Covenant House Newsroom

Bessy Soto López has seen hundreds of young survivors of human trafficking come through the doors of Covenant House in Honduras during her 12 years on staff, before the term became vernacular. Coordinator of Querubines Home, our safe house, she welcomes girls ages 12 to 18, some even younger.

Bessy is part of an interdisciplinary team at Covenant House in Honduras that includes staff attorney Cesia Nolasco, psychologist Edith Pérez, and more, who together provide safety, healing, and a path forward — that includes justice — for young survivors of human trafficking. 

“Being on the frontlines, we are closest to the trafficking survivors,” Bessy says. “We do everything from helping the girls get their identification papers, to providing direct holistic care, to, finally, helping them seek justice so their exploiters don’t go unpunished.”

“It’s a huge responsibility and commitment,” says Cesia, “because human trafficking is so complicated to prosecute and prove, a crime against humanity that seriously violates the rights of its victims.”

In Honduras, she adds, “there are no security guarantees or protection for the survivors nor for those who, like us, work on the frontlines to fight this crime. We’re exposed to all kinds of threats and intimidation. One of the greatest challenges we face is to provide the survivor fast and effective legal recourse. It’s really frustrating that justice faces so many limitations of every kind.”

For Edith, the absence of trafficking prevention campaigns at a national level coupled with a lack of sensitivity among personnel in some state institutions toward these cases are serious challenges. 

Like her coworkers, she feels responsible for ensuring the holistic care of youth who have experienced human trafficking. As a psychologist, she says, “I’m focused on the mental health of the girls, teens, and youth, whose trauma is acute.”

Despite the challenges, she says, she is motivated to “contribute to positive change in those whose rights have been so violated” and to be part of their healing process. She offers survivors individualized therapy plans; self-help groups focused on depression, addiction, and impulse control; crisis intervention, relaxation therapy; occupational therapy; and motivational workshops. 

Cesia interviews each youth who comes to Covenant House in Honduras to learn whether they have fallen prey to traffickers. She informs them of their rights and explains the legal process of bringing a trafficker to justice. She then lodges the criminal complaint as a private complainant or private prosecutor, and coordinates with state and international agencies (including INTERPOL) to move the investigation forward.

“In many cases,” she says, “this work involves risks, prejudice, and rejection, but our labor goes beyond these. We are on the frontlines because we are outraged by injustice, because of our deep solidarity with those who suffer, and to seek justice with them.”

Bessy adds, “Knowing their histories and that despite everything they’ve fallen prey to they can still smile and still have the desire, the perseverance, to seek a better life, always ready to pursue their dreams, that’s what keeps me in this work.”