Lois Lee is the founder of Children of the Night. This organization helps minors get out of prostitution in the United States. It offers them education and degrees with which they can use to enter the workforce. The organization was founded in 1979 and has taken thousands of people off the street.
LOIS LEE
Founder, Children of the Night
I've helped over 12,000 children and I continue to help them with their children. I continue to help them when they have trouble in their life. I have a staff, and we're 24/7. We're out on the streets, and the streets have become so dangerous because gang members have taken over. So we've had to put up big billboards to advertise our services and we're rescuing lots of girls that the police can't even rescue.
Her organization helps prostitutes or young people in vulnerable situations. It offers them, above all, education. They give free online tutoring even to those who are still within the networks of sexual exploitation.
LOIS LEE
Founder, Children of the Night
They can do it on an iPhone. They can do it on a computer. They sign on through Zoom, they have a Zoom email. There are tutors standing by. They have two appointments a week, sometimes three, for an hour. All they have to do is make their appointments, have a mobile device, and access to Wi-Fi. We have girls who are working in motels at truck stops with their pimps who will do their algebra on their cellphone, and then go out and prostitute.
Loi Lee notes that while she is proud of her work, she recognizes that the problem of child sexual exploitation is difficult to solve in the short term.
LOIS LEE
Founder, Children of the Night
It's a social problem, and until they clean up the crime and put away the pimps, and can get to the girls without locking them up in jail and provide real services, there is no solution. And that is something that is beyond everyone's comprehension. They see these people as repugnant, as diseased, as not worth help. That is not true…that is not true, I've seen it for myself. I have amazing young women who you would never know were ever involved in prostitution.
In fact, Lois Lee regrets that many of the victims of prostitution are treated like criminals.
