Vasu suggests that we take a train to our next destination, as we wouldn't have the total Indian experience otherwise. I was excited at this possibility as I'd heard about trains in India as much as the food and culture. When we got to the station we paid 5 rupees, I had to do the calculation in my head twice as this equated to 1/10 of an Australian dollar. We don't even have one cent currency in Australia! We walk up the stairs, the platform slowly revealing itself and we reach the top just in time to see a train pass by at fast speed...and everything I'd heard and imagine was true. The carriages were packed, so much so that people were spilling out of them, hanging on for dear life, the breeze casually passing through their hair. Vasu sees my expression and tells me that this isn't peak time so there's not many people on the trains. If we had come a few hours later we would have witnessed people, young and old, on the roofs of these trains and that approximately 8-9 people die every day as a result of overcrowding. Next time i'm on a crowded train I will think twice about complaining. Vasu sends Carolyn and I off to the women's section and the train quickly arrives. We pile in and I wait for the doors to close but alas, no door. We hang on to what we could in the middle of the carriage while other women comfortably stand as the barriers to the carriage slightly tilting their heads out to maintain balance. An indian experience indeed.
We arrive at Nirmal Bhavan "house of purity" a home for rescued women.
Here we meet Z, one of the women who had found refuge at Oasis and is now working as a mentor to other girls who find themselves in similar situations as she once faced. That's the thing about human trafficking, Z's story isn't just her story, it's the story of so many.
Z was ten years old when her mother passed away. Faced with an abusive, alcoholic father she ran away from home and was picked up by a woman at the local train station. The woman promised her a home and work and so Z was lured into a web of deception. Very traumatic experiences ensue in a house with other trafficked children including mistreatment, slavery, no pay, electrocution to keep them awake at night, hormone injections given to girls to control their menstrual cycles, sexual, verbal and physical abuse...the list goes on. Z goes on to show us her wrists, where a few scars are evident on her wrists and arms. She and other children used to cut themselves to escape the pain of the cruelty of the only world they knew of and eventually after many years of torture she would sit in desperation and pray that she'd contract a terminal disease so she could be free. My heart broke and left me speechless to think that we live in a time where once innocent children robbed of their fragility and pureness wished upon themselves deadly diseases in a desperate bid to leave the world that was supposed to protect them.
Sadly, Z ended up with HIV, an epidemic that still blankets this nation.
She ends her story with a whisper, our translator communicates to us her sentiments.
"Oasis is my father and mother, and forgiveness is what truely freed me".
Z is now happily married and lives to tell her story in a bid to free others.
* for the protection of identities and respect of privacy I wont reveal full names of the victims and survivors on my posts
** all stories on my posts are that of the of survivors, some facts may not yet be officially documented
We arrive at Nirmal Bhavan "house of purity" a home for rescued women.
Here we meet Z, one of the women who had found refuge at Oasis and is now working as a mentor to other girls who find themselves in similar situations as she once faced. That's the thing about human trafficking, Z's story isn't just her story, it's the story of so many.
Z was ten years old when her mother passed away. Faced with an abusive, alcoholic father she ran away from home and was picked up by a woman at the local train station. The woman promised her a home and work and so Z was lured into a web of deception. Very traumatic experiences ensue in a house with other trafficked children including mistreatment, slavery, no pay, electrocution to keep them awake at night, hormone injections given to girls to control their menstrual cycles, sexual, verbal and physical abuse...the list goes on. Z goes on to show us her wrists, where a few scars are evident on her wrists and arms. She and other children used to cut themselves to escape the pain of the cruelty of the only world they knew of and eventually after many years of torture she would sit in desperation and pray that she'd contract a terminal disease so she could be free. My heart broke and left me speechless to think that we live in a time where once innocent children robbed of their fragility and pureness wished upon themselves deadly diseases in a desperate bid to leave the world that was supposed to protect them.
Sadly, Z ended up with HIV, an epidemic that still blankets this nation.
She ends her story with a whisper, our translator communicates to us her sentiments.
"Oasis is my father and mother, and forgiveness is what truely freed me".
Z is now happily married and lives to tell her story in a bid to free others.
* for the protection of identities and respect of privacy I wont reveal full names of the victims and survivors on my posts
** all stories on my posts are that of the of survivors, some facts may not yet be officially documented
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