A 21st-century slavery story

A Bangladeshi girl making baskets (Photo: James Pender)

James Pender relates the story of a young Bangladeshi girl who was sold into sex slavery in an Indian brothel.

I was thinking recently about the heritage of the practical sharing of God’s love to the poor of Meherpur through the Church of Bangladesh's social outreach.

The Council for World Mission church profile states: “The Church of Bangladesh expresses its faith through development projects.”

It is a great privilege to stand in that great tradition of service to the poor and contribute to its development.  This work of service has gone from strength to strength.

In the run-up to the 200th anniversary this year of the ban on British involvement in the slave trade, I have also been reflecting on the heritage of the mission agencies and churches that support my work in Bangladesh.

Individuals such as William Wilberforce were passionately convinced that slavery was evil and an offence to humanity as well as to God.   Wilberforce, well known for his part in the anti-slavery campaign, was also involved in the founding of CMS.

James Pender and the team collecting data from a women's group in Kejura (Photo: James Pender)

Those two strands come together in part of my present work as Adviser to the Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme (CBSDP), which is set to scale up the Woman and Child Trafficking Prevention Project that I helped to start.

I am immensely proud that my brothers and sisters in the Church of Bangladesh, which contains only 16,000 members — mostly poor farm labourers living hand to mouth — raised almost £1,500 in a recent collection to be used in this project!

This hard-earnt money, combined with funds sent from the UK, was put to good use during 2006.

A woman and girl in Meherpur, Bangladesh (Photo: James Pender)

I am pleased to report that 57 formerly trafficked young women have received training in tailoring and that the 28 girls who graduated during 2005 with the help of interest-free loans, have already set up successful tailoring businesses.

Last year, we also made 8,083 locals, from government officials to schoolgirls, aware of the danger of human trafficking and distributed 1,000 warning posters.

Numbers and figures look impressive but each one has a heartbreaking story behind it.  Take, for example, “Halina”, from a Bangladeshi village, who was 12 when she was sold into sex slavery — in a brothel in India.

For six long years she was forced to work as a prostitute.  Every night she was violated by 10 to 15 different men, sexually abusing her in various ways at their whim; she was helpless to resist.  She often contemplated suicide but, eventually, she convinced one of her regular clients to help her to escape and she made her way back to Bangladesh.

“Halina” has now been back from India for three years.  She says that she will never go back; she hates even the thought of the place.  As she says, “That is where I lost my life really.  When I am alone in my house I cry for my lost innocence.  But even though I am poor, I am pleased to be back in Bangladesh because I am free from sexual and psychological torture.”

However, last year, through our Women and Children Trafficking Prevention Project, for the first time in a long while, her life took a turn for the better and she was offered the opportunity to take three months’ training in tailoring and embroidery.

She successfully completed the course, which she hoped would make her financially self-reliant, improve her standing with her parents and help her to recover her dignity.

These dreams are now coming to fruition as, on graduating, she was given an interest-free loan from CBSDP-Meherpur that she used to start a small tailoring business.   She now goes regularly to market to buy cloth and to sell the clothes she has made from it.

In addition, she has also used her loan to begin to rear goats and chickens to raise further income.

“Halina” has been attending various women’s meetings arranged by CBSDP too, and the focus on women’s rights and self-empowerment has encouraged her to take her traffickers to the civil court in order to receive compensation and to see her abusers punished.

CBSDP’s Gender Equality Programme Organiser has been supporting her and the CBSDP is currently paying for a female lawyer to represent her case.

“Halina” hopes to be fully self reliant soon and she is encouraging other trafficked women to contact CBSDP so that they can also receive support.

She says, “I am very grateful to CBSDP and those in Britain who funded this project; they have been so kind to me, I am praying that God will bless them”.

What’s more, “Halina” now plans to help CBSDP as a volunteer, particularly to raise awareness among the district's children and young women of trafficking.

This is truly the kind of heritage we should all value and work to maintain in our communities, churches and organisations.

Two young women in Meherpur (Photo: James Pender)

I am currently involved in setting up “Stop the Traffik, Bangladesh”, a network of Christian agencies such as Compassion and Salvation Army, as well as CBSDP, which aim to co-operate and share resources as we fight human trafficking over here.

However, Stop the Traffik is a global coalition planning major campaigns and rallies in the UK and elsewhere, leading up to ‘Freedom Day’ on 25 March 2007.

So let’s combine our efforts at home and overseas and see modern forms of slavery such as the trafficking of young women like “Halina” stopped!

For more information, visit:

"Setting Captives Free" by James Pender
What is Stop the Traffik?
24-7 Prayer
Free for All — Slavery today — Trafficking in Asia
African Snow — Human Traffic

"Halina" is an alias.  We have changed this young woman's name to safeguard her and her privacy.