Today was an incredibly hard day. We arrived at school early and took an hour bus ride back into Managua to spend some time observing at House of Hope. It is a vocational rehabilitation program for women and their children leaving the world of prostitution and human trafficking. We spent several hours their observing and touring the property. My heart is so heavy as I process what I saw.
We began in a pavilion-like building where women in the "Tuesday Morning Program" were gathered for a church service including prayer,praise, and singing. The room was filled with women of all ages who had come by bus from the brothels and streets of the city to participate. The women are still trapped in the world of debt bonded prostitution, but come once a week to participate. After the service, the women broke into groups to work on items sold in the HOH store including: jewelry, potato bags, greeting cards, and ornaments. Money earned from the sales go directly to pay the women who craft the products by hand, in hopes of teaching them marketable skills that will one day allow them to leave the life of slavery and prostitution.
While they were setting up, one of the HOH employees (volunteer) gave us a tour of the residences and shared some of the women's stories. There are currently 16 women and their 26 children living on the property. All have horrific histories of abuse- first from their families, then by the men using them for sex, then by the Nicaraguan society that views them as nothing more than trash. She told us about one resident who was abandoned by her parents. The grandmother took her in so that she could pimp her out. Another woman was working and came home to find that her "husband" ( probably her pimp) had raped their daughter. The daughter ended up pregnant by her father. When the mother tried to stand up to her "husband", he cut off her arm. When I had seen the woman earlier, I wondered what had happened to her...what accident could have caused her to lose her arm at the shoulder? I also saw cigarette burn scars all over her remaining arm. How could one human treat another so horribly? The stories continued with another about a women who worked on the street servicing men in a cardboard box since she didn't have a room. I cannot even imagine the living hell that made up their day to day lives starting from very young ages. Sixty-six percent of prostitutes begin working by the age of 11years old. The cycle repeats itself over and over as the girls/women have babies and must come up with money to feed them. With no access to healthcare or stable living situations, they often end up selling their oldest daughters to help feed the family.
Coming from that picture of their histories, I found myself peering at the dark rooms they currently live in as palaces. These rooms they now call home have no furniture-only metal bed frames with no mattresses. They have no running water, no flush toilets, no kitchens with cabinets. They do have a safe, secure space with a roof,a cement floor, and a metal "grill" outside to cook for their children.
This is truly a house of hope as they learn that they have value and that they do not have to sell themselves in order to live. The program helps the women break free from addiction, slavery, and abuse as they rebuild their lives one step at a time. The women are able to learn trades and start their own businesses through the micro grant program. With $65, they can produce and sell their own goods. They receive medical care, psychological counseling, education, and the means to send their children to school. They can even rent and eventually own their own homes once they graduate from the residential program.
It is by no means an easy journey from slavery to freedom. Many women do not trust HOH. When they first come, they hoard the supplies for making the items. They don't trust each other so there are many fights. They are in survival mode and must learn that it is possible to live differently, to trust, to allow others to get close to them. Some come and then return to prostitution. Some return to HOH again. The people of HOH are not in the business of giving up. They are committed to sharing God's love and transforming power one life at a time.
Angela, another HOH worker, is a prime example of that transformation. Near the end of our day there, we gathered in the staff house to hear her story. Angela had been abandoned by her parents along with her siblings. She grew up going to school with no shoes, no uniforms, no books, no pencils so that she could listen and learn. The other children at school made fun of her and her siblings because they didn't have the required necessities, but she persisted in order to have a better life. She worked hard and was able to graduate to become a teacher herself. Then she met a man and had her first child. He left them. She met another man and had two more children-three girls and a boy. She explained with great pride that her two girls were both college graduates- one a psychologist and the other a social worker. Unfortunately, after her third child was born, she could not make enough as a teacher to provide for her children on her own. A friend told her how to make money through prostitution. Thus began her fall into twelve years of sexual trafficking. She didn't want that life, but felt trapped with no means to take care of her children. One day she met April, the founder of HOH, and heard from her about God's love and hope for a better life for her and her children. With her help, Angela was able to get out and help her children onto a path far from prostitution. She went through the HOH program and now works for them. She has been out of prostitution for 11 years. Now she travels to where HOH has built programs to help break the cycle in Honduras,Guatemala, and Belize.
I could say so much more. The reality of life here is nothing like my reality. It definitely gave me a new perspective. The next question is: where do I go from here? What do I do with this new knowledge? I am learning a lot more than just Spanish, that is clear.
#FFTFellow
Here are some photos that speak for themselves:
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