 Aruna,
a Hindi word meaning ‘bright morning sun,’ serves both as a metaphor
for what could be for so many women and children who have been sold
into the dark world of the sexual slave trade, as well as the name of
an initiative in Mumbai, India to bring an end to human trafficking,
specifically in the area of sexual exploitation. However, the reality
of what is stands in stark contrast to the hope that Aruna brings. |
 April 10, 2010 |
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Human Trafficking
has become a global enterprise as a multi-billion dollar industry. With
over a million women and children trafficked each year, many for sexual
exploitation facing horrors of untold injustice, the problem of what is
can take on an overwhelming and faceless problem that seems distant
from each of us. However, the faceless millions each have a story, a name, a life, and -if others step into their need- a hope. One step at a time, one life at a time, we can bring hope to the hopeless, like Zarine. Zarine was born in Calcutta, India into an environment where she was of little value as an uneducated female. Through a series of unfortunate events, at the age of 12 she found herself in the dark corridors of a brothel in Mumbai. For what the average person in the US spends on coffee over a few months time, Zarine was sold as a sexual slave. She faced horrors many of us fear to ponder, ‘seeing’ up to 10 customers a day against her will with virtually no days off. After over 10 years of sexual exploitation, members of the Aruna Project helped to rescue Zarine out of the enslavement. She spent time in the half-way house receiving therapy for her many needs. Now, and for the past 8 years, she has been serving with the Aruna Project, courageously going back into the brothels not as a slave but as a liberator, to bring light into the darkness, to embody the true meaning and mission of Aruna. Please join Zarine in her effort to set the captives free. Please join us as we run for their freedom. Photo courtesy of Tora Martens / 22 million Children || World's Children's Prize for the Rights of a Child |
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