Human trafficking survivor finds love after abuse

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — A local woman is sharing her personal experience with human trafficking and how she found a new life after a very dark place. She is now an advocate to help others. Her story is a graphic one, but it’s a real story about the realities that survivors face.

Experts have said that human trafficking is a form of control over others.

“In my situation, it was, we’re going to find your children and kill them. If you don’t do this, we are going to go after your mom. In my mind, in order to protect my family, that’s what I had to do,” said Annalichia Boudreaux, survivor and board member of the Free Coalition to End Human Trafficking.

Petite, kind, and well-spoken, you would not realize that Boudreaux has experienced such trauma inflicted by her ex-husband.

“He had been drugging me our whole marriage and I did not know it. He was taking my medication, I was on a lot of depression medicine, and he was emptying out the capsules and refilling them with meth,” Boudreaux said.

“He ended up trading me off to his drug dealer to pay for the debt of his drug use. I was the payment for his drug debt. And, I was locked in a bedroom where I was there for quite a long amount of time and people came in and did whatever they wanted to me. I was beaten, starved, and drugged. This happened with someone who was supposed to love me. That I thought I knew. You never know the monster that’s laying next to you.”

She escaped. Finding a safe shelter only a few blocks away from the house where she was imprisoned, as her traffickers looked for her. She said she entered the amazing program, the Louisiana Adult and Teen Challenge, and the Minden Family Center.

“I’m not going to let fear stop me.” There is hope on the other side. There is a good life on the other side,” she said.

Boudreaux has made it her life’s mission to be a voice for the voiceless. She is on the Board of Directors for the Free Coalition to End Human Trafficking and works as a lead survivor specialist.

“My hope and my goal is to empower other survivors.”

She also found true love.

“He’s a bona fide Cajun from New Orleans, and he’s just an amazing man. He loves me. Very protective of me but wants to see me shine too. He doesn’t stand in the way of that. He pushes me. Toward all of my dreams and all of my goals,” Boudreaux said.

Married to her old friend Jason, together they pastor Hope Church in Ringgold, Louisiana.
It’s how she stays so strong.

“God and my husband. Just a match made in heaven,” she smiled as she said this.

“What you do say to other women who are fearful of being in another relationship,” asked Alexandra Meachum. “Be cautious. Don’t just trust anybody,” Boudreaux replied.

She now helps guide others through the horrors of human trafficking toward healing.

“Let them heal in their time, their ground, and always let them know, you are in control,” she concluded.

Boudreaux is also launching her own non-profit called Exodus Ignited that will offer a safe place for women seeking help and to bring their children with them. She said it will focus on a holistic approach to healing.