Let Freedom Ring...

“’Freedom’-we repeated to ourselves, and yet we could not grasp it. We had said this word so often during all the years we dreamed about it, that it had lost its meaning. Its reality did not penetrate into our consciousness; we could not grasp the fact that freedom was ours.”
- Austrian psychiatrist, Viktor Emil Frankl, on life after liberation from Auschwitz.



As I stepped out of our vehicle to greet the recently released bonded laborers in February, I was awed by the immediate recognition on their faces. Fifty individuals from our last two operations were before me, ready for their “Freedom Training”: three days of free medical care, educational sessions, and family bonding. Half of this particular group was from the operation I had the privilege of staffing in December. A picture from that day of one little girl I had especially bonded with serves as my screensaver at work; but I had never expected them to remember me. Even my three-year-old angel seemed to smile at me out of familiarity. The painfully early drive to this training facility, after a late night at the office, was quickly forgotten as a fourteen-year-old victim of bonded labor from the same family grabbed my hand to walk me into the nearby meeting hall.

This was Day 2 of the released laborers’ “Freedom Training.” Born of the desire to serve the families we work with better, this training was created to provide them with information found to be useful for a more successful transition from slavery to freedom. As the Frankl quote above describes, emerging from captivity is not as glorious as it may sound. This is just one more way we can offer support to our clients as they endure the challenges of rehabilitation.

Another benefit of the “Freedom Training” is that it offers an opportunity for our staff and the families to bond. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this experience, so far, is when the families have a chance to sit together and talk about their hopes and dreams for the future. All the families have responded well, so far, and comment on the fact that they wouldn’t take the time to do this on their own. The idea behind the first family session is to help them start planning, and seeing the bigger picture, rather than the day-to-day. It leads up to later sessions on, say, savings or substance abuse, which has then led to conversations about how money spent nightly on alcohol, for example, can eat away at one’s dream of starting a tea shop or building a house. Many will hear their children’s dreams of becoming teachers or policemen for the first time, and better understand the importance of allowing their children to pursue an education.

Day 1 starts here in the city, with general medical check-ups at a local hospital, followed by eye exams, and a screening for HIV/AIDS. Days 2 and 3 are spent at a rural conference center, where educational sessions are conducted. Topics include: their legal rights and helpful government grants (“schemes”), health, hygiene, nutrition, domestic violence, substance abuse, child abuse/sexual abuse, savings and self-help groups, as well as laying some ground work for the emotional healing that may need to take place. While the kids receive a number of these sessions, there is plenty of time for games and other fun. Lodging, food, and transportation are provided for the families throughout their stay. Family-oriented activities are planned for every evening.

The three days offer an opportunity for our staff to really get to know the dynamics of the families we work with, and to gain a more well-rounded perspective on how to properly serve the families. At our most recent training, just this last week, it became especially clear that the three-days offer our staff the chance to really gain the trust of the families. Our most recent operation was quite unusual-and came to fruition rather quickly. While this was a HUGE blessing, it gave the families little, if any, reason to trust us as we ushered them to what we knew to be safety. On the last day of their Freedom Training, the families shared that when we arrived, the owner of the facility (i.e. the perpetrator of crimes against them) had told them to hide because we were bad and would put them in jail. As a result, five families who had hidden deep in the rock quarry were still living in bondage. The training participants insisted we go back and help release these others. Oh, yeah. Trust had been gained.

It’s a huge event for the department and involves a LOT of bodies and time to prepare. My role has mainly been to create tools to help the planning go more smoothly (my mom is probably laughing at the thought of me trying to keep things organized; aren’t you, Mom?), gather materials, create some curriculum, be a photographer, and, as always, entertain the babies. Since November, we have had four of these trainings; and we continue to refine its content and execution. Luckily, the feedback from the families has been extremely positive, so we are encouraged to continue and to grow the program.

So, back to the February training: The picture on my screen at work of the little girl on the day of release shows her wearing a dingy, grease-stained, brown boy’s shirt as her only item of clothing. In fact, I’m pretty sure I thought she was a boy for the first few hours. I remember watching as she had tried, repeatedly, to eat food (that had seemingly dried on it at a much earlier date) off of that shirt. A month and a half after that day, there she was again. But this time, she was fully clothed in a frilly, bright orange dress and had her hair done up in a neat, half ponytail. The sight nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Everything about the group I had met the day they were released from slavery seemed drastically altered-for the positive. Of course, each family in the group is still dealing with issues that could take years to work through; but they will do so on their terms. A sign of positive change was apparent in the patriarch of the group. His stoic silence on operation day had not betrayed any emotion. The lifelessness of his stare had worried me: he seemed utterly lost, as the only way of life he’d known for thirty-years had suddenly ended. As I watched him at the Freedom Training, I had the joy of observing him smile and laugh. He still looked slightly lost; he was, after all, taking in a whole lot of new information. But, now, there was life in his eyes. And that fills me with hope.