The Tale of Two Survivors

Hi all,

I thought I would do a posting about a couple of trafficking survivors that I'm working with at the moment because I've been really touched by their lives and their stories. For confidentiality I won't use their real names.

In previous postings you may recall I referred to a girl called Reena. She was trafficked from Bangladesh in 2006 at age of 15-16 with the promise of a job in India. The offer turned out to be a false one and she was sold to a brothel in the red light district of Kolkata (biggest red light area in South Asia).

In February 2007 she was rescued by an organisation working in Kolkata. Reena gave her statement to the police, who subsequently arrested 4 people involved in Reena's trafficking (including the brothel madam).

After a few months staying in a shelter home in Kolkata Reena was repatriated back to Bangladesh. She then spent a few days in another shelter home before returning back to her father.

Since coming back to Bangladesh her father arranged for her to be married to a young man, who already has a wife and children. The father didn't tell of Reena's past until recently, which has caused problems in the marriage. Reena also found a job in a garment factory, which she has been working in since she returned. Sadly Reena's marriage has not been a particularly happy one - her husband is a drug addict and relies on Reena's income to feed his habit. He has a tendency to become violent, particularly when needing money for his habit.

We became involved in Reena's case last year when I went to visit her rescuing organisation in Kolkata. They had lost contact with her and the organisation who reintegrated her in Bangladesh couldn't locate her, so they asked if we would try and establish contact. They were understandably concerned about her welfare but also she needed to come back to Kolkata to give evidence in the trial against her traffickers.

We managed to make contact with her in around April 09 and since then we've had regular contact with her. Her trial was listed for May, then adjourned til June and then several adjournments later finally was listed for December 11th.

In order to get Ripa back to Kolkata we had to apply for a passport and visa, which was difficult in itself due to the many layers of red tape that exist here. Thankfully the Lord moved the hearts of the government officials to accept our various applications.

On 5th December Reena and her husband came to the office. She looked tired, malnourished, depressed and anxious. On 6th December my colleague took Reena to Kolkata on her first plane trip so she could give evidence.

On 5th January I went to Kolkata to collect Reena and was faced with a happy, much healthier, confident looking young lady. The transformation in her was amazing! I was greeted with a big hug, a huge grin and "Aunty, how are you? come and see where I've been staying...". I was then shown round the shelter home she was staying in and introduced to the other Bangladeshi girls staying there.

During her court case she had given very compelling evidence and managed to recall a lot of information with infinite accuracy and detail. The judge and police commended her for her evidence. She was extremely brave, particularly when coming up against cross examination and undoubtedly her evidence will form the pinnacle in the case against the traffickers. The verdict in the case has not yet been reached.

When Reena and I came to leave the shelter home she exchanged numbers with people in the home and said her goodbyes. It was so moving - all the other Bangladeshi girls wanted to know when they could come home, they were all anxious to tell me where they're from and if there's any news from their families. Of course we weren't really involved in their cases, so I couldn't say. I was particularly struck by one amazing young lady, who lives just down the road from us and was trafficked from that area. We have since met with her family and we're trying to get her 5-yr old daughter into a good school, so when her mum comes home she's got one less thing to worry about.

Reena and I then went to the airport. She displayed a mixture of anxiety and excitement whilst at the airport. The excitement was shown whenever it came to move on to the next stage of the airport process. She was up out of her seat grabbing her bags and mine and saying "Come on Aunty, let's go". When we sat in the airport lounge her eyes were wide with excitement and she was looking everywhere. She also had fun trying to teach me some of the Hindi she had learned during her time in India (but sadly I was a pretty bad student).

Whilst we sat waiting, I went off to buy a coffee and looked back at her sitting on her own. As a man approached to speak to her, the sense of responsibility I had suddenly dawned on me and I immediately became very protective of her - getting a real sense of her vulnerability.

As we sat on the plane ready to take off her anxiety kicked in. She held my hand and as the engines began to whir she squeezed even tighter and closed her eyes. That was when I realised what different worlds we both come from and how these worlds have now collided.

The following day Reena came into the office and was reunited with her husband. She was very excited to share with her husband of her experience and her husband was obviously proud of his wife's achievements. We spent the morning chatting to Reena about her future and we're now working to get her a place on a beauty training course, which she is very excited about.

We hope and pray as they begin this next chapter of their lives Reena's motivation and enthusiasm would continue, that she would grow and develop into the amazing woman she has potential to be and that she would be supported by her husband and his family in all she does.

This week I went to a shelter home in Jessore,in the south of the country, with my colleague, to visit another survivor, who returned to Bangladesh in October and who we have been supporting since.

She was trafficked by a local policeman but managed to escape when she reached Mumbai before being exploited.

We were encouraged by how well Sathi was doing. When we spoke to her a few weeks ago she was feeling very down and was anxious but when we saw her she was much more upbeat and her confidence has grown significantly.

Sathi comes from a very poor family. Before she was trafficked her husband had left her and married another woman and they are still living in the same village as Sathi.
Ever since we met Sathi she has been concerned about getting a good job to support her family and bring honour to them. She was educated to a reasonable standard but she has totally lost confidence to continue learning, since she's been out of education for over 10 years.

She's another remarkable woman - very caring, assertive, commands the respect of others and has good leadership skills. She feels a real sense of loyalty and responsibility to her family.

Sadly, since returning to Bangladesh, the village that Sathi is from have jumped to conclusions about what happened to her in India and they're insisting that she's an immoral woman and have consequently cut off Sathi's family from the village. The tormenting has become so bad that Sathi's brother has left home. This factor is only driving Sathi all the more to get a good job and succeed in life.

Whilst we were visiting her we managed to get a place for her in a good local clinic to get work experience as a birth attendant. Currently this position is unpaid but the director of the clinic is hopeful that it will lead to a paid position.

Sathi will have her first day in the clinic next week. We're really hoping a praying that this will be a time of blessing out of the darkness for Sathi and her family as she starts on this journey. She's still very concerned about getting an income but hopefully God will see to it that a paid position crops up soon.

We also took Sathi to see her sister in another clinic. She's had a tumour removed from her groin area and looked in a pretty bad way. Sathi immediately assumed the care-giver role when we arrived and whilst obviously being distressed it was good that she had the opportunity to spend time with her sister and mum.

We're praying that God will bless these two wonderful women in their new journeys in life and shine a light in their life after the darkness they have experienced.

Besides these two women, we've been out looking for the families of a couple of 11 year old girls who were trafficked from Bangladesh and are now staying in a shelter home in Mumbai. We're also trying to find a girl who absconded (or was taken) from the shelter home she was staying in in Mumbai - she is extremely vulnerable and there is a high risk of her being retrafficked, particularly as we suspect her family were involved in her trafficking.

I was also very privileged to be on a trip where we found the family of one of the girls I met in Kolkata. We managed to connect the girl with her family via a mobile phone and it was a particularly special moment when her daughter held the phone up to her ear and heard her mum's voice for the first time in 3 years. This is the girl I mentioned earlier, who we're now trying to support through education.

So, lots happening. Every day brings a new challenge but I'm so grateful that God has allowed me to witness some of the amazing miracles that are going on. we're hoping and praying for the day when all will be free from the bonds of slavery and people won't have to make the decision of whether they should risk a life of exploitation or risk their family starving to death.

Please pray for these girls and their families.

Nic

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