Friday, February 26, 2010

At "Home"



A group of donors recently came through the city, and spent a week serving the aftercare homes (rehabilitation homes) where most of our clients live. More on that later, but for now, I just wanted to share a few photos from this sweet (and unexpected, for me) time with the girls, who are all survivors of forced prostitution. The photo above was taken by one of them.




For one project, the girls were able to add their own touch to a mural the visitors had created in an effort to liven up the Home's surroundings. The girls' owned it!




If she wanted to, each of the girls was able to paint at least one flower, which ended up as diverse as the artists themselves.

Annnndddd I’m back! (The “short” version)

This past October, I was devastated to pack up my bags and say goodbye to my friends/coworkers in South Asia. Yes, living in a different culture, so far from my loved ones back home, was difficult. But the people I had come to know and love here, and the work we did together to see forced labor eradicated, were not easy to part from, either. Boarding my plane home, knowing there was an open invitation to stay, was painful.

They had asked me to stay on a number of times, and I had repeatedly said no, my mind full of excuses. Being away from family and friends (and Ben) is tough. Fundraising is tough. Incessant biting by mosquitoes is tough. But mostly, when I had originally decided to return home six months into my fellowship, I had been feeling as though my time in South Asia was coming to a close. I saw myself as having no “special talents” that the office would benefit from if I had extended my stay.

The longer I worked in that office, however, the more I was able to learn about the myriad needs of the population we were serving and the more I was able to see how I, no special talents and all, was being and COULD BE utilized in this effort. And as my cyber-silence this past Fall may have suggested (my sincere apologies), the needs and the necessary obligations in this cause only continue to increase.

Three days into my departure from South Asia, after a sleepless night, I shared my internal struggles with Ben. He had responded with words I had desperately needed to hear: “You’re not really done there, are you? You need to go back.” It wasn’t a question. It was support. My parents were equally accommodating, biting back their emotions to allow me to make an unbiased decision.

Despite my fears of fundraising again and my sadness over leaving everyone at home so soon after returning, I agreed to work for six more months in South Asia.

I had received a call from our sister office on the opposite side of the country just days before my feet were to leave South Asian soil. This office works towards the same mission of seeking justice for the oppressed through rescue and rehabilitation, as well as accountability for perpetrators; but instead of a focus on forced (manual) labor, the focus is on women and children forced into sexual servitude (read: forced prostitution). The Field Office Director and Director of Aftercare from this office were inviting me to oversee a specific project, as well as provide some staff training.

It is this invitation that I eventually accepted and have been fundraising to be a part of…Thanks to an outpouring of generosity from my dear friends and family (who must not ever want to read a letter from me again!), here I am!

Time is passing quickly here already. The city is new and different, but the transition has been smooth and the work is always interesting. My main task, in short, is research and evaluation. Research pertains to understanding the best practices in the psychosocial treatment for victims of sex trafficking. Evaluation pertains to auditing the state of our partner rehabilitation homes and documenting our findings, in the hopes of raising the standard of care in all of the local homes. Starting next week, I will be leading some staff trainings, as well.

Six months will fly by, and no, I do not know what’s next yet. But, hopefully I will have a chance to see all of the folks I missed during the holidays when I get back to the States late this summer.


[With some of my Aftercare ladies-love them-at the beach after a day of training last week].


[My supervisor showing no mercy in an impromptu race...to be fair, he was the only one with shoes on!].