Courage & Resilience

We had started a church service at a brick kiln, and we looked up and saw a young slave walk in holding a boy with special needs.

The reason I noticed her walking in was because I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. The slave looked like a girl but was dressed as a boy, with her hair cut like a boy's.

Finally, one of our team members asked me to come over. They let me know that this was indeed a 15-year-old girl. Her name is Anita.

In the last few years, her grandparents had died — and then both of her parents. She had five siblings. One of them had special needs, and another suffered from polio and couldn't walk. She was now in charge of the entire family.

She was worried that if people knew she was a girl, she would be raped while working at night in the city. And the money she made from that job every night went straight to the slave owner — because the family could never meet their daily quota of bricks.

Her family has now been freed. We found an aunt who moved in with them to provide parental support in their new home.