Doing What Really Matters

I spent the afternoon today putting together a newsletter for Speak Up, trying in a few words and stories to capture the essence of what I am doing and trying to build.  Particularly moving for me recently was my trip to Bangladesh, especially meeting a group of nine young girls who were born into and grew up in brothels.  They now live in a safe home run by the NGO Light Bangladesh and are given the opportunity to go to school and play and be normal kids.  Their home is pretty sparse - not too many toys or clothes, pretty simple food - but it's a world away from living in the Banishanta brothel.  I've visited similar places in Thailand, India and Cambodia, and always leave with a sense of hope and conviction.  As long as the world chooses to enslave girls in prostitution, there will be a need for places like the Alingon Home, places that stand as humble lights among tremendous darkness. 

I don't cry very often, but after spending a week interacting with these kids who called me uncle and laughed and smiled like young girls should, I have to admit that I teared up when I left.  Maybe it's because I don't have kids of my own, maybe I'm just a softy underneath it all, or maybe I'm just normal, but when you really stop to think about it, spending time laughing and smiling with girls who were close to being forced into prostitution or trafficked really takes your breath away.  It's a haunting, gnawing, indescribable feeling to look into the eyes of a 10-year-old girl with a mischievous playful smile knowing that she recently was in danger of unspeakable humiliation and pain.  I don't have the words to describe it, but I know that the depths of my anger and compassion and joy were all touched by spending time with my newest Bangladeshi friends - girls rescued from the brothels.  They have become for me an embodiment of joy and freedom, and a reminder that many such girls still face unfathomable exploitation every day. 

It's so disturbing to see terrible places like Banishanta and Nana and Kamatipura that it makes places of hope and light like the Alingon Home all the more beautiful.  There are a lot of worthy callings in the world, a lot of great things you might give your life to, but certainly among the greatest of these is the calling my friends in Bangladesh have to serve these girls.  What could matter more than removing an 8-year-old girl from growing up in a filthy brothel and giving her a safe place to call home?  I am in awe of my friends who have made this their life's work. 

And, I have to admit, a bit jealous.  Sometimes I just want to pack up my life as a lawyer and raise money for girls at risk, or raise up a posse to take out some traffickers, or something equally dramatic.  But I guess that I am getting to that point in my own way, slowly building an organization that will be able to serve many thousands of these kids at risk one day.  How I long for that day to come!  And it will.  At Speak Up we're going to spend time in 2011 exploring work in Bangladesh, and we've already got a $5000 commitment from a loyal friend and donor to fund the Alingon girls' education.  I hope soon to be able to have a team in place to partner with friends and organizations in Bangladesh and India to continue fighting the scourge of child prostitution.  What could matter more?

Some days I get so tired and overwhelmed at work.  Today I did some fund-raising, helped my students with their papers, counseled some refugee clients, then put together a plan to have my law students intervene on behalf of some other refugees.   I read a backlog of emails from refugees who are desperate for help, and set up some visits to clients in detention.  When you try to speak up for the poor and train students, you enter a world of constant, never-ending need.  It can be tiring.

But it's also exhilarating.  I just showed my pictures of the Bangladeshi girls to a Vietnamese pastor friend who used to help rescue Vietnamese girls trafficked into Cambodia.  His eyes teared up seeing my pictures, and I knew some of what he was feeling, the helpless, nauseating feeling, and a sense of deep conviction, you get when you contemplate the evil that is happening in Asia's brothels. 

So much energy and talent, so many valuable resources, are wasted on things that don't really matter when it comes down to it.  Nicer homes and cars and clothes, more entertainment and vacations and luxuries, so many things that are at their core, when we are honest, merely selfish luxuries.  But some things in this world really matter, things like adopting needy children and feeding the hungry and taking the time to visit prisoners or lonely retirees.  Whenever I take the time to do such things it puts all my worries and pains and struggles into perspective and, regardless of the way that seeing the big picture can crush me with overwhelming need, fills me with a sense of peace.  I need that more.

As I sit here today, there are more than 25 million slaves in the world.  And somewhere in that number are thousands of young girls from Vietnam and Nepal and India and Cambodia and beyond, girls not that different from my friends in Bangladesh, who are enslaved in brothels.  It's truly incomprehensible and repulsive.  But it's also an opportunity, a chance to do something that really matters. 

I invite anyone reading these words to seriously consider doing something costly and meaningful to join the fight against child prostitution.  To give personally, as Mother Teresa said in her wisdom, until it hurts.  That is the only way that you can fully taste the joy that comes through service. 

If you need ideas, send me an email.  I can connect you with people or give you ideas of how you can join in doing something that has ultimate significance.  Thanks.  troydanderson@juno.com

Comments

[Jean]

Never give up, never, never give up!

Every life saved is a blessing to the girl saved. She will never forget and maybe in years to come there will be these girls that will carry on the torch!