Madagascar maids: Misery in the Middle East

Africa

By Hannah McNeish BBC News, Antananarivo

 

 Poor women are most a risk of being duped into travelling to the Middle East

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Related Stories

• Madagascar country profile
• Lebanon profile
• Concern over Lebanon maid deaths

Forced to work as a "slave maid" for wealthy families in Lebanon for 15 years, Abeline Baholiarisoa - a 59-year-old woman from Madagascar - finally achieved her freedom in March.

Madagascar's government chartered a plane to evacuate her and 85 other women.
The youngest of her four children, whom she left behind when he was six years old, played a key role in her evacuation, tracking her down via a welfare agency that rescues "slave maids", she says.
Ms Baholiarisoa says she was trapped in "a living hell" after being duped into going to Lebanon.

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We didn't have time to eat or sleep - night and day. We didn't even have time to clean ourselves”

Abeline Baholiarisoa Ex-maid

A recruiting agency had promised her a nursing job for three years, with a salary of $800 (£486) a month.

Ms Baholiarisoa says she thought it would give her a chance to save money, which she could send to her children.
But her dream was shattered the minute she touched down in Beirut.
"It was a trap, because as soon as I got there they took away my papers and said my contract didn't mean anything," Ms Baholiarisoa says.
"They said, 'Abeline, this is null and void.' For the next 15 years they shattered my life and the lives of my children."
Ms Baholiarisoa says she was put to work as a maid with another Malagasy woman in the house of a rich couple with newborn triplets.
"We didn't have time to eat or sleep - night and day. We didn't even have time to clean ourselves.
"I worked 24 hours a day and received $160 a month. From this, I had to pay the lady of the house money for my food because they only gave us a quarter of a loaf of bread and some bits of fruit each day."
'Women crippled'

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Some families decided to open the coffin and found that the girl didn't have eyes”

Noro Randimbiarison Social worker

Ms Baholiarisoa says she ran away from her first job after seven months and her second job after two years.

But with no papers and no way to return home she was forced to accept maid jobs for 12 more years.
Fabienne Marie Ange - a social worker with Madagascar's Union of Qualified Domestic Workers (SPDTS), which specialises in helping "slave maids" - says many of them are so traumatised that they do not even know where they are.
"Sometimes in Lebanon the boss gives them drugs to keep them strong. They have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they don't eat properly. It has an effect on their mental [health]," Ms Ange says.
Ms Baholiarisoa says she refused her employer's attempts to give her pills for "stress", but she knew of people who ended up with an "empty brain" after taking them.
"You become like a beast, like an animal made for work," she says.
Some women are forced to work in Lebanon's clubs and streets as prostitutes, while some maids sell their bodies on the side just to pay for food, Ms Ange says.
According to SPDTS President Noro Randimbiarison, some of the women have died in mysterious circumstances in Lebanon.
When their bodies were eventually returned to Madagascar, it was discovered that several of them had missing organs.
"Some families decided to open the coffin and found that the girl didn't have eyes, her eyes had been replaced by doll's eyes, or they didn't have a tongue or intestines or the heart. This really happens. It's real," says Ms Randimbiarison.
Medical reports on the cause of death are vague - and some families have been told that the women committed suicide by jumping off tall buildings, she says.
Ms Baholiarisoa claims women were pushed from windows, sometimes to cripple them just enough so they could not run away; others disappear, fuelling suspicion that they were killed.
'Trafficking rackets' "We have no idea how many women have died out there or have gone mad because if you ask a boss where is his maid they say she ran off with someone and it's over," she says.
"Where is the proof that she's run off and they haven't buried her in the courtyard? We don't have any proof."
Madagascar's Minister of Population Nadine Ramaroson, the only government minister tackling the issue, says "a very organised network" involving senior government officials and businessmen emerged in the 1990s to engage in human trafficking.

 

Poverty in rural Madagascar forces people to look for foreign jobs

Government officials provide fraudulent work permits, travel and identity document for around $5,000 per trafficked woman, social workers say.
Ms Ramaroson says the government is trying to break the criminal networks, but it is not easy.
While one job agency flew 300 women to Jordan last month with the government's approval, 43 women bound for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were stopped from boarding planes.
Ms Ramaroson said all were recruited from remote rural areas with high illiteracy and poverty levels. Some 16-year-old girls were given forged identity papers showing their age as 21.
She said their contracts stated they would work in top institutions "when these girls don't even know what electricity is".
Ms Baholiarisoa considers herself lucky. Given up for dead by her older children, her youngest child - now an adult - contacted SPDTS to help trace his mother.
They picked up one of her many calls for repatriation at the consulate in Beirut, she says.
Ms Baholiarisoa now helps SPDTS track down other women trying to escape Lebanon and to prevent other women from being duped into taking jobs in the Middle East.
"If the madam at SPDTS hadn't taken me in with open arms I don't know what I would have done," she says.
"It pains me that these girls are leaving because I know what awaits them, especially the beautiful ones."
From the plane load of women rescued in March, Ms Baholiarisoa is the only one with a job.
Some of the women have returned to discover husbands remarried and children adopted.
Others, like Ms Baholiarisoa, have to rebuild relationships after much hurt and loss.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14507719

Abuse, hardship for migrant workers in Lebanon

Ethiopian Suicides...

... and Nepalese and Eritrean and Bengali and Sri Lankan and Filipino and Malagasy who work as domestic workers in Lebanese homes.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

DW.DE | 21.05.2014 | Author Tamsin Walker

In the context of the Syrian war, Lebanon has emerged a benevolent neighbor willing to open its borders, homes and schools to refugees. But migrant domestic workers say there is another, harder side to the host nation.

Many migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are subjected to unfair and even abusive conditions

Home to some 200,000 migrant domestic workers, Lebanon is the caretaker of the fragile dreams of women from across Africa and Asia. In uprooting their lives and making the journey from countries such as Ethiopia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka to the southern shores of the Mediterranean, they hope to earn enough money to help ease the burden of poverty on their families back home.

Not always, but all too often, they find themselves enduring a different kind of burden as victims of a system that facilitates exploitation and abuse.

The Kafala system - which is also in place in a number of Gulf states - requires domestic migrant workers to have a sponsor in the country of their destination. This is usually the prospective employer, who has to pay visa and flight costs and possibly an agency fee. It is an outlay that runs beyond the thousand dollar mark, and which assistant coordinator of the Migrant Community Center in Beirut, Rahel Abebe, says leads to a misplaced sense of ownership.

"Because they bring a woman in from another country - such as Ethiopia - they think they have bought her. They don’t understand they are paying for the process, they think they are paying for her."

"Set of abuses"

Some 200,000 migrant domestic workers are employed by Lebanese families

And that mindset leads to abuse which Human Rights Watch women’s researcher for the MENA region, Rothna Begum, says ranges from unpaid wages, confiscated passports, exhaustive working hours and no holiday or days off, to confinement, death threats, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. And there is no legislation for them to turn to.

"Most migrant workers fall within the Kafala system, yet they receive the least protection under labor laws," she told DW.

In the case of domestic workers, who live where they work and may consequently be expected to be on call 24 hours a day, the lack of a legal framework can lead them to take potentially fatal action.

"There are cases of women who end up risking their lives by climbing out of buildings in which they have been confined," Begum continued. Those who succeed are deemed to have absconded, a status that brings with it another set of problems. "In a system which is designed to make workers complete their contracts, they cannot just leave and find another employer."

Although there are some small groups and NGOs on hand to help women who escape abusive employers, Ethiopian Rahel Abebe, herself a former domestic servant, says most workers are unaware of their existence. "If they run away, it takes them months to find an organization, so they live with friends or just somehow."

"Second class entities"

Lina Khatib, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, believes the basic problem in Lebanon is that migrant domestic workers are not regarded as equal human beings but as "second class entities" without full social and human and economic rights. And she attributes this to an inherent sense of racism and superiority toward domestic work that harks back to the days of feudalism and Ottoman rule.

Construction is booming in Lebanon, and many new flats are built with a servant in mind

"It is a widespread problem that is shared across social strata, and it has become socially acceptable for migrant workers to be living the way they do."

Citing the new builds that are going up across the country as part of the booming real estate scene, Khatib says it is now standard practice to incorporate a dedicated "servant’s room" into modern apartments.

"Very often no bigger than 2.5 by 2m, they have no windows and they resemble prison cells, which shows that the livelihood of migrant workers is regarded as inferior."

Tackling the problem

Workers themselves and human rights groups agree that the only secure way out of the trap is via legislation, but in a country currently characterized by political paralysis and tensions that have spilled over from neighboring Syria, improving the lot of domestic servants is not at the top of the agenda. On the contrary, says Khatib, highlighting the influx of Syrians as a potential problem.

"There is a degree of resentment from certain sectors of the Lebanese population regarding the position of Syrian workers, so there is debate in some political circles to reduce their rights, which would have an indirect negative impact on migrant workers."

The influx of Syrian refugees is putting a strain on neighboring Lebanon

Until the government can muster the political will necessary to draft and pass labor laws to protect the most vulnerable, it falls to civil society to continue campaigning for an end to the Kafala system that destroys dreams brought to the country in the battered cases of young girls.

"I don’t know why, but they want to use us for slavery," Rahel Abebe said. "This is more than slavery, this is how it is. It is very shameful."

Human Trafficking Of The Mentally And Physically Disabled

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

There are few facets of human trafficking that are more desperately evil than the exploitation of the mentally and physically disabled. It has been a subject that we have touched on at COH before. But since that time there have been numerous documented cases of the trafficking of disabled persons. Whether this is a testament to the added scrutiny from governmental and non-governmental agencies in chronicling the phenomena or it is the rate at which these truly vulnerable people are being exploited, is not clear. What is painfully clear is this is one of the most gut-wrenching, cruel and horrific injustices in the world today.

In the 2012 T.I.P. report the US State Department outlines the issue this way:


"This Report includes recent reports of the abuse of deaf domestic workers in the United Kingdom, addicts forced to labor in fields in the United States, people with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities enslaved in Chinese kilns, and persons with developmental disabilities forced to work as peddlers on the streets of India. Persons with disabilities remain one of the groups most at risk of being trafficked. Due to disability-based discrimination and exclusion common in many places, however, governments often ignore this risk factor or fail to make provisions for persons with disabilities as part of anti-trafficking efforts.

The stigma and marginalization of a person with disabilities creates a particular vulnerability. For example, parents who see no hope of jobs or marriage for their disabled children may place those children in exploitative situations with the intent of shedding a “burden” or seeking income. Where schools fail to accommodate students with disabilities, high drop-out rates leave them on the streets and at much higher risk of being trafficked in forced begging or other criminal activities. The commonly held view that persons with disabilities are not sexually active increases the risk of sex trafficking for persons with disabilities, especially disabled women and girls. For example, a Global HIV/AIDS survey conducted by the World Bank and Yale University showed that women and girls with disabilities were assumed to be virgins and thus targeted for forced sex, including by HIV-positive individuals who believed that having sex with a virgin would cure them.

Societal barriers limit the access of persons with disabilities to systems of justice. Lack of training of police, prosecutors, and judges on how to accommodate persons with disabilities (through, for example, sign language interpreters, plain language, and physical access) can leave victims with disabilities unable to provide effective statements and report the abuse they have endured. Laws expressly prohibiting people with disabilities from being witnesses, especially those who are blind, deaf, or have mental or developmental disabilities, leave such victims excluded from processes that should provide them with redress. Even when the justice system is not to blame, societal prejudices that devalue or discount the experiences of persons with disabilities can mean that their evidence is given less weight, and that sentences given to perpetrators may be lower than comparable cases where non-disabled people are the victims. This exclusion of persons with disabilities from the justice system in turn contributes to their being targeted by traffickers, who might assume that such victims will be less likely to raise an alarm or seek help."

*(bold italic print emphasis ours)

In 2011 Newsline online reported "a 20-year-old disabled man Sajad Chadar was rescued by the Khairpur police as he was being kidnapped. Chadar was the victim of a gang involved in the abduction of individuals with disabilities for purposes of trafficking to Iran and other Gulf countries where they are forced into beggary." What police found was over two hundred disabled and child trafficking victims.

 Sajad Chadar, 20, abducted from Pakistan and forced to beg in Iran.

Mujahid Shaikh, a 25-year-old disabled man was also trafficked to Iran, but managed to return to Pakistan. He recounted for police “The kidnappers are ruthless; ...[t]here are hundreds of people with disabilities, including children, living in the custody of Kashmir Jafri in Iran."

The article goes on to state: "Shockingly, often the very people who are ostensibly the caregivers of the handicapped victims are themselves guilty of complicity in their ordeal. There is a standard modus operandus. After a disabled candidate has been identified – usually hailing from an impoverished family – the trafficker will develop a link with his parents or guardian, and entice them to partner with him in a business enterprise involving their son/charge. He offers them money – that too in advance – for their compliance."

In 2009 Chinese authorities arrested 10 men for trafficking 32 individuals with physical disabilities and forcing them to work in brick kilns in the Anhui province. (2010 T.I.P. Report) "The report echoes a major scandal in 2007, when Chinese media found least 1,000 people forced to work as slaves in brick kilns in Shanxi province, following a father''s desperate search for his missing teenage son. Many of the brick kiln slaves were mentally handicapped people, some of whom were so confused they did not know where they had come from, media reported at the time." (DNA)

In Danny Boyle's movie Slumdog Millionaire criminals take homeless children and force them to beg. And to add to the sympathy factor some of the children are forcibly blinded. This fictional account resembles all to closely the reality and embodiment of the philosophy behind the trafficking of persons into forced begging. A child or homeless person may elicit certain sympathies and a few pennies from a stranger but add to that dynamic a disability and the sympathy and spare change grow.

In her book Trafficking for Begging: Old Game, New Name author Iveta Cherneva states that in forced begging situations a handicapped child earns three times more than a healthy child. A survey by the Stop Child Begging Project in Thailand found that disabled children earn as much as 1000 baht a day, as opposed to a healthy child beggar who earns 300 baht a day. Well over 3 times as much.

While forced begging makes up a large percentage of the exploitation the disabled face around the world, sex-trafficking is also a very real, deeply disturbing reality for persons with disabilities. 

In a sex slavery case that U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips called "among the most horrific ever prosecuted". Four Missouri men who paid a fifth man to either watch him torture a mentally disabled woman online or torture her themselves; sexual and physical torture that lasted five years, until one of her abusers induced a heart attack while suffocating and electrically shocking her on Feb. 27, 2009. You can read the full horrific account here. It is deeply disturbing and NOT for the weak at heart. And reveals that the victim was 16 at the time her abuse began.


This March another Missouri man pled guilty to sex trafficking two women into prostitution, including a mentally disabled woman. Federal prosecutors say 26-year-old Carl Mathews of Breckenridge Hills forced the women into sex in the St. Louis area from 2010 through October 2012. Authorities say the mentally disabled woman was forced to sleep and use the bathroom in a closet, and was supplied with little food. The woman was also beaten and set on fire. ( Associated Press)


In a case study from the 2012 T.I.P. report Saeeda, a deaf Pakistani woman, was ten years old when she left Pakistan for Manchester, England for a job as a domestic worker. For nearly a decade, she was abused, raped, and beaten by her employers, a Pakistani couple. Now in her 20s, Saeeda told the courts that she was confined to a cellar and forced to work as a slave.

During the four years that investigative journalist Benjamin Skinner researched modern-day slavery for his book, "A Crime So Monstrous," he posed as a buyer at illegal brothels on several continents and says he is most haunted by an experience in a brothel in Bucharest, Romania, where he was offered a young woman with Down syndrome in exchange for a used car.


UNICEF reports, “[s]ocial beliefs about disability include the fear that disability is associated with evil, witchcraft or infidelity, which serve to entrench the marginalization of disabled people”  As a result, these children wind up in orphanages where they are much more susceptible to violence. Women and girls with disabilities are especially vulnerable to physical and sexual violence which puts them in danger of unplanned pregnancies due to sexual exploitation.

A child who requires assistance with washing, dressing and other intimate care activities may be particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. Perpetrators can include caretakers, attendants, family members, peers or anyone who enjoys a position of trust and power (UNICEF, 2007).

Not only are disabled children dumped off into the system and stripped of their inalienable human rights, but as they grow up they are blacklisted from employment. (UNIAP, 2007).  In Cornell University’s 2007 Disability Status Report, they show that the employment gap between individuals with and without disabilities is 42.8%, in the United States alone (Baker, 2008). This enormous gap in employment exacerbates the vulnerability of poverty that these individuals experience by denying them access to a self-sustaining life with gainful employment. (traffickingproject.org)

Along with superstition, religious pretense has often been used as a justification for exploitation. In India the devadasi are young girls given to the temple of the goddess Yellamma to serve as sex slaves. The disabled fall victim to similar practices of religious exploitation.

"Outside a Muslim shrine in a dusty Pakistani city, a "rat woman" with a tiny head sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshipers who cling to an ancient fertility rite.  Nadia, 25, is one of hundreds of young microcephalics -- people born with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation -- who can be found on the streets of Gujrat, in central Punjab province.  Officials say many of them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who exploit a tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint.

Nadia, 25, and a microcephalic, seen here in July 2008, sits outside the Shah Daula's shrine in Gujrat, in central Punjab province. Nadia was just a young child when she was dumped at the shrine 20 years ago in the dead of the night. Her parents were never traced. (allvoices.com)

According to local legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Daula's shrine will be granted children, but at a terrible price. The first child will be born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine, or else any further children will have the same deformity.

"Some of these children, the handicapped ones especially, are accompanied by relatives," he told AFP. "But begging gangs also look for poor parents who will sell them because they are a burden to feed and shelter."  Sohail said his department had busted more than 30 gangs across the province involved in exploiting street children, some of which had broken the limbs of children so that they would earn more as beggars." (AFP)

With current refugee crises around the world the disabled find themselves at extreme risk for trafficking. "Migrating may be particularly challenging for a person with a disability. In the context of forced migration, persons with a physical or mental disability may benefit less from early warning systems and may also be more easily disoriented during the process of flight. Assistive devices may be lost or left behind, creating another layer of vulnerability in an already dire situation. In addition, although denying an immigration application solely on grounds of disability (and leaving a disabled person isolated or permanently separated from their group) is a human rights violation , such cases have been recorded in different countries of the world." (The International Organization for Migration)

                                     *****************************

As always, from all of us at COH, thank you for being a voice for the voiceless. And when it comes to the most vulnerable among us, the children and the mentally and physically disabled, please let your voice be ever loud, ever clear, and ceaseless in its resolve. This evil must end, and in our lifetime. Please call the National Human Trafficking hotline 1-888-3737-888 if you suspect trafficking. Do not be afraid to ask questions or to speak up if something just doesn't seem right. And in the cases of the disabled remember their ability to communicate or even appreciate the severity and urgency of their situation may be severely inhibited or even totally compromised. 

Posted by Mark Langham at 6:13 PM

Human Trafficking and Women's Rights in the News 4-26-12

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Here are stories of human trafficking, child exploitation, gender based violence and human rights violations in the news for the week of April 26, 2012. Click the bold heading for the original story and thank you for being a voice for the voiceless.

Egyptian women speaking out against horrifying new legislation introduced  in the Egyptian Parliament that would legalize necrophilia.

Egypt plans 'farewell intercourse law' so husbands can have sex with DEAD wives up to six hours after their death: The controversial new law is part of a raft of measures being introduced by parliament. It could also see the minimum age of marriage lowered to 14 and the ridding of women's rights of getting education and employment.



100,000 women undergo genital mutilation illegally in Britain with some victims as young as ten: "Investigators from The Sunday Times said they secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform circumcisions or arrange for the operation to be carried out. The practice, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and in some cases the stitching of the vaginal opening, is illegal in Britain and carries up to a 14 year prison sentence." 


National sweep targeting human trafficking nets 15 in Atlanta area and 36 in Texas: Fifteen people from the Atlanta area were among more than 600 arrested this month as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on gangs involved in human smuggling and trafficking in 150 cities and in Honduras.


Woman trafficked into Britain by gang who wanted to harvest her organs: An unnamed woman was brought into the UK by criminals operating a black market trade in body parts for transplant. 


More good news from Africa as Nigerian police break up Human Trafficking syndicate and rescue five children: A source told police that the traffickers ringleader, a woman, normally steals children on Saturdays when they are at home alone and often times she pretends to be a relative. She then takes the children to Imo where they are sold to unsuspecting couples looking for a child to adopt. The five rescued children ranged in ages from six months to two years. 

Posted by Mark Langham at 8:04 PM

Kerala train ride!

Prishan Foundation

We left this morning a little after 5am. Jainy, Abraham, myself and 15 of our little princesses hurrily rushed to the railway station just in time for our train to Kerala.

Ever since I met Jainy she had told me about her home in Kerala. She spoke so highly of her 2 sisters, Joice and Jaya and would always tell me how much she loved them. There were so many resemblences between her life and mine and as we grew to know each other more we were so stunned to learn how much we had in common.

Jainy lost her father when she was 11, the same age as me when I lost my mother. She lost her mother when she was 16, I lost my father at that same age... her mother died from heart related problems, so did my mother. Her father died from stomach related problems, my father from stomach cancer. She was so close to her father but not so much her mother, exactly how I was...

After her parents died her older sister looked after her and her younger sister, working endless hours to provide for them. I too remember when my parents died, my brother Mehdi worked so hard to make sure me and my younger brother had everything that we needed. Without my 2 brothers, Mehdi and Amir, my life would have been so lonely. Jainy would always say the same thing - that her life certainly had tradegies but the fact that she had her 2 siblings by her side gave her the strength and determination to overcome those times, grow stronger as a person and give back to the world.

I loved spending time with her and I loved learning more about her past.

She moved to Orissa 10 years ago when she was offered a job as a nanny in a Girls orphanage, having felt the need to serve other children that had also lost their parents she took the offer emmidiately and moved permanently to Orissa, crossing 3 states having to leave her sisters behind for the first time in her life. It was at this home where she met Abraham. He was living in a boys orphanage that was across the road from where Jainy was working. They would meet secretly once in a while, exchange love letters and plan their future together. They decided to get married and 10 years later, 2 children (and 1 on the way!!!) they are still happily married, very much in love and together started Assist orphanage home for girls. Since then they have helped more than 100 orphans in Rayagada. Many of those children are now working as nurses, teachers and social workers! I am so proud of them both and so honored to be working alongside them now!

I promised Jainy that the next time I returned to India I would take her back to Kerala to see her sisters again and to see the home where she had so many fond memories.

Out of our 34 girls, four are between the ages of 18-27, they have been trained in social work and if Abraham or Jainy need to leave Rayagada for any reason these girls look after the rest of the younger children. When we were planning our Kerala trip, me, Abraham and Jainy decided that we would take 15 of the girls with us, 5 children per adult and 18 of the girls would remain in Rayagada to be looked after by our 4 older girls, Mukta, Suman, Baghya and Bidusi.

Now came the difficult decison of choosing which 15 of the girls to take! At first we decided to write each of our 34 girls names on a peice of paper and randomly pick out 15 names, seemed fair...but then we changed our minds. We wanted to take the girls who had never left Orissa before, the girls that had never been on a train before and had never seen the ocean...

This way worked out better and after explaining our decision to the rest of the children they all agreed that it was the best choice and every one was happy!

So here we are, all 18 of us embarking on the 39hr train ride to Kerala!

4hrs into our journey I hear our 4 youngest girls, Jamuna, Srooti, Ramya and Emi shreaking with joy! I looked down from my bunker and noticed them all fighting each other to get to the train window...

It was their first time seeing the ocean!!!!

I sat back, took a deep breath and watched the girls experience something that was quiet possibly the most amazing thing they had ever seen! I don't think I had ever seen them so happy! I wish there was a way I could stop the train so they could enjoy their special moment longer!

The ocean passed and the girls were still beaming with joy, shouting 'samoontro samoontro' (Oriya for Ocean) this is now my favourite word of all time!

The rest of the evening on the train we saw more beggars that I have ever seen in my lifetime, more than my heart could handle. Every child beggar that would come to our cabin, Jainy and Abraham would offer them a home with us, freedom from a life of begging, poverty and crime but none of the children wanted to listen. It was as if they were just not hearing what was being said. They were zombie like, tired of this world and didnt want what we were offering, they simply wanted money... they were children with a mind of an adult, they had to be this way to survive.

I wish, I wish, I wish, there was a way to save every child living in poverty.

I wish, I wish, I wish, there was a way to show every child in this world the love that they deserve.

Why are there so many children hurting in this world?

Why are we not doing more to help them?

It gave me a great opportunity to tell our girls just how lucky and special they are and to never EVER ignore someone who is hurting.

It is NOT normal to see someone suffering and not be affected. I never want our girls to grow up and not help other children. Help does not always mean financially. They can help someone with a simple smile, with a hug, with a 'you are so beautiful'.

I remember specific times when I have been smiled at by a complete stranger when I needed a kind smile. That smile changed my whole mood, made me forget about what I was thinking, even if it was for a few minutes. We were created with the ability to smile for a reason, please lets use this wonderful gift as much as possible!

I hope the girls will love Kerala and I hope there will be many smiles to be exchanged while we are there.

'Smile and the world smiles with you'

Posted 23rd February 2012 by Prishan Foundation

Prishan Foundation

Dedicated in improving the lives of orphaned & abandoned children around the world.

It was the exact same time last year that I was sat in my brother Mehdi's apartment in Vancouver having just come back from 6 months living in Milandhoo and Sri Lanka. I was going through the pictures I had taken of my time in Milandhoo island, clicking through each one and sharing my experiences with him. With each picture I would look at, my heart would break more and more. I missed those children, so much, but yet had only been away from them for such a short amount of time. My heart was still there with them in our English classes and our after school adventures!

The pictures of Sri lanka were next - the country that had made such an incredible impact in my life. I felt a lump in my throat, I wasn’t even able to speak about my time in Mother Theresa’s orphanage, it was so magical and so intense that speaking about it felt like something I was physically unable to do. No words could ever come close to how I was feeling. Anyone who I was in contact with during my time in Mother Theresa’s orphanage heard about the boy who had changed my life - Prishan. I wrote to my brother almost every night when I left the orphanage, I couldn’t stop speaking about Prishan, about how much of a connection we had, about how angelic his face was, how gentle his touch was and how much love I had for him.

Mother Theresa’s orphanage was the first orphanage I had ever been to. I had prepared myself emotionally several months in advance before flying to Sri Lanka. I knew that working with children was something my life was going to be dedicated to but I didn’t know if I was ready for it. I didn’t know how I would feel being around children who I knew didn’t have parents. Would I feel sorry for them? Growing up having lost my own parents I knew how much I tried to hide this fact from people. The majority of people in my life never knew I didn’t have parents, they were always ‘travelling’ or ‘back home in Iran’. The conversation would quickly be changed if the subject of my parents came up, for the simple fact that I never wanted to be different. I feared that I would unintentionally do the same to those children. I wanted to go there to show them love, not because I felt sorry for them but because I wanted to show them that they are no different to any other child. They are special and unique and deserve the absolute best in life.

I remember the first day I went to the orphanage, I went straight into the office and introduced myself to Sister Eliza, I told her that I was there to be at service, to do anything that was asked of me and to help as much as possible with the day to day activities of the children. She seemed surprised but very respectful and she told me to go back the next day because the visiting times were over. I was so desperate to see those children becauee I was so close to them but yet so far. I went back to the church I was staying at and could barely sleep that night. I returned in the morning, waiting at the entrance for the gates to be opened, it felt like a lifetime! Finally, the warden opened the gates and I walked in to the garden. The orphanage doors were not yet opened, the children were still waking up and the sisters were getting them ready but I could see them through the opened windows. I could feel my heart beating so fast, I was finally where I belonged.

I stood by an open window where some of the children were sat, I extended my arm out offering a hand shake to one of the little boys but instead of a handshake, he held my hand. I didn’t want to let go and neither did he. I held his hand so tightly, closed my eyes and wished that he could feel how much love I had for him, even though it was the first time we were ‘meeting’.

It was time for the orphanage to open its doors. I was still sat outside holding this boys hand from inside the window when one of the sisters came next to me and offered to show me around. I was so happy! We walked in together and I had a permanent smile on my face. All of these beautiful children around me, all with so much energy and so welcoming, I was a stranger to them but they never made me feel that way. I felt so overwhelmed. The sister took me to several of the rooms where the children slept in, she showed me the kitchen where all their food was prepared, then pointed to the second floor of the orphanage and said ‘that is where the babies are, no visitors can go up there unless they are adopting’. I didn’t ask anything further about it.

For the rest of that day me and the children on the first floor played so many games! We ran around the orphanage and garden playing tag and tickled each other to the point of tears. I was the happiest I had ever been in my life, I felt like I was reunited with my long lost sisters and brothers.

The visiting hours were over and I had to leave. Those 6hours flew by! The walk back to the church that evening was so painful. I missed those children.

While lying on my bed that night all I could think about were the babies on the second floor. I wanted to meet them too, even if it was for a few minutes. I was determined that the next morning I would ask one of the sisters to allow me to go up with them to meet those precious babies.

The next morning I got there an hour early. I stood outside the orphanage gates counting every second until the doors would open. As soon as the warden opened the door, I ran into the garden. I could see from his face that he found me to be quite an odd and yet an amusing character. I went back and introduced myself to him with a huge smile on my face and every morning after that, even before he opened the gates and could see me, he would say ‘Hi Narges!’

I stood outside the orphanage waiting for the doors to be opened. One of the sisters opened the door and let me in and my second day with these beautiful children began. Every once in a while I could hear the babies crying from the second floor. I was ready to  finally ask permission to go upstairs. I asked a sister who was coming down the stairs if I could go up and help but she politely said no. She said that they already had many sisters up there, she appreciated the offer but preferred not to allow visitors. What she was saying was reasonable, I totally understood but I just wanted to help out so desperately.

Every day at the orphanage I would play with the children of the first floor near the steps leading up to the babies. I wanted to be with those children but also needed to feel connected with the babies upstairs. Every time a sister would come down the stairs I would ask ‘are you sure I can’t help?’… they would give me a wonderful smile, a little laugh and say ‘Narges, again!?’

Every day I would sit one step higher on the steps until the forth day… Sister Eliza came and sat next to me on the forth step and told me she had never met someone so determined, took my hand and led me up the stairs!

I was so happy!! She took me to wash my hands and instructed me to wash them every time I was to pick up a new baby. She walked into the baby ward but I had to just stand there and take in everything I was seeing. She looked back at me, gave me a smile and continued to walk.

I remember so clearly how I was feeling at that point. I couldn’t believe how honored I felt to be allowed into the world of these precious babies. They were all lying in their little cots, so innocently, so peacefully and I felt so overwhelmed with emotions. I couldn’t take my eyes off one particular baby. He was the only baby that stood up in his cot. He was wiggling around, stepping from side to side and shaking his rattle around with the biggest smile on his face. I had floods of tears streaming down my face when I saw him. I must have been at least a couple of meters away from him but I could still see every expression on his face. He was so happy and it was as if he knew that he had to entertain himself. It was as if he had mastered the art of baby dancing and he was in his own little world – a baby world that I wanted to experience too. I slowly walked up to his cot, not for a second taking my eyes off of him. I got to his cot and on a label attached to his cot a sign read ‘Prishan, born March 17th 2008’.

That moment my life changed. Prishan was now my world.

I smiled at him but he didn’t seem to notice me. I attempted to do his little baby dance but still he didn’t notice me and continued to look around without ever focusing on anything. I stopped, stood still and realized then that he could not see. His eyes were so beautiful, a colour that I had never seen before but they just simply weren’t made to see the world. I took his little hands and put them on mine. I gently stroked them and from then onwards our wonderful and magical relationship began.

I spent my final 2 weeks in Sri Lanka with him in my arms. I fed him, bathed him, clothed him, played with him, listened to music with him and put him to sleep. Every minute of my time in Mother Theresa’s orphanage was about him. Every time I picked him up, he would reach out to find my necklace, a way for him to know that it was me. That is why this picture will always be so special to me. It captures everything about our relationship that my words can never even begin to explain.

The day that I had to say good bye to him was the most difficult time of my life. I felt like he knew that I was leaving. I had never seen Prishan cry, I had never seen him refuse food but that day I felt he could sense my sadness. I waited for him to sleep, sat by his cot in tears for several hours and left knowing that this little baby had changed my life forever.

I was sharing this with my brother when I was back in Canada, showing him more photos and telling him about how I wanted to support this home as well as other homes in Sri Lanka. I decided to post pictures on Facebook and ask my friends to consider helping too and that was the exact moment I decided to start my own charity…

But what will the name be?? I asked Mehdi what he thought. He told me to think about something in the past 6 months that really stood out for me, or a name that I really liked. He even suggested ‘Daffodil’ (my name translated into English)…I was silent for a few seconds then shouted PRISHAN, PRISHAN FOUNDATION! I burst into tears, my brother burst into tears and we held each other so tightly. That was it! This was the name of the most special baby boy in my life, a name that was in every conversation I had had since he came into my world.

In his inspiration and in his name, Prishan Foundation was started on January 1st, 2011. Since then we have raised more than $55,000 for children in South Asia.

One baby boy changed my life and because of him hundreds of children around the world have been made to feel loved. 2011 was an incredible year for Prishan Foundation. Thank you to each and every single individual, community, church, school and business that have helped us bring smiles to these childrens faces.

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ – Gandhi

Happy New Year everyone!

Posted 30th December 2011 by Prishan Foundation

Child Pornography and Human Trafficking in the News

Friday, January 3, 2014

New research shows that Internet pornography is more addictive than cocaine and heroine — and that it “literally changes the physical matter within the brain so that new neurological pathways require pornographic material in order to trigger the desired reward sensation”. And current trends suggest that the material desired is of an increasingly violent nature and of younger and younger victims. The rate of production of child pornography is eclipsing all other forms of porn production.

Though it is true that there are women who choose to be filmed sexually, any child filmed pornographically is always a coerced or forced victim and therefore they have been exploited. And if they have been transported or sold or rented for this purpose they have also been trafficked. The following articles are vile and horrific and they reveal an alarming escalation in the amount of child pornography being produced and children being violated. These stories involve some of the youngest victims of commercial sexual exploitation by some of the most perverse perpetrators the world has ever known. Please read them, let the horrors of these stories change you forever. Let them be the catalyst that makes you an abolitionist for life. Truly there is no one more voiceless than children. Please be their voice. Thank you.

Click the bold heading to be taken to the full articles. 

John Bidmead (above), 65, was caught red handed by police as he watched a child sex abuse movie on a 50-inch television, when they knocked on his front door with a warrant to arrest him. They found him in possession of one million child porn images including 24,000 images of adults violating children.

Stewart Matthew Kidwell (above), 36, of Blanchester, Ohio, was arrested today on charges that he sought someone online to rape a 4-year-old family member while he watched and that he distributed child pornography through a social media website.

Experts say New Zealanders seeking child pornography are increasingly demanding younger victims and more violent abuse. The Department of Internal Affairs has already blocked 34 million attempts, now upwards of a million a month, within New Zealand to access at least one of 582 child sex abuse sites blocked by government filters since 2010.

Tommy Lee Waugh (above), 29, of Wartburg, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday morning to production of child pornography. Authorities rescued a 5-week old infant baby girl in his care that he had sexually abused, recorded it, and shared the images over the internet.

Bret Allan Nichols, 29, made an initial appearance in federal court Tuesday on three counts, including producing child pornography, possessing it, and receiving and distributing it. A woman reportedly told agents that he would make payments of up to $200 to watch her and her husband have sex with their daughter.

Toronto Police Service Detective Constable Lisa Belanger (L) and Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins of the Toronto Police Service Sex Crimes Unit (R) announce hundreds of arrests in a global child exploitation investigation.

Nearly 400 children have been rescued and 348 adults arrested following an international child pornography investigation. A pornography site run by 42-year old Brian Way, sold and distributed images of child exploitation to over 50 counties. Police seized over 45 terabytes of data from the $4-million business that included images and videos of “horrific sexual acts against very young children that were some of the worst they have ever viewed." Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents.

A Broward county Florida man — who agents say was using a dead man's identity — was arrested Friday on allegations he was part of a child pornography conspiracy that victimized a baby girl and toddler. For now, the suspect is booked into the Broward County jail under the name that he gave to law enforcement: Cliff Shaw (above), age 48. "Shaw" and Jason Barber, 36, who lives in Las Vegas, are accused of creating and exchanging pornographic images of an infant girl, between 6 and 9 months old, and a female toddler.

Posted by Mark Langham at 6:25 PM