Sharmila worked in a brothel outside of Kolkata for five years after having been trafficked from Bangladesh when she was 18 years old. After being told that she had paid back what she owed to the madam, she decided to remain in the Kolkata area. She recalled the abusive nature of her previous family life, she decided that returning home would not be in her best interest.
“From the moment that a woman has paid her debts, she is free to leave the brothel.” Sharmila said. “But these women are socially stigmatized outside their ‘homes’ and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings.”
“From the moment that a woman has paid her debts, she is free to leave the brothel.” Sharmila said. “But these women are socially stigmatized outside their ‘homes’ and thus often choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their earnings.”
When Anju was 18 years old, her husband told her that she should travel to Kuwait to make some money for the family as a domestic worker. Upon arriving at the airport in Kuwait, she was taken to the home of a local businessman. For the first month she did housework. But then she was forced to provide sexual services to the men in the house as well as those from other families. At first she resisted, but after regular beatings she finally gave in. Since her family had borrowed from moneylenders in Bangladesh, she felt she could not return empty handed. For three years she remained in this situation until her visa expired and she was returned to Bangladesh.
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Sushma was trafficked to a brothel in Mumbai. After nearly four years, when she had paid back what they said she owed, she was allowed to leave. Since her family thought she was in India working in a carpet factory, she returned home without telling anyone what she had been doing. When asked where the money she had earned was, she lied and said that it was stolen as she was returning home. Although she was allowed to reintegrate into the community, she lived in constant fear that someday someone would recognize her and reveal her secret. She did her best to live with the shame and the depression that followed her long ordeal.
Overview of India
Population: 1.32 billion (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 1.14 million (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 1158 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Hindu 80% and Islam 15%
GDP per capita: $1,710 (USA $57,466)
Population: 1.32 billion (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 1.14 million (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 1158 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Hindu 80% and Islam 15%
GDP per capita: $1,710 (USA $57,466)
"I felt very scared that evening and I refused to eat anything. I soon noticed that many men were coming in and out of the house and I realized it was a brothel. I began howling and shouting. I said that I wanted to leave. Renu Lama told me that I was ignorant. She said that I did not just come easily and I could not go easily. She said that I had been bought and I would have to work as a prostitute in order to pay them back."
"On the fourth day that I was in the brothel, my first client came to me. I refused to have sex with him. He had already paid so he grabbed me and tried to rape me. I fought him off. He had managed to get my clothes off but he was very frustrated because I was resisting him so much. He stormed out and asked for his money back. A couple of the brothel owners (voluntary prostitutes) came in and beat me. When they were done, the same man came back in."
"Some of my associates overheard the owners saying that they were also planning to sell me to a brothel in Sarat because I was too much trouble. I decided that I could not wait until the boy returned from Nepal. I had to try again to run away. I asked some of the other girls to run with me, but they were too afraid. We had been told that we would be killed if we tried to run away. But I had determined that I would rather die than stay in the brothel. The other girls pooled their money together and came up with two hundred rupees. In exchange for the 200 rupees, I promised that if I made it out alive, I would get help for them. "
"On the fourth day that I was in the brothel, my first client came to me. I refused to have sex with him. He had already paid so he grabbed me and tried to rape me. I fought him off. He had managed to get my clothes off but he was very frustrated because I was resisting him so much. He stormed out and asked for his money back. A couple of the brothel owners (voluntary prostitutes) came in and beat me. When they were done, the same man came back in."
"Some of my associates overheard the owners saying that they were also planning to sell me to a brothel in Sarat because I was too much trouble. I decided that I could not wait until the boy returned from Nepal. I had to try again to run away. I asked some of the other girls to run with me, but they were too afraid. We had been told that we would be killed if we tried to run away. But I had determined that I would rather die than stay in the brothel. The other girls pooled their money together and came up with two hundred rupees. In exchange for the 200 rupees, I promised that if I made it out alive, I would get help for them. "
When Mona was 13 years, her mother died and her father remarried. The stepmother was uncomfortable with Mona and wanted to send her away for some job, where she would be able to look after herself. Along came a ”contractor” who arranged jobs for youngsters as domestic help, etc. He paid a certain sum of money to the stepmother and took Mona to a town far away. He got her a job in a massage parlour as a ‘receptionist’. Even before Mona got to know the work profile, she realized that she had been trapped into sexual exploitation. She had become a sexual slave to the ‘customers’ who frequented the place for full-body massage.
Overview of Kenya
Population: 48 million (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 224,000 (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 214 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Christian 84% and Islam 10%
GDP per capita: $1,455 (USA $57,466)
Population: 48 million (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 224,000 (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 214 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Christian 84% and Islam 10%
GDP per capita: $1,455 (USA $57,466)
“We always believe that white men have money, so when they come here we hope that they will get us out of poverty,” said Sabina. “They give us a lot of money and sleep with us. We use the money to pay rent for our parents and buy food.”
Emily, a 16-year-old orphan, said she was forced into the business due to poverty and peer pressure. Her aunt encouraged her to engage in sex with white men to help pay family expenses. Emily is now infected with HIV.
“I have slept with different men, especially whites from Germany, Italy and the USA,” she said. “I regret it but I had no option [at] that time. I started the business at age 10, when a friend connected me to an Italian tourist who had visited the country for three months. I had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep.”
Emily, a 16-year-old orphan, said she was forced into the business due to poverty and peer pressure. Her aunt encouraged her to engage in sex with white men to help pay family expenses. Emily is now infected with HIV.
“I have slept with different men, especially whites from Germany, Italy and the USA,” she said. “I regret it but I had no option [at] that time. I started the business at age 10, when a friend connected me to an Italian tourist who had visited the country for three months. I had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep.”
Eighteen-year-old Saumu, who began selling sex at 15, holds out little hope of a better future: she has a 3-year-old son from one client, and is eight months pregnant by another.
“I had wanted to become a doctor, but my mother couldn’t pay the school fees so I dropped out and started going with men for money,” she said, sitting in a community centre in Kombani town, 12 km (7 miles) from Diani. “It’s not where I wanted my life to be. But when there is no option, you do it and slowly it becomes a habit.”
Commercial sex work, although illegal, is a rampant daily occurrence in Nairobi. “Approximately 7,000 sex workers operate in Nairobi per night, with each having an average of 3-4 clients, which translates to between 21,000 and 28,000 sexual activities a night,” a report said. City authorities ruled out legalization of prostitution despite demands by sex workers that they be recognized. Some of the registered licensed massage parlour are actually operating as sex dens and brothels with both owners and patrons aware of the same, hence increasing the popularity of sex work in Kenya.
Real Restoration now has a presence in a slum area of Nairobi. Already we are seeing an impact on women’s lives that are longing to get out of the sex trade.
“I had wanted to become a doctor, but my mother couldn’t pay the school fees so I dropped out and started going with men for money,” she said, sitting in a community centre in Kombani town, 12 km (7 miles) from Diani. “It’s not where I wanted my life to be. But when there is no option, you do it and slowly it becomes a habit.”
Commercial sex work, although illegal, is a rampant daily occurrence in Nairobi. “Approximately 7,000 sex workers operate in Nairobi per night, with each having an average of 3-4 clients, which translates to between 21,000 and 28,000 sexual activities a night,” a report said. City authorities ruled out legalization of prostitution despite demands by sex workers that they be recognized. Some of the registered licensed massage parlour are actually operating as sex dens and brothels with both owners and patrons aware of the same, hence increasing the popularity of sex work in Kenya.
Real Restoration now has a presence in a slum area of Nairobi. Already we are seeing an impact on women’s lives that are longing to get out of the sex trade.
Overview of Nepal
Population: 29 million (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 56,827 (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 510 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Hindu 80% and Buddhist 10%
GDP per capita: $729 (USA $57,466)
Population: 29 million (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 56,827 (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 510 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Hindu 80% and Buddhist 10%
GDP per capita: $729 (USA $57,466)
Charimaya Tamang, who 19 years ago went out to the fields to cut grass in her village in Nepal. Typically she would have gone with other women from her village, but that day she was alone. A group of men grabbed her from behind, tied her hands and made her swallow “a powder.” When she woke up she was in a city in northern India. “I had never seen tall buildings before,” she recalled. It was a lot hotter than her village and the men offered her a soda. “I didn’t want to drink it but I was so thirsty,” she said. The heat and soda were her last memories before finding herself in a Mumbai brothel under the care of a woman she called “Auntie,” where she remained in forced prostitution for 22 months. |
A brothel pimp or madam pays close to $2,000 for one trafficked Nepalese girl, according to Rupa Rai, head of Caritas Nepal’s gender department. The girl is then obligated to repay this fee over time. Charimaya Tamang was the first woman in Nepal to file charges against her trafficker and win. The very same men that made her drink that soda were caught and put in jail, she said.
The daughter of Nepalese peasant farmers, Geeta -- now 26 -- had been sold to a brothel in Indiaby a member of her extended family. The family member had duped Geeta's visually impaired mother into believing her daughter would get work at a clothing company in Nepal. "The brothel where I was ... there [were] many customers coming in every day. The owner used to verbally abuse us, and if we didn't comply, [she] would start beating us with wires, rods and hot spoons." It was not until Geeta was 14 that a police officer rescued her and brought her to a safe house compound run by Anuradha Koirala. The 61-year-old woman and her group, Maiti Nepal, have been fighting for more than 16 years to rescue and rehabilitate thousands of Nepal's sex trafficking victims.
The daughter of Nepalese peasant farmers, Geeta -- now 26 -- had been sold to a brothel in Indiaby a member of her extended family. The family member had duped Geeta's visually impaired mother into believing her daughter would get work at a clothing company in Nepal. "The brothel where I was ... there [were] many customers coming in every day. The owner used to verbally abuse us, and if we didn't comply, [she] would start beating us with wires, rods and hot spoons." It was not until Geeta was 14 that a police officer rescued her and brought her to a safe house compound run by Anuradha Koirala. The 61-year-old woman and her group, Maiti Nepal, have been fighting for more than 16 years to rescue and rehabilitate thousands of Nepal's sex trafficking victims.
Overview of Uganda
Population: 41 million (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 93,000 (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 440 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Protestant and RC 84% and Islam 14%
GDP per capita: $615 (USA $57,466)
Population: 41 million (USA 325 million)
Square miles: 93,000 (USA 3.16 million, excluding Alaska)
Density: 440 people/sq mile (USA 102 people/sq mile)
Predominant Religion(s): Protestant and RC 84% and Islam 14%
GDP per capita: $615 (USA $57,466)
During the day, there is nothing really shocking about the city. “All hell breaks loose at night and Kampala turns this is a supermarket of sex workers,” says 37-year-old Namuli, a newspaper vendor opposite Christ the King Church.
One Saturday, I was shocked when one tiny girl, who looked to be in her mid- 20s, was picked and dropped by five men in just one night.
Pastor David Kaizi of Christian Ministries Kyambogo, has said that Kampala has degenerated into a red light district.
“I am so worried that the world is coming to an end. Parents are just worried about their little children, the little children are now also worried about we the adults because we have become monsters. Women are on the loose on the streets and shameless men are taking advantage of these fragile women.
“We need to pray hard to God to save us from this ‘spiritual cancer’ that is eating the world apart. Unless we come to God, nothing is going to get right.
On the drive over I asked the driver what are the famous sights of Kampala and he pointed at the numerous street walkers which we passed every 10 feet. They were starting their shift for the evening. He continued to explain that these girls are the most famous thing to see in Kampala.
"BUT you must be very careful… all of these girls have AIDS."
"Really?"
"Yes, they all have AIDS here. It is a big problem."
We are excited to be in Uganda, to see many girls lives saved, and hope restored.
One Saturday, I was shocked when one tiny girl, who looked to be in her mid- 20s, was picked and dropped by five men in just one night.
Pastor David Kaizi of Christian Ministries Kyambogo, has said that Kampala has degenerated into a red light district.
“I am so worried that the world is coming to an end. Parents are just worried about their little children, the little children are now also worried about we the adults because we have become monsters. Women are on the loose on the streets and shameless men are taking advantage of these fragile women.
“We need to pray hard to God to save us from this ‘spiritual cancer’ that is eating the world apart. Unless we come to God, nothing is going to get right.
On the drive over I asked the driver what are the famous sights of Kampala and he pointed at the numerous street walkers which we passed every 10 feet. They were starting their shift for the evening. He continued to explain that these girls are the most famous thing to see in Kampala.
"BUT you must be very careful… all of these girls have AIDS."
"Really?"
"Yes, they all have AIDS here. It is a big problem."
We are excited to be in Uganda, to see many girls lives saved, and hope restored.
How does my support help?
Nutritious food
Clothing
Shelter
Medical testing
Education
Vocational training, job skills, computer education
Hygiene
Relocation assistance (move a girl/woman from a harmful environment)
Most importantly, you will be the light of Jesus
Nutritious food
Clothing
Shelter
Medical testing
Education
Vocational training, job skills, computer education
Hygiene
Relocation assistance (move a girl/woman from a harmful environment)
Most importantly, you will be the light of Jesus