SOLD

I recently finished the book “Sold” by Patricia McCormick. It is a novel told from the viewpoint of a young thirteen year old girl Lakishma that has been sold into sex-trafficking. She is from a small village in Nepal and is taken across the boarder into India. McCormick has clearly done some good research because she comes up with some spot-on illustrations and tells this very difficult story in a captivating way. I want to give you just a couple excerpts:
**These have some graphic content**

[p. 15]
EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW

Before today, Ama says, you could run as free as a leaf in the wind.

Now, she says, you must carry yourself with modesty, bow your head in the presence of men, and cover yourself with your shawl.

Never look a man in the eye.
Never allow yourself to be alone with a man who is not family.
And never look at growing pumpkins or cucumbers when you are bleeding.
Otherwise they will rot.

Once you are married, she says, you must eat your meal only after your husband has had his fill. Then you may have what remains.

If he burps at the end of the meal, it is a sign that you have pleased him.

If he turns to you in the night, you must give yourself to him, in the hopes that you will beat him a son.

If you have a son, feed him at your breast until he is four.

If you have a daughter, feed her at your breast for just a season, so that your blood will start again and you can try once more to bear a son.

If your husband asks you to wash his feet, you must do as he says, then put a bit of the water in your mouth.

I ask Ama why. “Why,” I say, “must women suffer so?”

“This has always been our fate,” she says.
“Simply to endure,” she says, “is to triumph.”

[p.120]
LUCKY TO BE WITH HABIB

A man with lips like a fish comes into my room and says, “You’re lucky to be with Habib.” He is squeezing my breast with his hand, like someone shopping for a melon. I try to push him away, but my arm, stone-heavy from the drugged lassi, doesn’t move.

“You’re lucky,” he says, “that Habib is your first one.”

I close my eyes. The room pitches this way and that.

“You can tell the others that it was Habib,” he says.

I open my eyes, watch him squeeze my other breast, and wonder: Who is this Habib he keeps talking about?

“If this is really your first time,” he says. “Old Mumtaz is a tricky one.”
He unbuckles his belt. “Once before, she sold Habib used goods.

The fish-lips man removes my dress.
I wait for myself to protest. But nothing happens.

“Habib,” he says. “Habib is good with the ladies.”

The he is on top of me, and something hot and insistent is between my legs.
He grunts and struggles, trying to fit himself inside me.

With a sudden thrust I am torn in two.
“Oh, yes,” he says, panting. “Habib is good in bed.”

I hear, coming from a distance, a steady thud,
thud,
thud,
and register that this is the sound of a headboard hitting a wall.

After a while,
I don’t know how long,
another sound interrupts the rhythmic thud of the headboard.
I know this noise from somewhere.
I work very hard to make it out.

Finally, I identify it.
It is the muffled sound of sobbing.

Habib rolls off me.

Then I understand: I was the person crying.

Escaping El Salvador's sex traffickers

The BBC put out a report that spoke on trafficking around Central America is endemic and often women and children are forced into prostitution.

But now decisive international collaboration is beginning to have an impact.

Rafaela is godmother to Milagros and has looked after her since her mother died as a child, treating her as she would a daughter.

When Milagros told her godmother about a job offer in a casino in El Salvador, Rafaela was immediately suspicious.

"I told her to be careful," she remembers, "but when she got a contract it all seemed OK.

"Her salary was going to be $1,000 a month - nearly 10 times her salary here in Nicaragua. And they said they would pay for her food and accommodation for the first two months too."

Leaving her baby with Rafaela in Managua, Milagros set off for El Salvador's capital, San Salvador.

Duped

As a teenage single parent, she dreamed of owning her own home. But in Nicaragua - one of the poorest countries in the region - this would be impossible.

Attracted by El Salvador's dollar economy, she thought she would be able to save money.

But Milagros had been duped. In San Salvador she was held prisoner in a brothel by men with guns.

Milagros called Rafaela secretly and told her she had been kidnapped. Rafaela heard the sound of gunshots before the line went dead.

For a moment, Rafaela thought she might have been killed, but then Milagros called again.

"I told her to try and remember any landmark - a mango tree or a large building - anything that might identify where she was being held," she remembers.

Milagros was beaten when she was discovered on the phone a second time. But then one of her guards took pity on her and let her call home a third time.

Armed with the information she needed, Rafaela phoned the police in Nicaragua who contacted El Salvador's trafficking unit:

"In a matter of seconds, the police in El Salvador went in and rescued her.

"When they got back to the police station, the sergeant called me. He was very happy and so was I. He said Milagros was in a terrible state, but - she was alive."

Stigma

San Salvador is a noisy, busy city overlooked by a spectacular volcano. The streets are crowded with bars, in many sex is for sale.

I accompanied Sgt Jose Noe Ayala on a drive around the city to see the places where police have discovered trafficked women and children.

In one of the upmarket areas of the city, he pointed out a non-descript building, this was where Milagros was held.

"We rescued four girls that day," he tells me.

"Three were teenagers under the age of 18, all Salvadorians. And then there was Milagros, from Nicaragua."

After she was rescued, Milagros tried to commit suicide twice. Each time she first called Rafaela to ask for forgiveness and to say goodbye.

"She was feeling guilty. And responsible for everything that had happened to her," Rafaela says.

"I told her, there is no need to feel guilty. You have not done anything wrong."

There is a stigma attached to being trafficked because of the sexual nature of the crime.

Speaking out

This is the first time Rafaela has told Milagros's story. She wants the world to know what happened to her god-daughter.

"I am speaking out to you to say to any single mother or any adolescent, 'If you are offered a good job, do not be dazzled by the high salaries, because the price you pay is too heavy'," she says.

"We do not always have the courage to talk about trafficking, but we must be open about these things so this story is not repeated in other families."

After her rescue, Milagros was looked after in a new refuge for victims of trafficking in San Salvador. It is the only one of its kind in the region.

She received psychological support and also helped the police build their case against the group who trafficked her before being sent back to Nicaragua.

Rafaela will never forget the day Milagros returned.

"She was lovely, my little girl, but destroyed by her experience," she says.

Since returning, Milagros has stayed outside Managua, hidden somewhere the traffickers will not find her.

Now she is preparing to return to El Salvador to testify against her captors. Rafaela says Milagros is terrified.

"I know it is going to be very difficult for her," she says, "but I feel it is something that will help her get over what happened."

There have been few convictions for trafficking in Central America but Rafaela knows that this will only change if there is more cross-border co-operation between institutions, governments, and those who, like Milagros, became victims of the traffickers.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I am back in Nepal right now. And it feels ramro cha to be back! Stepping off the plane was like coming home. For those of you two don't know my father has never been to Nepal before and made the "mistake" of saying to me, "I feel like there is a part of you I do not understand since I have never seen Nepal before, so if you plan a trip I will get us there." BAM! Itinerary in his inbox the next day :) Needless to say we have been having a great time.
Nepal is cold, of course, but the people make it warm and it has been a delight to introduce my father to the many friends I have here.
On the day we landed Kumar met us at the airport to give us a ride into Thamel and get us all situated. He has always had a huge hand in anything that has taken place on my previous trips here so it was good for my father to meet him - and so good to be able to see him again and catch up. As we drove the crowded streets of Nepal one of my father's first comments was "they sure like to honk their horns here!" - haah! It was only the beginning I told him. We grabbed dinner at the Rumdoodle and called it a night.
On the 14th we headed to the Leper Colony that I visit each time I am here so I could introduce my father to Igeio - one of my favorite people on the face of the planet. I have to admit each time I travel there I get a bit nervous that he might not be there - his health continues to deteriate each time I see him. But he was there and was looking good. I was able to spend a good amount of time with him and my father was able to see the colony, meet Igeio and see the church. We spent the rest of the day walking around hanging out with many of the street kids and rickshaw drivers I am lucky to call friend. My father was able to meet Rita, Sangita, Maya, Raju, Mr Om, Casey, Saroj, and many more!!
On the 15th we arose EARLY in the morning and took a sightseeing flight with Yeti Airlines over Everest. It was BEAUTIFUL. Pictures did not capture and words will not be able to describe. And I got to see Everest from the cockpit of the plane. It was an exciting expereience. We then grabbed some breakfast at the Mandap Guest House which is where the Peak Performance teams eat breakfast each morning when they are in Nepal. We got to eat sitting next to a wood burning fire and of course enjoyed the hilarious company of our favorite Nepali waiter! When we got back we were able to hook up with Harka - a friend from back home in California. He is working on his doctoral studies in El Monte which is real near Pasadena. He is back in Kathmandu for about a month to check up on his family a ministry. It was fun to see him in Nepal and actually visit the ministry I get to hear so often about. I was able to meet the many kids that are a part of his orphanage and then visit the church that he pastors. We also took a walk over the the plot of land that they have purchased with the hopes of building a church and then one day a school on. His wife cooked my father and I a delicious meal of dal baht!! It was a wonderful afternoon. We shopped a bit in the afternoon and ended our day with dinner at the Roadhouse.
And now today my father and I will take a car to Nagarkot for a little R&R. I hope we get a good view of the beautiful mountains. It has been great weather so far so I am hopeful. We have many more exciting meetings when we return to Kathmandu and then as we move into Bangkok and Popiet. I'll be sure to fill you in on it all - including some thoughts and reflections on why I love Nepal, the needs in Nepal and the tensions I feel in my heart.

Israel's Sex Trafficking Crisis

The BBC researches a story about a young girl "Marina." Marina rarely leaves her two-room home in northern Israel these days.

She is in hiding - wanted by the Israeli authorities for being an illegal immigrant, and by the criminal gangs who brought her here to sell her into prostitution.

Marina - not her real name - was lured to Israel by human traffickers.

During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.

"When I was in the Ukraine, I had a difficult life," said Marina, who came to Israel in 1999 at the age of 33 after answering a newspaper advertisement offering the opportunity to study abroad.

"I was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon, and other women there told me I was now in prostitution. I became hysterical, but a guy starting hitting me and then others there raped me.

"I was then taken to a place where they sold me - just sold me!" she said, recalling how she was locked in a windowless basement for a month, drank water from a toilet and was deprived of food.

That part of her ordeal only ended when she managed to escape, but the physical and mental scars remain.

Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (Tip) report.

While this year's report said Israel was making "significant efforts" to eliminate trafficking, it said it still does not "fully comply with the minimum standards" to do so.

Like Marina, some trafficked women are brought into the country legally, while others are smuggled by Bedouins across the border from Egypt.

In all cases, the traffickers - as many as 20 in the chain from recruitment to sale - take away the women's passports before selling them on to pimps.

Sometimes the women are subjected to degrading human auctions, where they are stripped, examined and sold for $8,000-$10,000.

Sanctions threat

Prostitution in Israel is legal, but pimping and maintaining a brothel are not.

The law however is not widely enforced and few brothels are closed down.

In Tel Aviv's Neve Shaanan district for instance, just a short walk from the city's five-star tourist hotels, brothels masquerading as massage parlors, saunas and even internet cafes, fill the streets.

One such place even operates opposite the local police station.

There are bars on windows and heavily-built men guard the doors, which are only opened to let customers in and out.

Inside, groups of sullen-looking women sit in dimly-lit rooms, waiting for their next client.

Foreign women fetch the highest prices, with trafficked women forced to work up to 18 hours a day.

For years, the absence of anti-trafficking laws in Israel meant such activity - less risky and often more profitable than trafficking drugs or arms - went unchecked.

"During the first 10 years of trafficking, Israel did absolutely nothing," said Nomi Levenkron, of the Migrant Workers' Hotline, an NGO which helps trafficked women and puts pressure on the state to act.

"Women were trafficked into Israel - the first case we uncovered was in 1992 - and not much really happened," she said.

"Occasionally traffickers were brought to trial, but the victims were arrested as well, they were forced to testify, and then they were deported."

In 2000, trafficking for sexual exploitation was made a crime but the punishments were light and its implementation was poor, NGOs say.

It was only after repeated criticism of Israel by the United States - and the threat of sanctions - that authorities began to act.

Investigations into suspected traffickers increased, stiff jail terms were handed down and Israel's borders were tightened against people smuggling.

Changing tactics

Campaigners say things began to change for the better in 2004, when the government opened a shelter in north Tel Aviv for women who had been trafficked for sex.

It marked a change in the way the state perceived them - as victims of a crime rather than accomplices.

There are some 30 women at the Maggan shelter - most from former Soviet states, but also five from China.

"When they come here they are in a bad condition," said Rinat Davidovich, the shelter's director.

"Most have sexual diseases and some have hepatitis and even tuberculosis. They also have problems going to sleep because they remember what used to happen to them at night," she said.

"It's very hard and it's a long procedure to start to help and treat them."

Police say their actions have led to a significant drop in the number of women now being trafficked into Israel for sex - hundreds, rather than thousands, a year - and they say the women's working environment has improved too.

"There is a significant change in the conditions that the women are being held in," said anti-trafficking police chief Raanan Caspi.

"In 2003 we used to find women who were being raped, incarcerated and suffering violence. In 2007, the situation is completely different - they get paid in most cases and the conditions that they're in are much more humane."

But the true picture might not be so clear-cut.

Campaigners say increased police activity has also had an adverse effect. Instead of operating openly in brothels, traffickers have become more discreet, playing their trade in private apartments and escort agencies, making the practice more difficult to detect.

"We've been keeping tabs on trends, in terms of, for instance, prices of exploitative services," said Yedida Wolfe, of the Task Force on Human Trafficking.

"Those prices have not gone up, which leads us to believe that the supply of victims has gone down."

"While government officials are saying that their efforts have drastically cut the number of victims in the country, the NGOs on the scene really don't feel that's true."

Israel might well have turned a corner in its fight against the traffickers, but the battle is far from won.

Outreach

Last night was another great night out in Compton (Lynwood). It was Daryl, Laurie, Ty, Sarah, Naomie and myself. It was really really cold so I was uncertain of how many girls we were actually going to see. By the end of the night we were able to meet up with 7 different girls, some guys and a couple cops. They were all out pretty early and then everyone disappeared so we got out of there around 5:00a.
Right when we got there, Sarah and I saw several girls across the street so we ran over to chat with them. One beautiful young girl named T said she would love a gift bag and then said, “are you handing our prayers tonight”? OF COURSE! While we were talking to her two other women came up. We gave them bags and asked if they wanted to join us in praying. They didn’t want to share their names but God knows their name. The five of us huddled up and prayed together for protection, peace and provision.
As Sarah and I crossed the street again we came across a 17-year old girl named M. She told us she has only been on the street for ONE WEEK! Of course we were curious what drove her to this and why she was out here, “I ain’t got nobody but myself and the street right now. I just gotta make a way.” It is so difficult when you run into girls time and time again with such a lack of options – or what they feel is a lack of options. It is wonderful to be able to enter in and provide some resources should they choose to take them. We chatted with her a bit more about being out there and her pimp. She talked to us about one pimp L that we have actually met before that is crazy. He will just pull over on the side of the road get out and yell or grab the girls. She was pretty surprised we had talked with him before “was he pimpin’ you?” No, we just had a nice conversation when he was pulled over to the side of the road. We didn’t see him last night – but will keep our eyes open in the next couple of weeks. M didn’t want a bag but said she would like some prayer so the three of us huddled up and prayed for M to find the provision she needs to be able to stop doing this. That God would bring some people into her life that could speak wisdom into her, provide for her and truly love her.
Pretty soon after our conversation with M some cops pulled up next to us, “what’s going on here?” I guess it is pretty strange to see a group just walking around at 3:30 in the morning. Laurie was the one to go over to the car and talk to the two officers about why we were out here. One of them ended up being a Christian as well so started letting us know where the transvestites were as well as some of the pimps and what kind of car they drive. After about a 10 min. conversation they went on their way and we began out walk down the street.
We split up into two groups since there were six of us. Daryl, Sarah and I crossed the street again to see what girls we might run into. Not too far down the street we caught up with T and Tt. T I had seen several weeks ago but had not been out lately. She told us she has been in jail for the last couple of weeks and could really use some prayer. “I guess prayer doesn’t keep you out of jail. But while I was there I decided I needed to go to church so I just went ANYWHERE and after I went I got out the next day.” It was good to catch up with her a bit and be able to pray for her. Tt didn’t want a bag either but chatted with us a bit about why we were out there. “You all rollin’ 6 deep – I bet there are even more of you we don’t see!”
After that we waked around for a little while longer and after seeing no girls decided to hop in the car and drive down the strip. We didn’t see anymore girls out – everyone had disappeared – so we decided to head back to Hollywood.
Although we did not run into too many girls it was still a great night out. I love seeing the same girls week after week and continuing to build that foundation they need to truly trust you and talk to you about where they are at. Just two weeks ago (which I forgot to every write about) I ran into P again. As soon as she saw me she said, “There’s my girl! How you been?” I gave her a big hug and asked how she had been the last week. She then proceeded to tell me her real name rather than her street name and we had a great time of catching up.
God’s moving – sometimes slower than I would like – but I am so thankful he lets me be a small part of it!