LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Marie-Ange Mbumba's story is one of resilience, transformation and revival.
The 26-year-old is a survivor of human trafficking.
"I'm just so grateful to God for giving me the strength and courage to surpass the circumstances and make it out," said Mbumba.
As her family sought better opportunities, she moved to Kentucky as a 9-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Mbumba says she initially did well in school, but the culture shock was hard, especially as she started college. During those years, from when she was 18 to 21, her story changed drastically.
"I met a lady who was trying to sell me into prostitution, and as a result of that, I was raped multiple times and I just went through a lot of traumatic situations with that," she said. "It's kind of like a social club where everybody's connected and everybody knows that like, basically, you're going to set up this person and have sex with them and move onto the next person and have sex with the next person and things like that."
She remembers so-called "prostitution parties," where younger women and underage girls were shopped to older men for sex. She remembers her grades slipping. She remembers the emotional trauma of feeling trapped and of realizing she was a victim of human trafficking.
"I lost so many friends," she remembers. "So many people walked away from my life, and so many people thought, you know, they could not deal with me anymore because I was crying and I was just like not the same person who I was — who I used to be."
However, with the help her family, her faith and her advisors at the University of Louisville, Mbumba says she found the strength to walk away, get her degree and turn the page from trauma to transformation.
"I'm not the same person who I was going through that trauma," she said.
Mbumba on the day she graduated UofL. (Source: Marie-Ange Mbumba)
She now works for the Center for Women and Families, where she's eager to help others.
Mbumba is also preparing for a mission trip to Guatemala, where she plans to help other women experiencing human trafficking during a mission trip with the group Beauty for Ashes.
"I'm so blessed by that opportunity to be able to help people who have walked through the same shoes as I have, through similar experiences," she said.
She plans to depart in October and has started an online fundraiser to help make the mission trip possible.
"My work gives me inspiration, gives me hope, to reach out to other people who have been through the same situations that I have," she said.
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