i'm meredith vieira. every year human rights advocates estimate almost a million women worldwide are illegally bought and sold into sexual slavery. what you might not know is that over 17,000 of them end up right here in the united states. in the next hour, you will hear some of their harrowing stories. to protect these women, their names have been changed. it's a story that begins in the ruins of the shattered soviet empire and ends in heartland america. >> i was watching a lot of tv shows about human trafficking, and i uld never believe that could happen to me. and when i get in this situation, i believe this can happen anytime. >> this woman we'll call katya now shares her destiny with a million young women and girls bought and sold in the global sex industry. it has long been a problem, particularly in katya's home country of ukraine where young women enticed by fake job ads and slick recruiters end up modern day sex slaves. >> salary starts from $200 a month. >> single mother sophia left her son in u

>> reporter: for "today," meredith vieira, nbc news. >> in the coming months meredith will have hannah'sexclusive special. >>> still ahead maria schriver talks to the author of "the vagina monologues" about her battle with cancer. up next, what you can do with google glass. right after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] nothing gets you going quite like the power of quaker oats. today is going to be epic. quaker up. today is going to be epic. sometimes all you need is the wow... sometimes all you need is the smooth creamy taste of werther's original caramel to remind you that you're someone very special. now discover caramel apple filled werther's original. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. [ sigh of relief ] minute maid pure squeezed light has half the... sugar and calories of oj with great taste. i mean, who doesn't want to cut calories and look better naked? you roll around in your birthday suit all day. you're not even we

here's meredith vieira. >> here we go. see?: she's the radiant little girl whose sparkling personality has always defied the rare deadly disorder she was born with. ♪ o mister sun, sun >> we'd get phone calls from the hospital. i'd say, did she die? it was like a nightmare. >> reporter: born with no windpipe hannah warren was kept alive for two and a half years by a tube inserted from her mouth into her lungs. she spent her life in this neo natal intensive care unit in seoul, south carolina, unable to breathe, talk, swallow, eat or drink on her own. ♪ >> reporter: but last month she was flown 13 hours to peoria, illinois, where she's become the first child in the world to receive an artificial windpipe grown with stem cells from her own body. >> this is the page-turning in science. this is like the first organ transplant, like penicillin. we are turning the page in medicine. >> this little girl was a prisoner. now she has a chance to have a relatively normal life. >> reporter: the operation was performed three weeks ago by an >