Dear friends,
I'm sure all of us who are reading this agree that Human trafficking is a heinous crime and should be eradicated. Even more, so that child trafficking should NOT exist.
Still, thousands of children are sold every day around the world. What if we could protect them and defend their childhood before they were ever exploited?
Because of people like you, Purnata can rescue, rehabilitate, empower survivors of sex trafficking and reintegrate them back to society. But, more than that, together we can stop this evil from ever harming a vulnerable child.
Purnata exists and came into being with a comprehensive preventive strategy. In fact, “Purnata” means “wholeness” or “completion”. When communities become “whole” when families are “whole” when young people & children are given opportunities to learn, grow & earn, the chance of being trafficked decreases exponentially.
For just Rs. 3600/- (approx. USD $50) a month, you can provide the opportunity for a child to learn & grow and thus be prevented from trafficking. How many children will you help be prevented from human trafficking?
Come help Purnata stop trafficking before it starts?
For a traffick-free world
Aaboo :-)
Chrysalis-getting ready to fly
Riya was around 15 when Purnata rescued her and her two younger siblings from a red light area in Kolkata. Three years later, she is a major having completed 18. She had a rough patch of not being able to adjust to hostel environments but, with constant follow-up and care from Purnata over the last three years, she has blossomed into a beautiful young woman. When she had to be moved from the shelter home, we moved her to a working women's hostel run by a partner NGO.
Riya is currently training with a partner NGO called Navya Jeevan Disha where she undergoes training for the next six months. Though we are apprehensive about her transition from being supervised to a gradual state of independence, we are confident and excited she is making the right choices in life.
Medical Camp - West Bengal
The Purnata team along with the volunteers organized a Medical Camp in Das para, at Gaccha, Basirhat. The need to organize a medical camp in Das para was identified during the baseline survey. A qualified medical practitioner was taken along for diagnosis and free medicines were dispensed. The patients were lined up for a Triage by a qualified nurse before seeing a doctor. A total of 157 patients were screened during the medical camp for various ailments and other cases were referred to the hospital for surgeries.
We would especially like to thank Ps. Benjamin Francis, BMS for generously sponsoring the medicines for the camp and making it possible for us to reach the underprivileged community with healthcare services. The Purnata team was able to interact with the villagers and share about Human Trafficking and how we should take an active role to prevent it. The teams were able to talk to several individuals to know the current scenarios in Covid-19 and the impact on their lives.
Purnata – MMRCL Partnership
A unique partnership between Purnata and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) for over three years. Purnata is the official partner with MMRCL to conduct HIV/AIDS & Human Trafficking awareness for migrant workers in the seven packages of the Mumbai Metro Line 3 from Seepz to Cuffe Parade.
Again this is a form of Prevention where we are making men aware of Human trafficking, particularly migrant workers, who are prone to visit red-light areas or send the womenfolk for work and end up in exploitation. Being from all over the country, the message is being spread exponentially when they share with their families the stories of exploitation we share with them.
Story of Shenaya
I, Shenaya, grew up in Mankhurd, Mumbai, and was also called Pinky by my family. I used to go with my mother to work on construction sites. I lost my father in 2005 when I was just 12 years old and an older brother who is mentally unstable. After my father's death, my mother moved to our hometown in Satara Patan, Maharashtra. Due to my aunt's insistence, she found a man for me to marry who suffered from TB but kept the fact secret from everyone.
After marriage when Shenaya was nine months pregnant, she came to her mother's place in Mankhurd in Mumbai. During that time her husband passed away back home and her husband's family didn't inform Pinky about his death for six months. She only got to know when she went back to his family after pregnancy.
Her mother bought her back and then both of them started working together. One day at work, she fell in love with one Bengali boy, who was the son of another commercially sexually exploited woman. The entire family was in the same trade. They soon got married but her dreams were short-lived and shattered soon.
After marriage, her husband sold her in the Ghatkopar Red Light Area and started beating her to do the same business which his mother and other family were doing. She had no choice left - by then she had her first son, her mother met with an accident and became handicapped and there was no other source of income for them. On the one side the pressure and constant beating from her husband and the situation where the family will starve on the other end, Shenaya was forced to be exploited in this red-light area for commercial sex.
Her second husband died in 2015, leaving behind two children. Now she has kept two of her children in two different hostels, the older son is now 14 years old.
I am tired of taking all the responsibilities of having to care for my mother, son, and brother. I feel very stressed out as I feel that I don't have any respect in society. Some of the areas I struggle with are, when I face stigma from a society where people treat me like I am untouchable; when the police come on raids, I have to run hide and protect myself like I am doing something wrong; when people from my village come to the area, I have to hide for two hours or more somewhere and then go home wearing a Burqa or else news will spread about my profession and make it unbearable to live there for my parents & family. I feel like I need some peace in my life. I think it's time to stop running and live with freedom and dignity. That's why I expressed my desire to the Purnata staff that I want to move on in my life and find some other option to earn money.
I have an interest in driving but whatever training or job I get, I'm willing to live a life of dignity and live free. After all, money is not everything in life.
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