New fundraising project needs your attention: Help a Young Trafficking Victim Reunite with her Mother! If you check out our homepage, you can see that we have a new fundraising project entitled: Help a Young Trafficking Victim Reunite with her Mother.
ECPAT-USA is raising money for "Sara" who was taken from her village with promises of a good education in the United States. Instead, she was forced to work as a domestic slave at age ten. We are trying to raise $7,7500 for her visit home. Read the story below and please help an amazing young woman. The top fundraiser will receive a free luggage tag by Tassatag which helps to raise awareness about child sex tourism (http://www.tassatag.org/).
Please share this story and help ECPAT-USA fundraise for this important cause.
Sara's Story
When she was ten years old, Sara was recruited and transported from West Africa to the United States, lured with promises of a better life and the ability to attend school by a family acquaintance. But instead of going to school, Sara was forced to work as a domestic servant under conditions of isolation, threat, and physical, mental, and sexual abuse for four years. During this time, Sara was told by her trafficker that her mother had passed away. Sara ran away, and with no identification, money, language skills, or friends/family, she subsequently lived on the streets and with men who offered to "help" her, who often sexually exploited and abused her. When she was sixteen years old, she was referred to a social service agency who assisted her with medical care, legal services, and placement within a foster family and school.
In late 2008, Sara was able to reconnect with a childhood friend on Facebook. This friend confirmed that Sara's mother was in fact alive, and he facilitated a call between Sara and her mother via cell phone. Her first phone call with her mother lasted for three hours, filled with tears and laughter. They have talked on the phone at least once a week since, and have shared pictures via mail.
Sara is now 22 years old, going to community college, working part-time, and is living in her own apartment. She received her green card last year, and is eager to travel home to reunite with her mother and extended family. However, Sara needs financial assistance to travel home to visit her mother. She writes:
"I can't wait to see her again. It has been 12 years that I have not seen my mom, my sweet mother, my everything. Right now as I am writing this, I am about to cry because I really miss her and I love her, and a girl grow up to becoming a woman without her mom is the hardest for me. I wish she can see the woman I am, all grown up. I have my own place to live and I want her to be proud of me."
We are looking to raise $8,850 for Sara to visit her mother and her home for one month in December 2010. |
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