When the Human Trafficked Lives Next Door: Angel’s Story
“I liked you since the day I set my eyes on you. You were so kind to me.” That is a text
message I received from my friend, whom I nicknamed Angel.
Shortly before meeting her, I had read an article about human trafficking being common in our area in the Middle East. Sex trafficking is prevalent, but that is not the only form that is common. House helpers are also trafficked from other countries. Women are told they will be going to Europe for well-paying professional jobs and are led to believe they have “agents” in their home countries seeking out educated women to connect them with these well-paying jobs.
The only problem: it’s all a lie.
They arrive at the airport where their passports are taken from them, not even knowing what
country they have been taken to.
The article shared how some women are tied up in rooms, only to be let out when it is
time to clean the house or any other domestic tasks. Some are barely given anything to eat.
African women are treated even worse and earn less money than women from other countries.
Why?
Employers say they are concerned that their black faces will scare their children.
In many cases, these sweet girls are treated as less than human. They are paid less than workers from Indonesia or the Philippines, if paid at all. Once someone “buys” their contract, no one makes sure the family pays the worker or cares about how they are treated. With little to no knowledge of the language or where they are, they don’t know who to turn to for help.
When I saw Angel taking out the trash, I wanted to make sure she was okay and wanted
her to know how to get a hold of me if she needed to—that I was a safe person. It was later that
night that she texted me that message.
Angel is one of the most amazing young women you could ever have the privilege of meeting. Although her life is so very hard, she is always thinking of how she can help other girls who have been trafficked. When she first arrived in the country, she was taken to an apartment where she was given only a little handful of rice and about 5 ounces of water a day. She created a group where her info makes its way around the community of “house help” workers.
Thankfully for Angel, the man of her house is kind to her. He let her go for walks with me and come over at night so we could worship and pray together. Most are not so fortunate.
Angel loves Jesus. On one of our walks she told me, “Knowing what Jesus sacrificed for
me, how can I not do my very best to sacrifice for others?”
What better nickname for her than “Angel”?
On another one of our walks, she told me of how one girl called her, crying in despair
from her living conditions. I can’t give you too many details in order to not endanger her. Just
know these girls need our prayers.
I told Angel I was going to have people from all over the world praying for her and her friends. This is what she wrote back: “Wow, mummy, so lovely. I always shed tears when I see a picture of you or when having a conversation with you. I never knew I would meet such a wonderful mummy like you, and your family and your group members as well.” (That’s you by the way. If you are reading this and care about girls who have been trafficked, you are the “wonderful group members.”)
What I didn’t share with Angel is that I am asking our “group members” to pray for them
regularly and to write Angel and her friends notes of encouragement that we will pass along to
them. Would you please consider writing a note of encouragement to these girls, letting them
know they are not forgotten, and consider sharing this blog on your social media account?
You can send your notes of encouragement and prayers for these girls to the contact page of my website http://AnnaLuke.com and I will send them on to our sweet Angel and her girls.
Consider leaving your name and state so Angel can feel love coming from a wide range of places. I’m hoping you, too, will have a heart for Angel and her fellow girls who have been
trafficked.
About the author
Anna Luke is a good friend of Back to Jerusalem that has been serving the victims of ISIS in the Middle East. She works with at-risk women and can be contacted through her website www.annaluke.com
One Comment
Thank you so much for making us aware of such people, and giving us some way to help them. People in the West live too comfortable lives, and care only about themselves, then they are afflicted with loneliness (currently widespread). But if they would care for the poor then they would not be lonely, because they would be likeminded with God. “He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.” Proverbs 14:21