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Month: April 2022

Each NetBall Goal is a heavy blow at the heart and the head of the traffickers

Posted on by My Choices Foundation mychoices
  • CATEGORY: MY CHOICES FOUNDATION

Each NetBall Goal is a heavy blow at the heart and the head of the traffickers

We, My Choices Foundation turned 10 this year and we have come a long way in harnessing the power of sports to increase awareness about child trafficking and prevent abuse and exploitation of children. It was mid-afternoon. We were awestruck by the energy and enthusiasm displayed by young girl Netball players in the remotest parts […]

We, My Choices Foundation turned 10 this year and we have come a long way in harnessing the power of sports to increase awareness about child trafficking and prevent abuse and exploitation of children.

It was mid-afternoon. We were awestruck by the energy and enthusiasm displayed by young girl Netball players in the remotest parts of West Bengal. These young girls are the daughters of tea plantation workers (tea pickers, weed removers, cleaners and factory workers) who hardly make enough money to put food on the table. With mounting financial pressures of the COVID-19 and school closures, most of the young girls joined their parents in tea plantation work to add to their family income. They have tiring routines; working at tea gardens, caring for their younger siblings and doing other household chores. But that didn’t deter them when our Guardian Girls invited them to join the playing field.

As beautiful friendships blossom in the playing field, Guardian Girls pass on the inspiring messages of the Safe Village Program and encourage the girls to get back to school. Nodal Teacher and Gram Mitra meet these girls along with their parents to educate them about the factors of child trafficking and help them understand the importance of education for young girls.

In partnership with the local Implementing Partner, we organised our first Netball tournament in West Bengal in 2019 and used this meetup to create awareness about child trafficking and its consequences. Today, we have eight teams with more than 80 girls across four villages who are empowered to be Guardian Girls and use their voices to ensure girls stay in school and experience the innocence of childhood and enjoy the power of youth through NetBall.

As part of our reinforcing efforts, we organised the NetBall tournament last week with four teams from high-trafficking prone villages. Guardian Girls renewed their commitment while new young girls joined in for the pledge.

15-year-old Arunima* is a true example of a brave Guardian girl. She renewed her commitment, “I will not keep myself safe but also my friends” and she expressed her heartfelt thanks for rescuing her friend from the clutches of child labour. “I am extremely happy that you took my call to your helpline seriously. My friend struggled a lot at work and she had barely time to eat and sleep. You helped her. Now, she is back home and at school. Thank God, I memorised the helpline number from the comic book.”

We are equally grateful to Arunima because it was her phone call that changed her friend’s life. That’s the power and bravery of our Guardian Girl.

Young girls’ lives are at high stake. We cannot let this happen. Our Guardian Girls realise this and are out on the field. We aren’t giving up either. We will continue to use NetBall to educate young girls on how to recognise the signs of trafficking, what to do when they see them and how to keep their villages and communities safe.

*Name changed to protect the identity of a young girl.

My Choices Foundation

This post was authored by the My Choices Foundation communications team. Our mission is to keep you informed on the cause, and hopeful that transformation is possible one story at a time.

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With powerful messages and burning passion, let’s step up now to fight traffickers and build safe villages

Posted on by My Choices Foundation mychoices
  • CATEGORY: MY CHOICES FOUNDATION

With powerful messages and burning passion, let’s step up now to fight traffickers and build safe villages

“There was a blind trust before and sending young girls and boys with a promise of better employment or good life to the cities. After attending Safe Village Program, many of the villagers became cautious about new people who visit our villagers and provide lucrative job offers. I am happy that our community began to […]

“There was a blind trust before and sending young girls and boys with a promise of better employment or good life to the cities. After attending Safe Village Program, many of the villagers became cautious about new people who visit our villagers and provide lucrative job offers. I am happy that our community began to think and move in the right direction”, said Nodal Teacher from the village, in the South 24 Parganas of West Bengal.

Our team drove for three hours on unpaved roads with windows open and great slabs of hot air pouring in to reach our destination; it was a long journey but the conversation at the destination was a passionate boost– and we are yearning to reach more communities and families, even it means pushing the accelerator for long and stepping up to stop traffickers and protect young girls to live in a safe and thriving environment.

Take a pause in 2022 and travel with us to 2020 – two years ago, we learnt about the loving friendship of young girls – Rani* (15 years) and Ruhi* (17 years). They loved each other, played their hearts out across the village, shared loads of laughter and supported each other during difficult times. Other girls in the village envied their friendship but drew inspiration to find a loyal friend.

Their happiness took a hit and their lives were unquestionably changed. Bursts of laughter turned into tears of sorrow. Happiness paused and sadness seeped into their lives. All this happened because of the traffickers who posed themselves as well-educated young men and promised to offer better lives for Rani and Ruhi.

Rani’s parents married her to an unknown young man with a good job in a faraway city. They were moved by his kind nature as he paid some money to clear off their loans and promised a better life for Rani. Little did they know that he was a trafficker. When Rani reached Hyderabad from West Bengal, she was looking for a home to start a life instead she was sold into a brothel for a lumpsum amount and her husband never turned back. The days and nights that followed were traumatic for Rani – she was raped by multiple men in a single day and her 15-year old fragile body couldn’t take it. When Rani lost contact, her parents filed a complaint with the police and after many months, she was rescued and brought back to the village.

The story of Ruhi wasn’t much different. She was lured by a trafficker who pretended to be in love with her. Though Ruhi wanted to study, her parents’ financial struggles forced her to marry him and what awaited her was a brothel in Bihar.

Neither Ruhi nor Rani is the same-old cheerful young girls who were bursting out into laughter and enjoying every moment of their lives. Love was never there and good life was nowhere to be found.

That was when their village showed up on our vulnerability mapping tool as one of the highest traffick-prone villages. We joined forces with BBSS (our Implementing Partner in the region) and hit the road to conduct the Safe Village Program. We did and at the end of two days, we were able to see that differences in their mindsets were taking up – a lot of questions from young girls and boys popped during the programme and many by-hearted the number of our helpline.

Let’s get back to the present, 2022 – We have had the opportunity to interact with the villagers and noticed that the Safe Village Program messages have been deeply ingrained in their minds and hearts. “I know that I should respect girls” and “I am studying to become a teacher” – there is no better feeling than hearing these words from a young Smart Boy and a brave Guardian Girl.

After meeting with the villagers, we sat along with a Gram Mitra, Nodal Teacher, Rakshak and the Community Leaders to understand the current needs of the village. A lot has changed and most of it is all good – from improved knowledge to changed perceptions about trafficking, but some things did call for immediate and intense intervention. There is still bride trafficking (young girls are forced to marry with the promise of a better life and from parents’ view, it is less than one mouth to feed at home).

Our stakeholders – Gram Mitra, Rakshak and Nodal Teacher – and Implementing Partner stressed the importance of stepping up our efforts and having another Safe Village Program in the village. Passion plays a huge role in the choosing of our stakeholders and Hedia is no different; our stakeholders’ are ready to do it – but expressed their desire to equip themselves to become more active, participatory and empowering to continue to spread the messages of the Safe Village Program, educate the villagers about traffickers and tighten the security inside the village. This is where our Stakeholders’ Training programme come in.

What we would like to leave with you during our visit is: Traffickers are finding new ways to enter the village and they could strike at any time. And, these innocent people placed their trust in us that we will step up our efforts to fight these traffickers. Let’s together ‘Step Up’ now.

*Name changed to protect the identity of young girls

My Choices Foundation

This post was authored by the My Choices Foundation communications team. Our mission is to keep you informed on the cause, and hopeful that transformation is possible one story at a time.

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Inside the red-light district: Stories that choke our heart and our Safe Village Program is more than needed now!

Posted on by My Choices Foundation mychoices
  • CATEGORY: MY CHOICES FOUNDATION

Inside the red-light district: Stories that choke our heart and our Safe Village Program is more than needed now!

Walking through the red-light district, we see narrow alleys and clusters of shacks where women stood at the doors and it is hard not to notice the harsh reality of oozing sadness in their eyes and how women and children are trapped in a cruel cycle of exploitation. Young girls, as young as 12, sold […]

Walking through the red-light district, we see narrow alleys and clusters of shacks where women stood at the doors and it is hard not to notice the harsh reality of oozing sadness in their eyes and how women and children are trapped in a cruel cycle of exploitation. Young girls, as young as 12, sold by traffickers, trapped for years and raped many times a day. Their dreams of getting rescued fade away day by day and they resign to their fate; they become prey for hungry beasts as their faces become faceless amongst hundreds of women and children living in the red-light district in West Bengal.

We visited the red-light district in West Bengal, home to more than 300 sex workers from different parts of India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Our heart was choked with sorrow when they recounted their past – from the promise of a good life to a happy marriage by traffickers to hungry stomachs to feed at home; they are ruthlessly exploited by sex traffickers, pimps and so-called ‘Ma’ and ‘Aunty’ every single day and night, making them impossible to escape the slavery.

The next step of our work will be to find out which villages they are from, so we can plan for our Safe Village Programs in those villages and if needed, get deeper with our interventions. ‘Blitz’ is a term that struck our minds, which means attacking from all fronts – an intensive attack (concerted and sustained efforts) with our powerful and passionate messages to empower families and communities which will threaten the entry of traffickers into their villages.

Our visit to the red-light district has helped us gather a deep understanding of the varied aspects of reality related to human and sex trafficking. The time is now to strengthen our Safe Village Program and we need your support. Let’s work together to give these innocent girls, the lives they deserve. Become a donor today – your support will help us prevent sex trafficking in Indian villages. Donate now.

My Choices Foundation

This post was authored by the My Choices Foundation communications team. Our mission is to keep you informed on the cause, and hopeful that transformation is possible one story at a time.

Share this story

Support Our Work

Your donations make it possible for us to give women and girls the choice to live a life free from violence and exploitation.

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