Serving the Brothel Girls - What Could be Better?

I can't think of anything better than what my friends with Light Bangladesh and others like them do: build relationships with sex workers through humble service, provide a safe home for their daughters to grow up and get and education, and empower brothel girls to live lives free from forced prostitution as a minor.  There is little in this world more disturbing than girls being raped for profit, and nothing more beautiful than seeing girls-at-risk living lives of freedom.  Girls who were destined for the hell of being a sex worker are growing and thriving and becoming young women with a future - what could be better than that?

I came to Bangladesh about three weeks ago, the start of a 4 month stretch where I will be looking for opportunities for Speak Up to have an office here.  My time has been spent in Khulna, the third largest city in the country and capital of a southwestern district of the same name.  I've done a lot in these three weeks - met the leading politicians and bureaucrats of the region, visited a bunch of NGO's and schools and orphanages, connected with tons of people intrigued with an American roaming the streets - and there is so much good work that we could be doing here.  But nothing moves me more

 than the brothel girls and the orphan girls who might also be at risk of terrible exploitation.  I keep repeating this to myself and to everyone I meet: what could be more important than helping these girls at risk? 

Today I was sitting in the Alingon Home, LB's home for girls removed from the brothels, and watched as the girls opened their cards and gifts from some new friends (thanks Kayla and team) in South Korea.  It was beyond what words could express: girls that used to live in filthy brothels, surrounded by used condoms and open sewers and sleazy men dropping by at all hours to buy their mothers, now reading cards in English and laughing and smiling as they revelled in knowing that they are loved.  They don't know their Fathers; they don't have many possessions; many of their Moms are still sex workers; and they are all behind in their education.  They are still unwanted in Bangladeshi society, will have trouble finding husbands one day, and carry the baggage of years in the brothels.  A lot is stacked against them.   But they are loved, and they have a future, and their minds are being blown in the best of ways, knowing that people in Bangladesh and Korea and America are giving to serve them, the humblest, poorest, most vulnerable girls in the world.  What could be better?

Bangladesh is not always an easy place for me to be.  It's hard to pick up the Bangla language, there isn't much of a social scene for me, and pretty much all of the luxuries of living in Bangkok or Los Angeles are gone.  At times this weighs on my mind, the sense of just not being in control of anything.  And then I look at the 14 Alingon Home girls, and think of the thousands of girls just like them in the brothels, and look at the pictures I've taken of the girls who are ready to come to the Alingon Home as soon as we can raise the money for a bigger building, and all my concerns vanish.  It's a great feeling.  All my petty concerns - the heat, an unusual diet, missing football season, not being able to watch the Colbert Report - evaporate when Lovely smiles or Smrity gives me that mischevious grin or when Misty's delirious laughter fill the room.  These 14 girls who call me uncle were destined to be child prostitutes and now they are free.  What could be better than that?

I'm coming to the US in October to raise money for Speak Up and find financial sponsors for the girls who are hoping to come to the Alingon Home soon.  I look forward to sharing about the Bangladeshi brothel girls with many of you.  The stories from Baniashanta and Bagerhat and other brothels are disturbing, and there is overwhelming work that needs to be done.  But there is a light in this terrible darkness, and there is freedom for some of these girls.  I hope that you will help me spread the word of the important work being done in Bangladesh to serve girls trapped in brothels. 

Comments

[Kecia]

Thank you for just being real with us about the ups and downs of working in Bangladesh. Your conviction and clarity of vision come through in your writing. I'm sure you don't remember but we met in Bangkok when I was there for orientation for GUT 2010, I was on the Kolkata team and we talked about law school. Speak Up has stayed on my mind since then, and I'm looking forward to working my way through the blog.

[Peter]

Great stuff Troy! Thanks for sharing it.