As a part of the Global Seva Challenge, yogis from around the globe spent a year raising awareness and funds for organizations in India supporting sex trafficking and slavery survivors through shelter, education, holistic therapies and job skills training. During this year’s Bare Witness Tour in India, I assisted OTM co-founders Seane Corn and Suzanne Sterling as they led 20 of these yogis through two weeks of visiting and connecting with the organizations whom they fundraised for.
What I brought home
India is simply amazing. In the space of a few blocks you experience the absolute evidence of a loving God working in the world to the very depths of human depravity and suffering. Before I feel possessed by the need to transform this experience into meaning and purpose I wanted to spend some time reflecting on our brutal and tender journey through the human faces of sex-trafficking.
Mistaken Identity
I’ve never had quite the experience as the one I had today. After our morning ritual of yoga and breakfast, my half of the group headed to a safe house run by Women’s Interlink Foundation (WIF) and housing a Made By Survivors work space. Before heading to the Nijuloy Shelter Home (run by WIF) we stopped for a wander through a local morning market. It was bustling with activity…people buying food, newspapers and flowers.
A Time To Reflect
It’s taken me quite sometime to be able to turn my thoughts and experiences into words.
In the beginning I was a bit bogged down by the shadows of what I’d been witnessing while trying to keep my heart, smile and energy consumption afloat for the women and children I crossed paths with. It’s been a wild journey here in India – such a different world.
Dear My Two Little Sisters
On Monday we traveled to the Nijoloy shelter home run by the Women’s Interlink Foundation and the experience has been front of mind for me ever since. The girls who live in this particular shelter home are either orphans, victims of sex trafficking who have been rescued, or have been voluntarily signed over by their mothers who work in prostitution themselves and are hopeful of giving their daughters a better life.