she recalls, “I was never enough to earn affection or acceptance.”

That conditioning shaped what followed. After her father died when she was thirteen, Donna entered a behavioral health facility in Southern Indiana. There, within a system meant to protect and heal, a staff member exploited her vulnerability.

"He told me I was 'mature,' 'different,' 'special', she recounts. “I didn’t recognize the grooming, I just knew I was desperate to be loved.”

At sixteen, she was married off to a trafficker in his thirties—an outcome she now understands as the tragic convergence of unchecked abuse and systemic failure. Years of psychological and relational unraveling followed.Yet from that suffering came clarity and purpose.

A wife, mother, author and advocate, Donna's presence on the Advisory Board of Bakhita affirms a truth she now champions: dignity is not erased by trafficking. Suffering ends where dignity is defended—and where silence is finally broken.