On Sept. 11, 2001, Sujo John was working on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. His pregnant wife worked in the South Tower.
John escaped the North Tower but spent hours believing his wife had died. She had been running late that morning—a delay that ultimately saved her life.
In the years that followed, John struggled with a question familiar to many survivors: Why had he been given a second chance when so many others had not?
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He found his answer during a visit to a red-light district in his native India. There, a trafficking victim looked at him and said, “You can free us.”
Those words inspired John to establish YouCanFreeUs, a nonprofit that rescues and supports survivors of human trafficking while working to protect vulnerable children from exploitation.
Twenty-five years after the attacks, John shares the story of his escape, the reunion he feared would never happen and how surviving one of America’s darkest days gave him a new purpose. Here’s his story in his own words:
The following has been edited for clarity.
I left my home in India and arrived in America in February of 2001 with just $50, two suitcases and countless dreams for my family.
Within a few months, my wife and I had found jobs at the World Trade Center, achieving success in our careers and expecting our first child. I loved the vigor of New York, the city where dreamers around the world could make their dreams come true. Yet, deep within, I felt an emptiness that asked the question: is life really about making money, or is there something bigger?
September 11, 2001, the day that changed America forever, started off beautifully. I arrived at my desk on the 81st floor of the North Tower, and before starting work, I sent this email to a friend: “My life in America has taken off, but I am searching for something deeper. Would you pray for me?”
At 8:46 a.m. I was standing by our fax machines on a phone call when I heard a tremendous explosion. Something had crashed into our tower!
As the building shook, our manager Mike Benfante, a hero in my eyes, rallied us toward the stairwell, where thousands of others gathered to make our way downward. The fear of death was written on most faces.
Panic set in as I realized my pregnant wife should have been at her office on the South Tower’s 71st floor. I frantically tried to reach her, but mobile phones weren’t working.
We were near the 40th floor when first responders passed us, heading up. We high-fived them, telling them we thought they were heroes as we continued our descent. We had no idea that this would be the last time anyone would see those brave souls.
On the concourse level, I headed toward the South Tower to find my wife when I heard another explosion. Glass shattered around me as the air seemed to become a vacuum. It was the South Tower collapsing. Fear overwhelmed me, and for the first time, I thought I was going to die.
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As soot descended, I could hardly breathe through the smoke and ash, despair washing over me as I felt truly helpless. Someone near me — an FBI agent — grabbed me and we prayed together, realizing time was running out.
Then I noticed a flashing light beyond the smoke, an ambulance parked on the street level. Crawling toward the light, we emerged from the rubble. Then the FBI agent told me that he had to go back for other survivors. I later confirmed that this was the only FBI agent who died that day.
The scene was surreal, with the Towers gone and the landscape eerily transformed. I wandered around in a daze, continually trying to call my wife, fearing she was dead. Hours later, my phone rang for the first time all day. It was my wife! She was running late to work that day, which saved her life.
While we survived, thousands didn’t. They had families to go back to, lives to live, yet the horror of that day seized them too early. As New Yorkers lined up to donate blood, as people across America came together, I knew I couldn’t return to my normal life. If I had been spared when so many others weren’t, I needed to make it count.
An email I sent to my friends letting them know I was alive unexpectedly went viral. From there, media opportunities and speaking engagements opened up across America to share my story of faith and resilience. This eventually equipped me to use my platform to fund service projects around the world.
One of these led me back to India, where I visited New Delhi’s red-light district. The horror of what I saw was unspeakable—women and girls in cages, their torture and shame exposed—and I suddenly knew I had something in common with them.
I had been trapped in the collapse of the Towers, doubting that anyone would ever find me, just as they felt. As men would come and repeatedly bid on them for fetishistic exploitation, had they given up all hope of a life out of this hell?
One of them pleaded with me: “You can free us.”
In that moment my mission became clear: to rescue them and help rewrite their life stories. That was the birth of YouCanFreeUs, a nonprofit to bring freedom to women and children enslaved in the world’s darkest corners.
September 11th brought me to the end of myself, but it also led me to my true purpose. First responses risked everything to rescue me from hopelessness and darkness. Similarly, I have the responsibility to hear and respond to the cries of those living without hope in the darkest places on earth, bringing them life and freedom.
Sujo John is a motivational speaker and humanitarian who shares his message of resilience and hope around the world. He is the founder of YouCanFreeUs, an international human-rights organization fighting modern slavery.
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