Stand Out

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If your parents sold you as a domestic worker, leaving you to be beaten by day and abused by night, would you still be able to smile?

Naisha can.

Thanks to you P

12 | vivanews

vivanews | 13

P

Curled up in the quiet darkness of her room, 10-year-old Naisha heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. Her door creaked open and the light from the hallway illuminated a short, overweight figure; a terrifyingly familiar silhouette.

The man walked over to her bed, sat down and reached out to touch her. Naisha knew what was coming, but she was powerless to stop it. She closed her eyes, clenched her fists and pretended she was anywhere but there.

Living in a poor village on the Nepali-Indian border, Naisha was no stranger to hardship.

She rarely saw her father, and her mother slept through most of Naisha’s waking hours, recovering from her busy nights working in the local brothel. They were always struggling for money, and Naisha had come to regard anything more than one meal a day as a luxury.

Like mother, like daughter?

One day, when Naisha was just nine years old, her mother told her that she had arranged for Naisha to begin working in the brothel alongside her. It wasn’t much to ask, she said; she would only have to see four or five ‘customers’ per night, just enough to give the family some extra income.

When Naisha refused, her mother grew angry.

She said if Naisha wouldn’t work in the brothel she would be sent away, as they couldn’t afford to keep her if she wouldn’t help bring in any money. She told Naisha to pack up her things

She didn’t even feel anything when he forced himself on her; she was numb

and get ready to go to Biratnagar, a large town several hours away, where she could stay with some relatives. Naisha was apprehensive, but did as she was told. That was the last time she saw her home.

The nightmare begins They arrived in Biratnagar late at night and went immediately to a large house on the outskirts of the town. The door was opened by a man who leered at Naisha as he beckoned her inside. Etched in Naisha’s memory is what came next: her mother simply told her that this man would be her boss and that Naisha was to do whatever he said. Then she just walked away, leaving a bewildered and frightened Naisha alone with the man who would make the next year the hardest of her life.

The insults and the shouting came first. If she didn’t cook his evening meal exactly the way he wanted it, if she lingered too long over one task. Soon he began to hit her, kick her, throw her against the wall whenever she displeased him. Then the night-time visits began. After a while she didn’t even feel anything when he forced himself on her; she was numb.

Almost every day she imagined running away, but she had nowhere to go.

A way out Then one morning, miraculously, her opportunity came – her boss was out when her neighbour, a long-distance truck driver, knocked on the door.

When Naisha’s bruised face and dazed demeanour forced him to ask questions, and he discovered what was going on, he told her he could help her escape. He knew there was a Christian organisation patrolling the border near Koiladi, on the lookout for girls being trafficked, and that if he could just get her that far they would take care of her. There was no time to plan, no time to think. Naisha just nodded and followed him out of the house, barely believing it was all real.

One year later Naisha often thinks about that day, although it’s a bit of a blur: the long drive, all the commotion at the border, getting a police escort to a local transit shelter.

A counsellor, whose kind face and caring attitude is Naisha’s clearest memory, helped her begin to work through the hurt in her mind and in her heart

The staff at the shelter, run by Viva’s Nepal network, cared for her for several weeks while they looked for a place for her to stay more permanently. Her physical wounds were tended to by a doctor; and a counsellor, whose kind face and caring attitude is Naisha’s clearest memory, helped her begin to work through the hurt in her mind and in her heart. Slowly, but surely, the old Naisha began to reappear.

Hope for the future Viva’s StandOut campaign supports our networks in Asia so that children, just like Naisha, can be rescued from dangerous and damaging situations and brought to a place of safety and healing. The campaign also works to make sure that more children never have to know what it is like to be abused.

There is no doubt that what happened in Biratnagar has left its mark on Naisha. But, thanks to your willingness to StandOut against this kind of injustice, it hasn’t destroyed her. It hasn’t robbed her of a future. It hasn’t taken away her smile.

She now lives with the family of a pastor whose church is part of the network. She attends daily school sessions at another network project where she can spend time with other girls who understand what she has been through.

Together they talk, paint, play music and study English – in fact, Naisha is thinking about becoming a teacher one day. She says she does not want to try and locate her parents; she prefers to stay in the loving safety of the pastor’s home, and with us at viva.org/standout and he and his family have assured Naisha help more children like Naisha today that she can stay as long as she wants.