Redemption

Couple fight human trafficking with ‘local heart and global mind’

Sabrina Dorman-Andrew’s blueberry-colored office contains an accent wall the shade of daffodils that reads “Do more than just exist.” She sits up in her leathery rolly-chair, her midi-sleeved turtleneck revealing bits of the tattoos on her forearms as she talks. One depicts a flock of “freedom” birds flying. Another is a phrase in arabic, which, she explains, was written on the wall when her store opened. Translated, it means, “Jesus loves you.” 

Her wide maxi-skirt drags on the ground. The bright pattern of tangerine flowers, cherry leaves and teal peacocks peeping through reflects off the light coming in from the window. The skirt was made by Leah, a sex trafficking victim. 

Dorman-Andrew sells products like these and donates 100% of the profits to her nonprofit, New Creation, which helps to provide jobs for human trafficking victims. All of the products in the store are made by trafficking victims or women at risk of being trafficked.

Downstairs, the airy space is full of books, jewelry, clothes and hope for the fight against human trafficking.

The business previously using the building sold pornography just a few years prior to New Creation opening its storefront. 

New Creation was founded in 2012 by Dorman-Andrew and her husband, Steven. Sabrina’s friend asked her to sell jewelry that was made by sex trafficking victims in Uganda, so they sold jewelry out of their dining room. When customers started asking the couple about trafficking, they learned the issue hit much closer to home than they expected. 

Sabrina often recalls being in third grade and learning about slavery. She wondered about what she’d have done if she were alive during the civil war. As she learned about modern day sex trafficking, it took her back to those curiosities of what side of history she’d be on.  

“‘We’re facing one of the biggest social crises in history,’” Sabrina thought. “‘And, I want to be on the side of justice.’” 

According to its website, New Creation works with 50 organizations on five continents to empower sex trafficking victims. For survivors in Moldova, Uganda and India, New Creation is their only main source of income. Sabrina, her daughter and some of her staff traveled to Moldova in March to work on designs with survivors.

Sabrina and her husband poured their savings into starting New Creation. Since she had no experience in nonprofit work, her church helped her fill out paperwork, like the 501-C, to open her organization. 

Steven covers shifts, shipping, processes inventory and handles donor relations. Sabrina’s focus is on educating the community about sex trafficking and assisting local police departments. 

Sometimes after giving presentations, attendees come up to Sabrina to share that they’d been trafficked without realizing it. Despite “Hollywood” portrayals, Sabrina said, people are often trafficked by someone they know. 

Through a partnership with the Richmond Justice Initiative, Sabrina has helped teach 5,000 kids in middle and high schools about the culture that lays the “groundwork” for sex trafficking. 

By Sabrina’s estimates, at the start of her presentation, 80% of the students vote that there isn’t sex trafficking in their area, and afterward, almost every student agrees that the problem exists where they live. 

As a survivor of early childhood sexual abuse — a risk factor for becoming a victim of sex trafficking — the issue was personal for Sabrina. Years ago, while watching her daughters’ basketball game, Sabrina thought about how her and her husband’s two daughters, both under the age of 10, were two years younger than the average age of sex trafficking victims.

Previously, Sabrina worked full time at a corporate company while juggling trying to open New Creation. After buying the property in 2014, she quit that job, leaving her benefits behind. She said it was worth the risk to follow her passion. 

When Sabrina came to her husband with the idea to renovate an old porn shop, he was unsure. Steven grew up in the area and said it went from a Looney Toons’ putt-putt golf course to a place to get tarot cards read before being turned into a porn shop. The most recent owners had painted the building in a “gaudy” hot pink trim. Inside, the walls, floors and toilet were painted to match. 

The couple bought the property at an auction without being allowed to look inside, despite its poor shape and location outside of the shopping district. Steven and a group of volunteers took 14 months to renovate it.

“I just believe there’s, like, such power and redemption in taking something that was bad and flipping it and using it for good,” Sabrina said. 

When it first opened, some patrons came in looking to purchase pornography. Sabrina and her volunteers took those moments to explain their mission and the link between the porn industry and trafficking. 

One woman came to the shop and told Sabrina she’d bought drugs in the building and that “really bad things happened” to her there. The store made her anxious to drive by on her commute to work. She asked if she could come in to “make new memories” that might cope with her fear. Sabrina welcomed her in. 

The next morning, Sabrina came downstairs to find the woman sitting in a chair in the corner of her store.

“Yesterday, I was scared to come by,” the woman told Sabrina, as she recalled. “Today, this is a place of peace for me.” 

“How cool was it that we could take somewhere that was so harmful and, because of our heart for our community, make it a place to feel safe and comforting?” Sabrina said.  

Sabrina also works as a “court advocate” for sex trafficking victims. She said she’s often there to hold someone’s hand and to be a good friend by acting as “liaison” between law enforcement and the survivor, a relationship that can be complicated, especially if the officer is male. 

Steven acts as a “safe male presence” in a room full of 25 female volunteers. One JMU student told Sabina that Steven was the only male authority in her life who hadn’t been inappropriate with her. 

Working at New Creation opened Steven’s eyes to how pornography isn’t “a victimless industry,” which has allowed him to share about his experiences with other men. 

“It has changed my own thought processes, fortunately, helped me to learn and understand improper thinking of my own that needed to change,” Steven said. “It’s helped me to be a better father, and it’s helped me to be a better husband.”

Sabrina said she tries to focus on how to meet the tangible needs of survivors. One woman Sabrina worked with was brought to the valley and sold. She didn’t want Sabrina’s help initially because she felt there was no hope for her. During her trial, Sarbina learned that the woman wanted to become a nurse; New Creation funded her tuition for her first year of nursing school.

“By the time I stopped working with her, she made a plan, set goals, was in position to get her RN, had hope and believed in herself and had found her own voice,” Sabrina said. “I didn’t give her a voice. I just stood with her and believed in her.” 

Though it’s been eight years since New Creation opened, Sabrina still has to work to cope with the stories she hears from her work. 

“The things that I hear, you can’t unhear,” Sabrina said. “I can’t unsee the things, and it’s hard when it’s in your community. And, I don’t, I don’t want other people to be exposed to it either. It’s secondhand trauma.”

Sabrina has a number of friends she calls when she needs to cry. 

“I can’t go into details,” she tells a friend. “Can you pray for me? I’ve really had a hard day.”

Besides seeing a counselor, Sabrina has a checklist of activities she tries to get done each month to step away from work: a monthly pedicure, a lunch date with a friend and a day to “get away.”

Christina Swecker is the volunteer coordinator and shop manager and has worked with New Creation since its founding. Swecker described Sabrina as “goal-oriented” and someone who “delegates tasks” to match people’s personalities. 

“Her heart is 100% always thinking about other people and what, what she can do to make a difference in the lives of other people, how she can help them [and] how she can serve them,” Swecker said. 

Steven calls Sabrina a “powerhouse of a woman” that he’s proud to be married to. Sabrina said she hopes to remind people, especially girls, that one person can make a difference. 

“It’s probably shattered me and put me back together is the best way that I can explain it,” Sabrina said. “It’s really hard for it to not just break your heart, cause you to lose hope … The work is hard, but I think it really has made me realize that there are more good people than bad people … It makes me feel so small, but, like, so, so powerful that one person really can make a difference.”