“Asha” couldn’t hold back the tears as she struggled to speak to us. The deep emotions of her heart rose up and smothered her words. Asha cried silently while her friends sat in closer to hug and encourage her. My colleagues and I had gone to Africa to visit the trafficked women we have repatriated […]
“It’s like my home.” The blond Uzbek woman had tears in her eyes as she thanked us. NightLight’s outreach team and visitors from Iris had just sung Christmas carols inside the brothel where these women from Uzbekistan, Russia, and one from Columbia are working. 21 of us gathered in the lobby and, accompanied by guitar […]
Two orphaned Ugandan children came to play at my house today for Father’s Day. December 5th is the birthday of the revered King of Thailand and also celebrated as Father’s Day. The father of these Ugandan children left Bangkok two years ago and hasn’t seen his children since. Four weeks ago, their mother died suddenly […]
“Thank you for everything!” I have heard these words many times this year spoken by the precious Ugandan women who have been given a way out of their trafficking situations and a way into new lives of hope. We recently had a goodbye party for four of the women who have been staying in NightLight’s […]
“Leena,” an Uzbek, was first trafficked when she was 16. A neighbor sold her, and a few others, for $100 each to an agent. They were then smuggled across the border of Uzbekistan into Kyrgyzstan. After waiting for a few months in Kyrgyzstan, they were sent to Dubai. The opportunity to work in Dubai sounded […]
We were far away from Africa, but as we followed “Penny” through the alleys and back streets of Guangzhou China, African voices, fabrics, and smells transported us to the African continent. We made our way through the markets selling everything from electrical supplies, wholesale clothes, African foods, African movies in various languages, and African hair […]
“She’s not a human being! She sells her body!” The fruit vendor on the street spoke with disgust and her words left me shocked. I felt anger rise up in me. She was justifying her attack of a young Uzbek woman earlier that evening. We were winding up our outreach where young Eastern European […]
I thought she was a child. Beng and I were walking to the hospital to visit a friend, when I saw a blond, white girl sitting under a sign. As I got closer, I realized she was a grown woman and probably Russian. I guessed she was a streetwalker, but her hair was disheveled and […]
Annie Dieselberg 