The Sometimes Harsh Reality

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We stood together watching a dozen girls playing volleyball with a few American short-term team members mixed in. As the ball volleyed back and forth, the girls freely moved around the makeshift volleyball court, chattering and laughing with each pass and successful return over the net. Some of the younger girls played around the perimeter of the field, dancing and flipping with their new American friends and excitedly showing them the badminton net and their bikes.

“They look so much like just normal little girls.” 
The American mission team leader made the observation, as we stood watching the girls play all around us. In that moment they laughed, they ran, they chatted, they hopped, skipped, and jumped just like normal girls.

            In these beautiful and frequent moments in our home, it’s easy to forget where these girls come from or why they are a part of our home. In the day to day they are just normal little girls living normal lives, but the harsh reality of the “what ifs” doesn’t lie to far below the surface.

            As we sat taking in the girls and their activities, one of our youngest caught my eye in her bright-multicolored pants and safety orange t-shirt. Always filled with bundles of energy and always ready for a new friend, she danced and hopped around with a few of the American team members. A totally normal moment for her and her new friends, but I was taken back to the fear I had a few short weeks ago that I would never get to meet her or see her and her three sisters safely back in our home.

            When I first arrived in Thailand, our girls were at the tail end of a two-month-long break from school. Within the first week of my arrival, our home grew from nine girls to fifty as they returned in preparation for school. By the first day of classes, all the girls had returned when they were supposed to except for our four sisters, including our little bundle of energy. That night at our team meeting, our in country director shared his fear for the girls as they had not been brought back in time to start school and no one had heard from them. He shared that the girls’ mother was often abusive and there had been fear in the past that their uncle might try to traffic them. We just didn't know what could have transpired during their time with their family. For that moment we had to live in the reality that our girls were in possible danger and something might have happened to prevent them from returning into the safety of our home.

            It was a sobering moment, as I had to once again process the reality of the sex trafficking industry here in Thailand and how this has affected the lives of each of the girls I have come to know and love. Yes, they are normal little girls, but they come from vulnerable and sometimes harsh backgrounds that have made their lives a little bit more precarious. Though it's often hard to see on the surface of everyday life, sometimes we are startling reminded of the vulnerability of our girls and the horrific possibility of the life they may have been sold into.
            Thank God, our fours sisters did return safely, and they jumped right back into life within our home. I have gotten the privilege to know and love on these four girls over the last few weeks, and I am thankful for their safety each and everyday as I delight in their joy and their smiles. They are happy, healthy, and safe, and they get to live the life of normal little girls. This is a gift that I never want to take for granted, for these girls or any of the other children I work with at Remember Nhu. 

            This is why I believe so much in the mission of Remember Nhu, because everyday I get to be a part of little girls being normal little girls. The harsh reality is that many little girls and boys in Thailand never get the chance to live a normal life as they are trafficked into a life of horrific slavery. It breaks our hearts to know this is reality for many and to know the faces of little ones that it could have been a reality for. The issue of child sex slavery is so much larger than our small organization, but we choose to spend each and every day working to end child sex slavery through prevention. We choose to be faithful to the little ones in our care and to spend everyday giving our kids another opportunity to be normal little kids. 

  And believe me, it's worth it! 

Written By: Remember Nhu Intern, Thailand
https://remembernhu.org/

To support Kelli's work in the field go to:
Note Kelli H. - Thailand in the notes section.


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