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Bringing HOPE to the people
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A Young Woman's Experience of Human Trafficking.
Dear ****
I am a 22 year old woman with one child. I was born in Port Elizabeth and grew up
here. I went to a school in a well-
I was well looked after and did not have problems with money, clothes or food. I was always a very popular girl amongst students, friends and teachers. I always achieved above average marks in my exams, although I did not finish my Matric year.
My trouble started when I was in Matric. Myself and two friends wanted to check out a club in Central. Up until then I never had a boyfriend or used any drugs. We did occasionally have some liquor to drink before.
We were having a great time at the club. We met someone I knew from my neighbourhood, who introduced us to some (people)*. They decided to join us at our table as there were no other empty tables in the club. They regularly invited us on the dance floor and we left our drinks on the table unattended.
Then, all of a sudden, everything went blank. I could not remember anything that happened afterwards. I woke up in a flat in Central, I was completely naked. I started panicking and started to scream because the room was pitch dark. I also felt sore between my legs.
While I was screaming, a big (person)* entered the room, he shouted at me to be quite. When I did not stop he smacked me through the face, the blood was streaming down my nostrils. I was scared so I kept quite.
He immediately forced himself on top off me. He raped me repeatedly that night. After he was finish he called to two of his friends to hold me while he was pricking me with a needle in my forearm. I cannot remember what else happened to me that night, but the next day I woke up with a terrible headache.
As soon as I remembered what happened to me, I started crying again. My hands were tied to the bed and my risks were aching. The rope had cut through my flesh, I showed you the marks. Anyway the it happened again, they drugged me and started raping me. Five or six of them took turns raping me. I cannot recall how many times I was raped that specific day. I begged them to stop but they were just laughing as if I was a big joke. Every time I screamed, they would either smack or hit me with a belt. I soon lost my consciousness.
During the following days I was repeatedly raped and drugged. They gave me food to eat and water to wash. I was not allowed to leave the room. When I had to go to the bathroom I was escorted by another lady that was doing prostitute work for the (people)*. I soon lost track of time, sometimes I did not know whether it was day or night.
I did not know what my parents were thinking or doing. I imagine they were very devastated and worried with my disappearance. Later I heard they went to the police.
During the following months I was forced to have sex with a lot of different men. One of them was the friend I met at the club. I later found out that he was working with the (people)*. The men that came to have sex with me were a mixture of white, coloured and black. They paid the (people)* for the right to have sex with me. Some of the men were drunk, some were drugged, some were dirty and their breath smelled bad. I could not refuse otherwise I would get a hiding. Sometimes I had as many as fifteen sexual partners in one day, without even washing. Some of them refused to wear the condoms the (people)* provided.
After two months my parents placed a story in a local newspaper. A white male that regularly came to the flat to have sex with me recognised me as the missing girl. He alerted the (people)*, who immediately got me out of the flat into a car and dropped me off not far from the club.
I was glad to be free and also scared to go home. What would I tell my parents? What would people think and say? I wanted to run away and rather kill myself.
A police van picked me up that night, mistaking me for a prostitute. After I had told them my story they recognized my face and took me to the hospital. My parents came the following day. They were devastated when they heard my story.
The friends I was with, also could not remember what happened to me. They were also drugged and placed into a cab. The police questioned them but could not get new leads. The friend that introduced us to the (people)* mysteriously disappeared, his family did not know his whereabouts. They never found the (people)*, they also disappeared.
I found out I was pregnant after five months. By then my parents said I should not have an abortion because of our religious believe. Today I am the mother of a child whose father I don’t know. My child will never know who his father is. What do I tell my child if he asks who his father is?
I am still traumatised after 4 years. My life will never be the same again. I have a boyfriend now but I am too scared to tell him what happened to me, he might leave me. I am very insecure and find it difficult to trust other people. I thank God that I tested negative for HIV.
Please ****, I hope that my letter would help in warning other woman, girls and even boys about the dangers out there. I believe I was very lucky to be still alive. Please don’t let what happened to me happen to anyone else, please.
NOTES :
1. This letter was handed in to Temba at a conference dealing with the issue of human trafficking attended by the Deacon of a church and used in one of his sermons/homilies.
2. The deacon decided to replace all references to (people)* with ”Foreign Nationals”to prevent “stirring of xenophobia”.
3. In retyping the letter I have attempted to keep both the spelling and language as authentic as possible. My love of language and computer automation could however have slipped in on occasion (not that I am aware of). I hope that this will not detract from the contents.
* All names and references to specific nationalities have been changed. See note 2