Stories Of Hope Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Shared Hope International

September 12, 2014 by SHI Staff

Pooja’s Story of Hope

My name is Pooja Ghimire. I’m 21. I’ve been living at Asha Nepal since I was 8.

My mother, Shoba, was from the same rural village in Nepal where I was born. She was the eldest of seven; when her father died, she and her mother raised the younger children. At 16 my mom married, and soon I was born; but when I was five months old, my dad married another woman for her dowry and left us without food or money.

Mother desperately struggled to care for me, but life was hard. I was very sickly. Just to survive, she left me with my father and his mother and returned to her own mother. Then a woman offered her a good job in a Kathmandu factory. That woman’s “sister” arranged the trip and gave my mom some dry meat — it was drugged. She awoke as a slave, thousands of miles away in a Mumbai brothel — where she spent five miserable years in pain and darkness, without hope.

Meanwhile, I was also in severe distress. My cruel stepmother beat and threatened me, forced me to do all the housework and take care of my stepbrother. I had no education, proper food, or clothes, while my stepbrother did. I couldn’t even remember what my own mother looked like.

My mom was finally rescued by the team from Shared Hope International’s local partner organization, and went to Nepal to stay with Aunty Bimala [the director] at Asha Nepal. They formed a plan for rescuing me. When she came to my village, my stepmother hid me — she wanted to keep her slave. But one day my mom grabbed me and ran! We fled to Shared Hope International’s Village of Hope, Asha Nepal. There I got everything I had been denied — good education, food, clothes — and lots of love and care.

At 9 I accepted Christ as my Savior. All my painful experiences have helped me realize that God is there for me. Jeremiah 29:11 became real to me: I know that God has a good plan for my life; whatever He does is to prosper me, to give me hope and a future. I’m pursuing a degree in Business Administration, to become a banker and build my own business. I want to glorify God and encourage women who have gone through the same pain my mom experienced. I believe that God will help me achieve those dreams.

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Savita’s Story of Hope

I am Savita Tamang, 30 years old; Asha Nepal has been my home for 10 years.

My mom was sold in India when she was very young. She became pregnant and sought an abortion, but my father said he would take full responsibility if the child was a boy. When I was born a girl, he refused to accept me. My mom was miserable; she had never wanted me in the first place. She sent me to various people who kept me for short periods. When I contracted polio, it became even harder to find someone to take me. Finally my mother paid a maid a large sum to take me, and I was raised in that family.

The woman’s son and daughter-in-law abused me. They forced me to do household chores dawn to dusk even when I was seriously ill. I have the bitter memory of being hungry for long periods. Eventually they forced me to marry a very poor man who didn’t even have a proper place to stay. But they lied to my mom, continuing to request money for my support.

When I refused to do what this man told me, he became violent. One day, he threw me out of the house. I was miserable. I went to stay with an aunt who had been trafficked to the brothel. She hid me in her place for three weeks, but knowing she couldn’t protect me long, she begged for help from the Bombay Teen Challenge outreach team. They arranged my rescue. I asked them to help my mom too, and they were able to free her a few months later. We both were recommended to Shared Hope International’s Village of Hope at Asha Nepal — where we started our lives again.

My mom was with me for three years before she died. My family at Asha Nepal consoled me in my grief.

I wanted to utilize the beautiful life God gave me. At school, I got good grades. I work at Asha Nepal as a caregiver for the children. Now I’m in my second year of college, studying Sociology. I’m working very hard: it’s difficult after such a long gap in my education!

God has blessed me in many ways; my dream is to be a good example for those who have lost hope and faith. I also want a family of my own, and lead a normal, happy life. God has proven to me that nothing is impossible in Him!

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Maria’s Story: Chosen by a Gang

“From when I met him when I was 12, he set me up. The whole five years was nothing but a setup.”

By 17 years old, Maria had experienced more than many ever will in their lifetime. Her mother was drug addicted and her father had a new family, both were only involved in her life intermittently, if at all. Maria and her sister were left to raise their younger siblings.

“I had to start selling drugs because that’s the only way I knew how to make money.”

When she was 12 years old, Maria met Luis*, a guy she described as “cute” and “sweet.” He showed her comfort, protection, and support she had never known and she fell in love with him. Because Luis was deeply gang-involved, Maria was forced to join his gang through an initiation process she recalls was “nothing pretty.” Maria soon became pregnant.

“He was sweet. He was so sweet when I first met him. Six months after we had been living together, he just flipped a switch, like a light switch.”

Despite Luis’ violence, Maria stayed. She believed she loved him and felt a bond with him because she had joined his gang and was carrying his child. The violence developed into exploitation. Luis began selling Maria for sex. On the weekends, she was taken to parties with a room full of men waiting their turn in line to have sex with her.

Part of me was so angry and so sad. I felt I was so lost. I didn’t know what to do. I had to numb myself. I was drinking every day, getting high. I didn’t know what to do besides numb it so I didn’t have to feel it.

Maria lived under the rigid control of the gang. She wasn’t allowed to see family or friends, leave the house, have money, or go to school. She didn’t have a choice over when to wear makeup, do her hair or what she wore. If Maria was allowed to drive Luis to work, he checked the mileage on the car to ensure she drove straight home.

I would sneak around to see my sisters and my brothers because I couldn’t give them up. And then I’d get beaten in for it. But after a while, I did cut it off completely, and a part of me died inside because I had no connection with them.

To the gang, Maria was a financial investment, a commodity to earn money for the gang. Her contribution to the gang was her body – used to carry drugs from Mexico to the U.S. and sold to men for sex. The comfort and protection of the gang she had dreamed about years earlier was a far cry from the violence and danger she experienced.

After a while, I felt I needed to fight people just because I had so much anger built up towards him. I took it out on everyone that got in my path.

She had opportunities for help, but her status as a victim was not recognized. Maria was taken to juvenile detention centers numerous times; however, each time she was directed into programs that addressed her violent behavior or substance abuse. She masked her victimization and used coping mechanisms like drugs and alcohol to numb her from the violence and pain.

They couldn’t see that I needed help or that I wanted help because I was so numb, because I was always drinking. I was always high. I had to numb myself because there was no way that I could possibly continue on without wanting to kill myself, without being numb. A lot of times I’m just so out of it that nothing mattered. It was like I was blank. I don’t think that they could even tell how I was feeling.

After five long years of abuse, Maria turned to a childhood friend for help the summer she turned 18. She hid in the safety of his basement, abandoned by her family, criminalized by the justice system, and having just lost connection to the only group and life she had known for the past five years, but free. Through the help of a local outreach organization, Maria was able to access long-awaited services to help her process the transition from a life of constant fear, violence and exploitation to a life of freedom. Several months later, multiple gang leaders, including Luis, were arrested and sentenced to spend their life in prison for murder, further solidifying her feeling of freedom and safety.

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Today, Maria serves as a mentor for girls who are trying to escape gangs and trafficking. She shares her story in an effort to prevent others from joining a gang and support those seeking escape. She plans to return to school to pursue her dream of becoming a veterinary technician.

Maria’s story is featured in Chosen Gang Edition, a youth sex trafficking prevention video to teach teens the warning signs of trafficking and dangers of joining a gang.

October 19, 2012 by SHI Staff

Brianna’s Story of Hope

Brianna was a “good girl” from a stable, two-parent home.
And yet the three men watching her saw her as an ideal candidate. She had a dream to get out of her small town … needed to make money for college tuition. She was vulnerable and innocent.

And they took advantage of her in the worst possible way.

Naively, she was lured away from family and friends … and into a strip club, She quickly realized she was required to do more than just dance.

Thankfully, Brianna’s family did not give up on her. They enlisted the help of a local police officer who understood sex trafficking, and who, in turn, enlisted Shared Hope’s help to extract her from the situation.

Brianna was rescued!

Today, Brianna still has nightmares that “they” have found her again … but she has become an outspoken activist, sharing her personal experience to save others. She recently even allowed her story to be told on a billboard in Times Square, desperately hoping her warnings will be heeded.

THANK YOU for doing your part to rescue and restore girls like Brianna. Unknowingly, she was trapped … and almost lost forever. There are so many other girls just like her!

As you give generously today, you will help us continue to reach out with the love of God to rescue the enslaved and restore their once shattered lives. You will also help us reach others before they fall into a trap, preventing abuse and victimization before it happens!

You are so vital to this work. Your faithful giving makes an impact! God bless you for what you’ll do today to carry it forward.

June 4, 2012 by SHI Staff

Story of Hope: Shamita and Kala Flee From Trafficking to Open Tea Shop

In the mountains of Katmandu, Nepal up a winding cobblestone street surrounded by ancient Nepalese buildings, garlic cloves hang from windows and hay bales dry in the sun. Women dressed in traditional garb spin yarn on the side of the road and children dressed in matching uniforms scuttle by on their way to school. Smoke from the chimney stacks can be seen in the distance as brick makers are hard at work. There on that winding road in the hill country sits a quaint tea shop. To the average passerby, it might appear to be a typical tea shop consisting of nothing more than a small front kitchen and several tables. Yet to Shamita and Kala, this tea shop signifies strength, success and freedom from Nepals’ brutal sex trafficking industry.

The owners, Kala and Shamita, are two female business leaders in Nepal—a rarity in a culture that often devalues women as property of men. Shamita and Kala once thought their lives were no more valuable than providing their bodies to man after man in the brothels of Mumbai. Even after they escaped the horrors of sex slavery through the support of Shared Hope’s partner, they were shunned by their village upon returning to Nepal. The life they never chose now banned them from those who were supposed to love and respect them most- their own father forced them to leave.

This story is all too common for women in Nepal. There is big money for traffickers who trick the women to leave through the false promise of love or a better job. Sometimes the trafficker exploits a family’s poverty- convincing parents sell their own daughters. Even if these women find a way to pay off their “debt,” the payment that the brothel owner paid the trafficker, or escape from the violent, forced situation, they often have no home to return to in Nepal. This lack of options forces many back into the violent arms of the brothel.

But Shamita and Kala did have another option. After leaving their village their next stop was Asha Nepal. “Asha” translates to “hope” in Nepalese, and this is exactly what our partner provided to the sisters.

Shared Hope staff originally met Kala and Shamita in Mumbai. They were living in an apartment that our President and Founder, Linda Smith, had secured while our partner was still building a permanent home for women and children in Nepal. Previously, their home had been one of Mumbai’s infamous brothels in the red light district. They were one of many women who desired to return to the home they knew before their exploitation, Nepal.

To meet this need, Shared Hope partnered with a visionary leader in Nepal and a team in India to develop a Village of Hope in Nepal. This home allows women from Nepal who were trafficked to India to return to their home country, even if they are banned from every returning to their family again. Together, Shared Hope Founder Linda Smith and our Nepalese partners built a home and a nurturing family for these women.

Now, moving beyond restoration, Shamita and Kala are breaking barriers in the community, showing they are more than survivors; they are thrivers. Their success is helping to shift cultural norms in Nepal. Their lives are testament that life beyond the brothel is possible. Success is possible. Freedom is possible. Anything can be possible.