Personal Story Profiles
It is an unfortunate reality that even when victims have escaped the routines of slavery, the scars still remain. We believe that sending words of encouragement to these survivors can show that normal people like you and I care about them and that we believe in bringing an end to injustice in the world. Your kind words have the power to aid in their process of re-finding their confidence, self-worth, and regaining trust of the people in their lives and in humanity.
Name: Ahmed
Country: Bangladesh I was 5 years old when I was taken from my country and sold to the United Arab Emirates. My job was to be a camel jockey. I raced and trained camels for 3 years. I wanted to go home and when I told my employer that, he said I never would. I didn't like camel racing. I was always afraid and I fell off many many times. When I won prizes: money and a car, the camel owner took everything and I got nothing. My family also got nothing. Ahmed was returned home after a Bangladesh official identified him during a visit to Dubai in November 2002. A local NGO provided him with the specialist support and help he needed to resume his life with his family. |
Name: Charles
Country: Uganda |
When I was 8 years old, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) took me from my home and made me join the rebel forces against the Ugandan government. They shot me in the leg and lower back to make me do things against my will. We had little food and we were beaten regularly. Our only hope for escape was if we managed it ourselves or be rescued. Once, I had left a bomb behind and for that, I was whipped 200 times. I lived in fear and did things that haunted me. They made me beat up people and kill people. They told me that once we have killed someone, we would never be able to go back to normal life. I killed three.
Charles is now 15 and is no longer a soldier. He managed to escape but he has horrible memories of his time in the army. |
Name: Hema
Country: Karantaka |
I was taken to Bangalore with five other young girls to work as a housemaid. My parents were paid a small sum of money and were told that I would be able to send back more once I was working. I was very excited and was pleased that I could help my family – now my brothers and sisters would have food to eat.
When I reached Bangalore, I was taken to a big mansion which had large gates. But the job wasn’t what we were told. They treated me badly and did not pay me anything for my work. I was not allowed to leave the grounds of the mansion. The man who had seemed so kind when he came to my parents' house forced me to do work continuously and I felt powerless and worthless. Fortunately, Hema was rescued and returned to her family but the memories of what happened stays with her. |
Name: Rambho
Country: India Growing up, I used to work at the fields and play at home. When my father passed away, we had no money at home for us to eat and to have food. A man named Shankar and the owner of the loom gave my mother 700 rupees and got me to the loom. I cried and said that I did not wish to go. |
For the first two days, I learned how to work the loom. When my fingers got cut, the men put it in boiling oil and told me it’s now alright and to go back to work. Whenever I made a mistake, the owner would beat me with a stick. I wasn’t allowed to play or move freely as I wanted. I would wake up every morning around 4am and weave carpets until 10pm. We were fed twice: once at 10 am and once at 9 at night. They told my mother that I was getting an education and that he would send money home from my job.
Finally, Rambho was rescued by Bal Vikas Ashram, an organization in northern India. Today Ramhbo is free and he plans to help his mother find a house. He also wants to keep other children free from slavery by becoming a guard. “I won’t let anybody go there [the factory] by mistake. I’ll tell them that they hit you and they beat you and I would not let them go there ever.” |
Name: Miguel
Country: Mexico My youngest son had cancer. In Mexico, my job paid at best 60 dollars a week but I thought that if I went to work in the United States, I could be earning a week’s wage in maybe 3 days. Then, I could send the money home to help with my son’s sickness. |
I didn’t have the cash to pay for my journey there so I accepted an offer to get a ride “now” and pay “later”. I soon found myself working in the orange groves of Florida. I was threatened with violence every day.
We had to fill up containers with oranges and then bring it to another bath tub sized container. Our employer would bring us to an area where the trees had very little orange so that we could not pick very much. We all worked from very early in the morning to very late at night. Filling 3 to 4 tubs would get us about 28 dollars. When we were paid, they would charge us for cashing the check, take money away for out rent and transportation. Eventually, Miguel was rescued from the situation by and organization called Coalition for Immokalee Workers. Now Miguel is working because he wants to. He has the freedom to take days off and work overtime if he wants to. He is able to send money back home to his family now. His son is healthy. |
Name: Shawna
Country: India When I was 7 years old, I was living in India with my family. We did not have very much money. When my mother was giving birth to my baby brother, she needed medical attention and it cost $25 to see a doctor. The only option at the time was to borrow money from the local moneylender and the exchange was that I had to be sold to him and work for him. I rolled cigarettes by hand six days a week, 12 hours a day, and I was allowed only to sit in one place. I was never paid Shawna was rescued by the International Justice Mission. |
Name: Mary
Country: Mexico When I was 17 years old, I was promised a job in the USA. I was told that I could have a better life and earn lots of money. When I arrived in the USA I was given a job at a factory packing vegetables. |
I was escorted there and back every day and was never allowed to go anywhere on my own. I never got paid for the work that I did. Sometimes, I was given drugs and was beaten. Whenever I was wounded or sick, I was not allowed to go see a doctor. The man who took me to the USA threatened me. He said that if I tried to escape I would be deported – sent back to Mexico. I was afraid of the immigration authorities and did not want to be punished by the law. Mary managed to escape with her young son. She is now staying in a special center that looks after people who have been trafficked or abused. She is being given shelter, food, clothing and advice about what to do next. She is hoping that she will be able to stay in the United States and start a new life. |
Name: Deng
Country: Thailand In my late 20′s, was recruited to travel voluntarily to Australia where I was told I could make lots of money as a prostitute. Upon arrival in Australia, however, I was met by traffickers who took away my passport and locked me in a house. I was told that I would have to pay off a debt of over $30,000 by servicing 900 men. I was given little food to eat and was forcibly escorted to a brothel seven days a week, even when I was sick. I was told that if I tried to escape, criminal allies of the trafficking ring would catch me. Australian Immigration officials conducted a raid on the brothel Deng was in and gave her freedom. |
Name: Helia
Country: Haiti When I was five years old, after my mother and grandmother passed away, I was taken in by my neighbor. |
The woman of the house made me do all the cleaning and all of the chores around the house. I was verbally and physically abused, and wasn't allowed to go to school. Even the neighbors would tell the woman that she was mistreating me. The woman would reply that since I didn't have a family, I was an animal, and should be treated like one. I finally mustered enough courage to escape and married and had children. However, one night during political unrest, masked men forced their way into our home and took my husband. I was forced to sell my children into slavery because I had no way of feeding them.
With the help of Limye Lavi – an anti-slavery group in Haiti, Helia has brought her children home. Despite her optimism and will power to create a future different from her past, times are incredibly difficult for Helia. |
Name: Chantale
Country: Saint Vincent I was 16 years old I was offered a job to babysit full-time for a Vancouver family, I jumped at the opportunity to live in a new country. As soon as I arrived, the family that I was supposed to work for took away my passport. |
I was made to work long hours in isolation in every chore imaginable, by day. At night, the father of the children sexually assaulted me over and over again. I did not know enough about the country and did not know anyone in my neighborhood as I was not allowed to interact with others in our area. When the kids grew old enough to attend school full-time, I was sent to Montreal to another family. Again, I was not paid and and abused against my will. This time, repeated rape made me pregnant and I was thrown out of the family. After being robbed of almost 10 years of my life, I found refuge in a shelter in Toronto. Now at 26, I received the care to give birth to a healthy baby and found safety from those who exploited me.
An NGO worker notes that though her life as an exploited domestic worker has ended, there are scars that remain. “You can see when you talk to her” the worker says of Chantal: “She acts like a child. You can see all [of] the trauma she has been suffering”. |
Name: Keisha
Country: United States When I was 14, I decided to run away from my foster family who had a relative that would sexually harass me. |
During this time, I met “Mastur D” who offered to help me find my biological family. But, I had to help pay for the process by providing commercial sex services to his friends. I agreed because I had no money. But after multiple incidents, he still insisted that I did not earn enough money to cover their hotel and gas costs. He beat me and said I would never see anyone else in my family if I did not engage in sex with the men of his choosing. I had no options and had to keep selling my body.
I was arrested for solicitation in Florida and went to juvenile detention and then back to the foster home where I was originally sexually harassed. I ran away again and went back to Mastur D because he was the only one I knew outside of the family. Again, I was arrested. Keisha reached out to a Polaris Project social worker while participating in an outreach group. They were able to provide emotional support and additional social services. |
Name: Sabine
Country:France |
When I was 23, my parents gave me to another family as partial payment for a used car. The family who took me made me look after their 7 children. As well, I was for hire for other men for sex. They burned me with iron and cigarettes and beat me with iron bars and sticks. My identity papers were taken from me. At night, I was chained up in a shed so I wouldn't escape. They threw scraps of food on the ground for me to eat and treated me worse than an animal. When I got sick, they dumped me outside a Paris hospital. When she was found, she had no teeth and weighed less than 84 lbs. Her nose and ears had been mutilated and needed corrective surgery. A French court sentenced Sabine's parents to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence under French law. |