Daughters for sale — The heartbreaking tradition of nari mata
In the Banchara community, one of the first things you’ll notice is the cots placed outside the houses. Embroidered pillows with deep shades of maroon and flashy gold draw the eye toward them. Some have flower petals littered over the top. These cots are...
Women like Zoya are “sacrificing” themselves for their families
Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day — and if we’re being honest, it’s a hard topic to discuss. It’s gut-wrenching to talk about somebody forced into sexual slavery. But the dark reality is, there are girls of all ages trapped in the sex...
Finding freedom: How Kan and her daughter escaped the sex industry
Kan never planned on becoming a sex worker. She used to work in construction, but her small wages were never enough to provide for her and her teenage daughter. Eventually, she became so desperate that she entered the sex industry. We’ve changed both her and her...
Families force their daughters into the sex industry
What do you think of when you hear the word “trafficking”? Before I started visiting India and Thailand, I just pictured the horror stories you hear in the news, the ones where girls are abducted from their hometowns and sold into another country. But now my...
Love your neighbor: the girl enslaved
Every little girl dreams about what she’ll be when she grows up. A teacher. A veterinarian. Maybe even a princess in a glittering castle. But Nadia’s future was planned since birth. She was destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a sex worker — at the...
Every day, I try to live my life in such a way that I accomplish at least one thing that will outlive me and last for eternity.