Born of a police woman and painter in Budapest, Hungary on June 3, 1977, Timea Nagy’s extraordinary journey began.  Along with her older brother, Zoltan, Timea suffered through her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce as a child.  In spite of difficult family circumstances, Timea toured as an accomplished soprano and excelled in school. From volunteering to athletics to art and music, a passion for teaching quickly unfolded.   As life would have it, a spine injury would change those plans. 

It was during the recovery from injury Timea was moved by musical artist, Pierrot, while confined to bed.  The melodies and lyrics provided the needed inspiration to move forward and heal.  Out of her profound appreciation, it became her mission to spread the word about Pierrot and his music.  After meeting the singer in summer of 1991, Timea launched and managed his fan club over the next 5 years growing it from a handful to well over 1,500 active members to this day.    Because of the success and knowledge gained through Pierrot and the Hungarian music scene, Timea landed an intern position with the local TV station, Csepp-TV, where she created a successful local show for the teenage market which then further opened doors in the music industry.  Her next step was to found Independent Movie Makers where she wrote, produced and hosted her own live-to-air shows.  She had the good fortunate to interview up and coming or well known Hungarian and American musicians such as Akos, Animal Canibals, Charlie, Backstreet Boys, Enigma, Moby, and Prodigy just to name a few. Her talent was quickly recognized by industry experts. Top artists noticed Timea’s fresh and unique vision and began collaborating with her on small projects. From this, she developed professional relationships with Hungary’s top artists and became a sought after video/concert/documentary producer. She worked with established labels such as EMI, Sony Music Hungary, BMG Ariola Hungary, Warner Hungary and Polygram.

 

Before her 20th birthday, Timea made what was to become an extraordinary and life-changing decision to visit and work in Canada for the summer of 1998 to earn extra income during a lull in the music video production market.  She answered an advertisement and spoke with an articulate woman who told her she could work as a housekeeper, nanny or nightclub dancer, which sounded like a good opportunity to explore another culture and save some money for her future. 

 On April 18, 1998, Timea arrived at Terminal 3 in the  Pearson International Airport.  Filled with excitement for a summer of adventure, Timea was whisked away by her ‘employers’, stripped of her identification, and informed her work contract was in fact  of an exotic dancer – not what an intelligent, sweet and naïve young lady from Hungary would have ever dreamed for herself.  

Here starts the journey of an immigrant sex slave.

 Timea was forced to work as a sex slave in Toronto, Canada for the following 3 months including numerous occasions of sexual assault at her ‘employers’ hands as well as a Canadian agent - a living nightmare.  On August 18, 1998, she miraculously escaped her captors and made it back to Budapest, Hungary.  But yet again, life had other plans.  While she thought she was returning home to safety, instead she was in even greater danger as the Hungarian police failed to protect her.  Against all reason, she went back to Canada where she actually felt more secure.  

 In March of 1999, Timea contacted and began working with Detective Bert O'Mara with the Canadian police force who headed up a joint task force, Project Almonzo, consisting of Immigration, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other social organizations to clean up the exotic industry in the Greater Toronto Area and to bring her own captors to justice.  Unfortunately in March of 2004 after 6 longs years, the trail ended finding her ‘employer’ and sexual assaulter not guilty on all charges.   More disappointments would follow.    As if that wasn’t devastating enough, her boyfriend and roommate at the time took his own life only one week later in their shared home.  And to add more salt to the wound, Timea’s work permit expired with the closing of the court case; she lost her job and hit the financial skids.   She was understandably devastated and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

 Even then, she wasn’t ready to go to Hungary because she was terrified she might be hunted down by the Hungarian Organized Crime members she successfully put in jail in 1999. Through a series of fateful twists and turns, Timea was granted Permanent Resident status in February of 2005 by the Canadian government, which began her return to wholeness.As part of Timea’s journey to heal and forgive the pain of the past, as well show appreciation for all those who helped her along the way, she has been giving back to the country and community that eventually treated her with kindness.

Timea has shared her vision of hope through answering suicide hotlines, distress calls for the United Way, as well as developing a number of fundraising events for youth-oriented organizations such as Future Aces Foundation.  Out of that experience and strong desire to affect change, she founded No More Violence, a project designed at stopping gun and youth violence in North America. 

 Timea is certain proof we each have the opportunity and choice to live full and joyful lives in spite of difficult circumstances.  As a living example of grace in action, Timea is guided by unseen hands in everything she does to this day and the best is truly yet to come!