"I didn't understand what was going on at first, but before I knew it, she had sold me."

I'm from Colombia. I was eighteen when I married, but he left me. He left me and our four children; they are still in Colombia. After my husband ran away, I was left with all the debts, the house and the children. I was stuck.

I had a friend who lived in Holland and she said she could get a job as a teacher for me. When I arrived, they took me to a house. At first I didn't understand what was going on, but before I knew it, she had sold me.

And that's been my life so far. Sometimes I eat, sometimes I have five to six clients and they keep all the money. You never know how much you get or even how much money you owe them; she keeps all the money. I want to go back to Colombia, I want to find my children, but to go back I need papers and they took everything. They burned my papers and passport.

After being there for a while, one of the girls started to teach me Dutch. I told the girls there that I can't do this if I don't understand the language. And they said, "Yes, you can. You just open your legs and close your mouth." If I didn't want to do something, they'd beat me and tie me to the bed. They put something in my mouth so I couldn't scream, and blindfolded me while the men came. One after the other, one after the other...

All we want is some kind of protection, a place where we can go and feel like a person. A good bed, some food and a way out.

If there is a place where they can't find you, if there is a place where you can start all over again and feel like a human being, that's the most important thing.

I want to go to the toilet without people standing in front of me, keep you tied up, I want to drink a glass of water, without being insulted. People take things for granted, but they don't know how blessed they are.

With many thanks to artist-activist Jimini Hignett for making her photos available to us from one of her ongoing projects with survivors of the sex industry. These self-portraits, painted on paper bags, show how they see themselves.