I have been waiting to get this story through all the approvals needed to publish it, and the time has come! It is my pleasure to share with you the story of Prema, a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl that we have been able to rescue and I have been privileged to get to know. She sat down with me in January and this is what she told me. Stories like this make all the work more than worth it. Praise God for leading our team to her. Enjoy -
Prema was born into a poor family in rural India. When Prema was small, her mother worked in the village, but Prema's father's alcoholism eventually drove her mother to move to the city to work as a domestic servant. Her father made no attempts to maintain contact, and Prema found herself in a family broken by addiction. The struggling family's poverty made school impossible for her and her sister.
For the next several years while her mother was working outside the home to support the family, Prema had no one to take care of her. From a very young age she was responsible for cooking and fetching water for herself and her mother. She spent most of her days wandering around town and, although her mother warned her to be careful, she had nothing else to do.
Like many girls, Prema got her first crush when she was fourteen. She spent time with this boy during the day and they became close friends. "One afternoon while my mother was at work, I followed him to his home," she said. "He offered me something to eat. Because I trusted him too easily, I accepted his offer and immediately began to feel faint."
She says that the next thing she remembers is waking up in a brothel. She quickly realized that he had mixed something in her food, and she was informed that she had been sold to a man who was now her owner. Her efforts to escape were futile. She was too physically weak from the drugs given to her, and her owner was determined to keep her under his control.
The first six days she spent locked in a dark room. "I was alone and scared and didn't know where I was or why the boy I trusted betrayed me," she said.
Her first interaction with a customer was violent. Her pimp forced her into a room with an old man and latched the door from the outside. The customer hit her and slapped her, before raping her. She was his prisoner for more than 36 hours.
For the next year, Prema was violently abused physically, sexually and verbally every day. She was forced to have sex with six to ten customers daily, so that her pimp could make somewhere between $2.50 and $5 per customer.
She was sold to three different brothels during that year and was seen only as a commodity. Pimps in that area of town were notorious for torturing the girls. In despair, girls around her cut their arms. A drunk customer slit two girls' throats. A few hung themselves.
"I would beg customers to free me," she said. "I tried to escape but was caught and beaten."
The girls were forced to wait lined up in a room where customers would come in and choose who they wanted. She said she would hide under her bed, under chairs, behind doors-- anything to not be chosen. Every time she did this, she was pulled out by her hair and beaten for not cooperating. She remembers holding a customer's leg and pleading with him to help her escape. She heard a thousand times that her suffering did not matter. After a year, she stopped trying to escape and resigned herself to the idea that she would stay forever.
"The other girls with me felt that we wouldn't see the light again, and we would be confined in the darkness forever," she said.
What she did not know is that IJM had already started planning her rescue. There was a group of people just miles away who had spent hours learning of her location and working with the state police to make a plan to rescue her. The staff at IJM was determined to see Prema released from her bondage. Working in cooperation with the police, IJM staff set up a time and date to free her and four other young girls trapped like her.
One afternoon almost two years ago, Prema and four other girls were told by their pimp that they would be traveling to a nearby sea beach resort because they had been booked for a party. They were all told to tell anyone who asked questions that they were all a family traveling together.
But the car the girls were traveling in was intercepted by the police. After preparation, planning and networking by IJM staff and the local authorities, the rescue operation was successful and Prema was free.
"I saw the light of hope for the first time in a year," she said smiling.
The girls were immediately brought to safe aftercare facilities. Additionally, the suspected perpetrators were placed in police custody. To this day, IJM attorneys continue to assist the case in trial and work towards a conviction.
Today, Prema is living in a warm aftercare home with eighteen other rescued girls. She is in school, she is dancing, she is laughing and she is studying with hopes of one day becoming a nurse. She has slowly realized how much her precious life does matter. She is now able to write the next chapter of her life.
Priyanka Chowdhury, Prema's case worker, said that "over the last four months that Prema has been living in the aftercare home, the staff there has witnessed her inner strength, fortitude and joy that helped her to survive the horrors she experienced in the brothel. She has been uniquely gifted in such ways that she is able to live through the challenges she has known and yet still has dreams and hopes for the future."
When asked what she would like to say to the people who rescued her, if she ever were to meet them, Prema said, "I am so grateful to the people who rescued me. I want to thank every one of them. I have been given a chance to stand on my own feet and start a new life from here. I never could have imagined seeing the light of hope again, have so many good aunties, and have a good life with so many new opportunities. I want others to be rescued -- there are so many more who are still in those dark places."
To her, the best part about living in the aftercare home is that she has a new adopted family there. She even has been able to link back to her relatives and connect her life before to her life now. During a surprise visit from her mother, Prema showed off her top scores on school assignments and proudly gave her mother a tour of her room in the aftercare home.
The social worker working with Prema's case said that her mother remarked that she "could see a dream in Prema's eyes again."
The road ahead will not be easy, as she must continue working on healing and focusing on her studies. She knows that she must utilize the resources given to her to provide real opportunity for her future. One day, she hopes to be able to support her mother, the woman who tried her best to provide for her and her sister.
"We can't forget about the other girls still trapped in dark rooms-- girls who asked me to pray that they would get taken out and given a chance," Prema said. "I want them to see that they too can have a new life."
Prema was born into a poor family in rural India. When Prema was small, her mother worked in the village, but Prema's father's alcoholism eventually drove her mother to move to the city to work as a domestic servant. Her father made no attempts to maintain contact, and Prema found herself in a family broken by addiction. The struggling family's poverty made school impossible for her and her sister.
For the next several years while her mother was working outside the home to support the family, Prema had no one to take care of her. From a very young age she was responsible for cooking and fetching water for herself and her mother. She spent most of her days wandering around town and, although her mother warned her to be careful, she had nothing else to do.
Like many girls, Prema got her first crush when she was fourteen. She spent time with this boy during the day and they became close friends. "One afternoon while my mother was at work, I followed him to his home," she said. "He offered me something to eat. Because I trusted him too easily, I accepted his offer and immediately began to feel faint."
She says that the next thing she remembers is waking up in a brothel. She quickly realized that he had mixed something in her food, and she was informed that she had been sold to a man who was now her owner. Her efforts to escape were futile. She was too physically weak from the drugs given to her, and her owner was determined to keep her under his control.
The first six days she spent locked in a dark room. "I was alone and scared and didn't know where I was or why the boy I trusted betrayed me," she said.
Her first interaction with a customer was violent. Her pimp forced her into a room with an old man and latched the door from the outside. The customer hit her and slapped her, before raping her. She was his prisoner for more than 36 hours.
For the next year, Prema was violently abused physically, sexually and verbally every day. She was forced to have sex with six to ten customers daily, so that her pimp could make somewhere between $2.50 and $5 per customer.
She was sold to three different brothels during that year and was seen only as a commodity. Pimps in that area of town were notorious for torturing the girls. In despair, girls around her cut their arms. A drunk customer slit two girls' throats. A few hung themselves.
"I would beg customers to free me," she said. "I tried to escape but was caught and beaten."
The girls were forced to wait lined up in a room where customers would come in and choose who they wanted. She said she would hide under her bed, under chairs, behind doors-- anything to not be chosen. Every time she did this, she was pulled out by her hair and beaten for not cooperating. She remembers holding a customer's leg and pleading with him to help her escape. She heard a thousand times that her suffering did not matter. After a year, she stopped trying to escape and resigned herself to the idea that she would stay forever.
"The other girls with me felt that we wouldn't see the light again, and we would be confined in the darkness forever," she said.
What she did not know is that IJM had already started planning her rescue. There was a group of people just miles away who had spent hours learning of her location and working with the state police to make a plan to rescue her. The staff at IJM was determined to see Prema released from her bondage. Working in cooperation with the police, IJM staff set up a time and date to free her and four other young girls trapped like her.
One afternoon almost two years ago, Prema and four other girls were told by their pimp that they would be traveling to a nearby sea beach resort because they had been booked for a party. They were all told to tell anyone who asked questions that they were all a family traveling together.
But the car the girls were traveling in was intercepted by the police. After preparation, planning and networking by IJM staff and the local authorities, the rescue operation was successful and Prema was free.
"I saw the light of hope for the first time in a year," she said smiling.
The girls were immediately brought to safe aftercare facilities. Additionally, the suspected perpetrators were placed in police custody. To this day, IJM attorneys continue to assist the case in trial and work towards a conviction.
Today, Prema is living in a warm aftercare home with eighteen other rescued girls. She is in school, she is dancing, she is laughing and she is studying with hopes of one day becoming a nurse. She has slowly realized how much her precious life does matter. She is now able to write the next chapter of her life.
Priyanka Chowdhury, Prema's case worker, said that "over the last four months that Prema has been living in the aftercare home, the staff there has witnessed her inner strength, fortitude and joy that helped her to survive the horrors she experienced in the brothel. She has been uniquely gifted in such ways that she is able to live through the challenges she has known and yet still has dreams and hopes for the future."
When asked what she would like to say to the people who rescued her, if she ever were to meet them, Prema said, "I am so grateful to the people who rescued me. I want to thank every one of them. I have been given a chance to stand on my own feet and start a new life from here. I never could have imagined seeing the light of hope again, have so many good aunties, and have a good life with so many new opportunities. I want others to be rescued -- there are so many more who are still in those dark places."
To her, the best part about living in the aftercare home is that she has a new adopted family there. She even has been able to link back to her relatives and connect her life before to her life now. During a surprise visit from her mother, Prema showed off her top scores on school assignments and proudly gave her mother a tour of her room in the aftercare home.
The social worker working with Prema's case said that her mother remarked that she "could see a dream in Prema's eyes again."
The road ahead will not be easy, as she must continue working on healing and focusing on her studies. She knows that she must utilize the resources given to her to provide real opportunity for her future. One day, she hopes to be able to support her mother, the woman who tried her best to provide for her and her sister.
"We can't forget about the other girls still trapped in dark rooms-- girls who asked me to pray that they would get taken out and given a chance," Prema said. "I want them to see that they too can have a new life."
What an incredible story! It's so easy to be overcome with despair thinking about the vast numbers of people suffering like Prema did, but the individual stories are good reminders that each victim is a unique and precious life. Thanks for what you're doing and for sharing it with the rest of us!
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