May 2008   

Human Trafficking – to be Silent is to be Unfaithful

Sadana is from a poor family in Meherpur district in Bangladesh.  She never went to school and used to clean people’s houses.  When she was 12 years old, an Indian lady came to visit, who promised her a better job in India.  Her parents were poor, struggling to feed their family.  The opportunity for their daughter to get a good job abroad was too good to miss.  Sadana was also excited by this prospect, and willingly accompanied the lady to India.  “I felt good that I was going to get a job but I was feeling a bit scared because I was going to a new place and I wouldn't know anyone. Also, I'm totally illiterate - I can't read or write - so I couldn't read anything to know where I was.”

Once in India, Sadana was sold to a house were she was locked in a small room and given food only once a day.  She was tortured and beaten and forced to sleep with 10-15 men every day.  “When I protested, they tied me with rope and beat me. I thought ‘I'm almost dead’. I wanted to die.  I used to do all the housework at the house and sometimes I also worked outside, selling pots and pans. But at night I had to do work that was very bad and give company to the men who came.”

Eventually, Sadana managed to escape and returned to her village, but her life had been changed for ever.  "Even now, some villagers still say bad things in front of me. They don't even bother to say it behind my back. 'This is a bad woman, she went to India' is all I hear.”  A church outreach project has assisted Sadana by enabling her to complete a tailoring course and provided a loan to start her tailoring business.  She now works making clothes from her house, and also assists church workers in their anti-trafficking work.  Finally the villagers are beginning to accept her.  Sadana is regaining her dignity and hope for the future. 

Not every story of human trafficking ends as happily as Sadana’s. We hear of many others from partners in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. The UN has estimated that 700,000 people are trafficked each year for sexual exploitation. What an indictment on the world of the early 21^st century! Can any Christian remain silent when such suffering is being inflicted on the poor and vulnerable? It is time to speak. It is time to act.

Please send a message of solidarity to our partners in Bangladesh who run the programme which helped Sadana.

John P Biswas                                      56p stamp + air mail sticker

Project Manager

Church of Bangladesh

Social Development Programme

Meherpur

Bangladesh

April 2008

The latest United Nations population figures tell us that human beings face an important transition during 2008 from being a rural species to being an urban species with more than half the world’s population living in urban areas.  By 2030 the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 80% of the world’s urban population.  Most cities in the developing world face huge problems including crime, lack of clean water and sanitation, heat pollution and big slum areas.

India is one of the Asian countries where the urban population is increasing rapidly.  Indian cities are affluent and at the same time they are places where slums and poverty are growing. 

The challenge facing India and the world, is to struggle to make urbanisation a positive experience for its people by building houses, power, water, sanitation and roads, but most of all by concentrating on health care, education, and the children who are its future.

One society concentrates its work in urban Bangalore, the third largest city in India with a population of 6.5 million people.  The South Asia Council for Communities and Children in Crisis works on health care, education and children’s welfare.  One of its important pieces of work is with the street children, and it has pioneered awareness raising and action in cities all over India and beyond.  The government of India has been persuaded to encourage many groups to get involved.

The life of the street children is very sad indeed.  The children collect paper, plastics and broken bottles from streets and dustbins before recycling them in some simple way and then trying to sell them. Most of the street children are undernourished and often ill. They face harassment, abuse and are regularly arrested by the police.  Many die on the streets and those who survive are bright, but live lives of fear and great stress without hope for a future.

The members of SAC-CCC began to work with the street children in 1995.  They provide night shelters and offer vocational and more academic training. Camps are held every year to get the children to give up drugs and alcohol.  They most often suffer from chewing bits of cigarettes. They also drink diesel and cleaning fluids as well as committing crimes to obtain hard drugs.

SAC-CCC works hard to offer the children a safe haven and to prepare them for a happy and useful future.  Its work is an example to urban India and also to the growing urban world of the future.

Please send a card of support to:

Dr. Samuel Issmer                     (Postage 54p with Air Mail sticker)

Director, SAC-CCC

P O Box 3325

Banaswadi

Bangalore 560043

India     

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