These are some real trafficking stories taken from the Home Foundation. God, they're sad.
VICTIM’S STORIES
** Asha was only nine when her father sold her to a procurer in a Bombay brothel. She was told she would have new clothes, and that she would be working for a nice family who lived in a big house. But where she was taken was a strange place. “Where’s the pretty house?” Asha asked shyly. There was no pretty house; just a small, damp room with a cold hard floor that Asha was locked in.
A woman unlocked the door and came in to put makeup on Asha’s face. The woman then opened the door and allowed in a man. Asha was told she would have to do sexual favors for him. She didn’t want to, so she fought. Another man came in, beat her with a belt, and continued beating her for several days. They gave her no food. Weakened, Asha decided it was useless to resist. She serviced her first “client” and continued to do so for the next seven years. Until she met a man named Devaraj.
Devaraj was different than the other men she had known. She met him at a small church near Falkland Road. There he taught messages of hope that lifted her spirits. He talked of freedom. She visited there as often as she could.
Deveraj helped Asha leave the brothel that had been her home since she was a young girl and moved her into a “Home of Hope.” Now she is learning how to live. She is learning a new trade. And thanks to people who care, Asha’s life is no longer surrounded by pain and disappointment. It is full of hope and optimism for the future.
** Nagma was dying on the street with her two young daughters, Muskan, 5, and Anam, 2, sitting next to her and begging. Bombay Teen Challenge discovered that Nagma was a Commercial Sex Worker who had been thrown out of the brothel when she contracted AIDS. Her two young daughters were thrown out along with her.
Nagma was a Muslim orphan who had been tricked into marriage and was sold to a brothel. She had given birth to her two daughters while she was in the brothel. She was taken to a hospital and while there, she handed over both her children to Bombay Teen Challenge. Sadly, Nagma died within a few days of being admitted to the hospital.
Although Nagma’s life came to a tragic end, God in his great mercy has spared the lives of her children from following a similar course. Muskan, the older girl, has tuberculosis and Anam is HIV-positive. At present they are being given the necessary medical treatment and are being sent to live at the recently established Jubilee Orphans home.
** Katya, with a two-year-old daughter and a failing marriage in the Czech Republic, followed the advice of a “friend” that she could make good money as a waitress in the Netherlands. A Czech trafficker drove her along with four other young women to Amsterdam where, joined by a Dutch trafficker, Katya was taken to a brothel. After saying “I will not do this,” she was told, “Yes you will if you want your daughter back in the Czech Republic to live.” After years of threats and forced prostitution Katya was rescued by a friendly cab driver. Katya is now working at a hospital and studying for a degree in social work.
** Tanya’s story: “My friend organized for me to get a job in Egypt. We traveled together from Chisinau to Moscow where I got on a plane to Egypt. When I got to the airport in Egypt, I was paired with a man in order to walk through customs and immigration. People were waiting for me and they took me to a five-star hotel. I gave up my passport at the reception of the hotel and never saw it again. They put me in a car and we drove for a really long time. We went to a place where Bedouins are [Egypt's Sinai Peninsula] and those Bedouins took us through the desert. At one point, I heard gunshots and I think a girl was killed. They kill you or beat you if they don’t like your attitude. We had to walk for hours and hours through the desert where there were landmines. They pointed out the mines to us in the sand. We hardly ate and I lost 10 lbs. by the time I got to Israel. When we got out of the desert, we were taken to a town in Israel, where the Bedouins arranged for us to be sold. Many girls were traveling with me, and all the girls going to Israel go through the same route and the same situation.”
© 2009 The Home Foundation. All Rights Res
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