HOMECOMING FOR AN EX-SEX SLAVE
Next, we bring you the third part of CNN's documentary--"Nepal's Stolen Children," hosted by
Hollywood celebrity Demi Moore. Today we'll hear the story of a recently rescued sex slave called Tulli, and witness her bittersweet journey of homecoming.
Dawn breaks over the Himalayas.
It's a beautiful start to the day in some of Nepal's most remote villages.
But beauty doesn't put food on the table.
And some of the country's most breath-taking scenery is home to some of its poorest people.
The average income in Nepal is a little over 200 dollars a year.
That's 57 cents a day.
In the remote areas, it's often far less.
Poverty is the means by which traffickers trap their prey, luring them away from their neighborhoods with the promise of work in the big city.
It's to such a village that we're heading today.
Maiti Nepal wakes up as usual to the sound of sweeping.
Prayers are offered, and breakfast is taken, and in the corner of one of the communal bedrooms, a young woman is packing her bag.
Today, Tulli is going home.
It's a six-hour drive into the mountains to reach Tulli's village, and as our vehicle struggles up the dusty road, there's plenty of time for me to hear her story.
"So how was it that she ended up being trafficked? What was the situation?"
"One day she met a man. And he said it's better life in a bigger place. Now let's go. I will get you a job. And then that's how she ended up...
As usual she had come for shopping in the city for her brother and then she never returned home.
So first they thought that she was in the relative's house and they looked into the relative's house and they could not find her.
Then afterwards they knew that she had gone disappeared somewhere.
So they didn't tell anybody. They just waited for some time.
And later on they found out that she was trafficked and they got the message."
After six months in a brothel in Kolkata, Tulli took a risk and asked one of her clients to help her.
He agreed to phone her brother, and with Maiti Nepal's assistance, he traveled to India to help her escape.
"Is she worried about how she is going to be treated?"
"The family will treat me very nicely. I know that, but I don't know about the community."
Tulli wants to stop at her favorite eating place halfway through the journey.
The town has some fond memories for her, but it's also the place where she met her trafficker.
It's a sinister cycle and a well-planned trap.
Naive young girls are duped, drugged and then taken away to the city.
"So why is the area, where her village is, you said is one of the highest risk for trafficking?"
"It's somewhat different now. It's been...since 1926, it's been a high-risk area.
And the people who live in this area are a certain group of ethnic people called the Tamangs.
Tamangs are very, very naive. They believe everybody and they trust everybody. And they are lured in the form of employment."
It's been a long and bumpy ride but finally we arrive at Tulli's village.
At 3,500 meters above sea level, it's breath-taking in every sense of the word.
A cluster of metal-roofed shacks clinging to the mountainside.
But before we reach her home, there's a little matter of 500 steps to negotiate down the hillside.
Among those eagerly awaiting Tulli's return is a small girl.
This is Tulli's daughter, and she hasn't seen her mother for six months.
Although emotions are running high, Tulli's reunion with her parents maintains the traditional respectful formality of her culture.
It's only when she is with her daughter, that she can no longer hold back the tears.
Three generations of Tulli's family finally back together again, but these first moments are clearly difficult and uncomfortable.
"Thank you very much for bringing my sister, you all have to take such a lot of trouble to come down all the way."
"Tulli, how do you feel to be home?"
"I feel really happy."
It's important to give survivors like Tulli a voice. And my thoughts are on a meeting I have planned with a convicted trafficker.
"I'm wanting to share messages, and if there's something that you would like me to say, on behalf of you and other girls, I would like to hear so I can pass that on."
"My sister has taken lots of pain and nobody should be left like that."
Tulli is one of the lucky ones, rescued and now home with her family.
Anuradha's crusade is to protect the thousands of other girls who would fall prey to the traffickers every year, and her work never ends.
On our way back we stopped at another village.
"We stick posters like this on the wall, on every house.
People gather here, and we give them messages."
A critical part of Maiti Nepal's work is creating awareness about sex trafficking in the more remote regions of the country.
Villagers are entertained with songs, dances and speeches all designed to educate them of the very real danger that's all around them.
We continue on our journey, another six hours' winding through the mountains.
The sun sets long before we reach Kathmandu, leaving behind the region blessed by natural beauty, but cursed by poverty, a curse from which the traffickers seek to profit.
延伸閱讀
- "NEPAL'S STOLEN CHILDREN" PART 22011/07/08
- 23 CHILDREN HONORED FOR THEIR COURAGE2011/03/29
- HONORING THE COURAGEOUS MOTHERS2011/05/03
- GUARDING THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN2011/04/06
- PARKER A.K.A. SUPERMOM?2011/07/21
- LOW TAKE-UP RATE FOR FLU VACCINE AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN2011/05/08
- FINAL CHAPTER OF "NEPAL'S STOLEN CHILDREN"2011/07/14
- DO WE UNDERSTAND OUR CHILDREN?2011/03/29
- SAVING NEPAL'S STOLEN CHILDREN2011/07/13
- THE STORY OF GEETHA2011/07/12
- LINK BETWEEN EATING HABITS AND OBESITY2011/06/22
- SEX DISTRICT PLAN STRONGLY OPPOSED2011/04/09







