BY ANNISTON WEBER
On Tuesday, March 3, the FHSU Turning Point USA chapter hosted Jaco Booyens – a filmmaker on a mission to stop sex-trafficking in the United States.
Chapter president Ashleigh Kramps introduced Booyens by saying she loved how passionate he was about the subject.
“I think you all will really enjoy this,” she said to the crowd. “We are very honored to have him here with us. He’s very passionate about what he does, which is important for what he believes in.”
Booyens started his presentation off by warning the present students that he was most likely going to make people uncomfortable with the subject matter he was discussing.
“I’m here tonight because by number, without question, there is sexual abuse in the room,” he said. “The people who walk through that door, by math – and math does not lie – there’s abuse here. That’s how real it is.”
Hunting and exposing sex-traffickers is something Booyens is personally connected to. After his sister was trafficked for six years, he made a nonprofit organization dedicated to victims of sex-trafficking. A few weeks before he presented at FHSU, he did a rescue saving a 3-year-old girl from sex-trafficking.
Booyens went on to give additional background about himself. Originally from South Africa, he said he is glad to be living in the United States.
“I am a proud legal immigrant to this wonderful country,” he said. “I’m very blessed to call that flag my flag and to sing that national anthem on attention.”
However, when he came to the United States, Booyens immediately saw the horrors of sex-trafficking and tried to get people to listen to him.
“I saw sex-trafficking first-hand for six years,” he said. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, would listen.”
However, Booyens said he knows the number one way sex-traffickers get to their victim.
“After 25 years you are always looking but you know what you’re there for,” he said. “If I know your greatest fear and your greatest desire, I’ll have complete control over you.”
Identifying himself as a “conservative, capitalist, politically incorrect, on-fire believer of Jesus Christ,” Booyens made sure to let the audience know that he considers sex-trafficking a bipartisan issue.
“We aren’t talking about a political issue here,” he said. “We’re talking about our children. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to fight this because it is a very difficult subject.”
The presentation lasted for approximately an hour and a half. At the end, Booyens invited students to come talk with him if they were experiencing abuse in their lives.
“This stuff is heavy,” he said. “I seriously commend you for being here tonight. Sex-trafficking is literally everywhere. These pedophiles and abusers are everywhere. There are certain things above politics. This is one of them.”
Rylee Taylor, a student who attended the presentation but is not a part of the Turning Point FHSU chapter, said she wishes that she had heard about this event sooner.
“To be honest I came for extra credit for a class,” she said. “But, even without that, I think this would’ve been something I was interested in. I wish there had been more advertising for it, since I didn’t even know it was happening until today.”
Another attendee, Whitney Nuss, said she believes the horrors of sex-trafficking should be discussed in classrooms more often.
“This is always something that young girls need to know about,” she said. “When he talked about sex-trafficking, he brought a lot of statistics that were scary but informative.”
Nuss said the most striking point that Booyens made during his presentation is that the United States is the largest sex-trafficking nation.
“You don’t normally think of the USA as a country that would have this happening,” she said. “But it’s really important that we start informing people this is happening.”