Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Love justice podcast, where we hear from different voices who are.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Joining us in the fight against modern day slavery.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Today's episode contains content of a sensitive nature and may be triggering for some listeners. Discretion is advised. Here's your host, Hannah Munn.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Welcome to the Love justice podcast. Today we have a special conversation for you. In this episode, we are joined by SJ, Love Justice's Asia regional steward, and Libby, a former love justice staff and longtime friend of the ministry, who have both experienced firsthand together the realities of human trafficking in one of the world's most notorious hotspots, the red light district of India. With multiple trips under their belt, SJ and Libby have witnessed the harsh conditions and heartbreaking stories of those trapped in exploitation. Today, we are privileged to have them join us to share their powerful experiences, shedding light on the resilience of those they met, and the ongoing fight to bring hope and freedom to the least of these.
SJ and Libby, welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: Good to see you, Libby.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Yes, you too, SJ. So glad we get to be together.
[00:01:17] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: So let's start with some introductions. SJ, we'll have you go first. And just so our listeners who are watching this know, SJ has his video turned off just for security reasons. So, SJ. Yeah? Introduce yourself. Who are you?
What do you do? And how did you get involved in anti trafficking work?
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Great. So I had a long career with the corporates before I got introduced to the anti human trafficking space way back in 2012, where I worked with an international organization that did a lot of raids and rescues, providing immediate relief to victims of human trafficking. That's where, per se, I made my bones. I learned more about this job.
I was building a partnership of other organizations that worked around this country, all with the sole aim of rescuing people who are trapped in human trafficking. We were looking at cases of child labor, bonded labor, post sexual slavery, and then I joined Love Justice International in 2018, where I was very keen on getting into the prevention side of things.
It's been a great six years with love justice. We've done a lot of good work across this country, rescuing mainly minors from the horrors of human trafficking.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Yeah. SJ, since you joined the team, you have led a team of monitors who have been responsible for intercepting over 4000 potential victims of trafficking. Incredible. And 26 arrests, which is just incredible fruit and impact, just even in your tenure with the organization. And something that I feel like is so important for our listeners to know and understand is that you are one of those people that goes above and beyond you are notoriously known for staying up all night, all going to the police station at all hours of the night to support your teams and to support potential victims, to make sure that they are getting the care that they need and that justice is going to be served. And that's not something that people really understand or see when they see those impact numbers. That I think is just so incredible to who you are and just demonstrates a level of passion that I personally think is unparalleled in this type of work. So those who are listening and hearing SJ, I hope that they know that this is one of the, one of the most powerful frontline workers, I think, in the anti trafficking prevention space, 100%.
So thanks for coming. Yeah. Coming on the podcast episode with us, SJ and Libby. Libby, introduce yourself to our listeners.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Hi, Hannah. So glad to be here with you.
My name is Libby Swenson, and I serve as executive director of the Freedom 58 Project. And we are an anti trafficking organization. We use art to train, to mobilize, to educate people about what's happening with human trafficking in the criminal industry around the world. We collaborate with Love justice with other anti trafficking organizations. For me, I first learned about human trafficking back in 2006 when Gary Haugen, founder of international justice mission, spoke at my church in Boulder, Colorado. And when I heard about what was happening, I was just astounded. I had no idea what was happening in the realm of modern day slavery. I just was completely clueless. So at the time, I was on staff with crew, and which is a ministry. I was working with college students. I had been with crew for many, many years and working with college students all across the country, all across the world. We had tens of thousands of students involved. So when I heard Gary speak, I immediately contacted IJM and said, look, I think our organizations could work so well together because you guys are doing such incredible work, and we've got a task force of students who would want to help in this fight. And so that began a twelve year process of forming a official, forming an official partnership between Crew and IJM. And, Hannah, that's where we met. You were interning at the time with IJM, and I was begging you to come and intern with me and work with me. And I just vividly remember you saying, well, there's this organization called Love justice, and I'm going to move to Nepal and fight trafficking there. And I was like, okay.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: I was like, I guess it's fine, an acceptable excuse.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: So, you know.
But at that, during that time, my husband, when I told him about human trafficking. He didn't believe me. He just could not believe that that had happened and that it was happening around the world. But after he started watching some documentaries and reading some books, he just said, how can I get involved? And so he came up with an idea of what if we had an art exhibit? What if we used art to tell the story?
And at that time, love justice was called tiny Hands International.
And so we contacted tiny hands and just kind of cast the idea, just saying, hey, what would you think if we used arthem to tell the story of the work that you all are doing? And there was just a solid, yes, let's do that. And so we started creating paintings of people who'd been intercepted from trafficking and also landscape pieces of Nepal and different things like that. And we now have over 250 paintings. And so after we began freedom 58 together, I decided to join the staff of Love justice. And so I was with LJI for five and a half years. And so finally, Hannah, we got to work together, and.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: I brought you over to this side.
Don't tell crew.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: That's right.
We're all together. So I was love justice for five and a half years. I also started in 2018, but now I have. I am serving full time with Freedom 58, but still collaborating with Love justice, which is very exciting.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And for our listeners, we will link your guys organization in the show notes so people can check out the incredible artwork that you all partner with the artists to make. I mean, it's not just your run of the mill. These are really well known, very talented artists. And what an amazing God given vision that God gave your husband. Like, what do you way to start the conversation to engage people. I love it. I love it. And, yeah, you and I have known each other for eleven years now, which is crazy. I don't know if that makes me feel old. Are you filled?
[00:08:44] Speaker A: But it's.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah, but I love that. Like, I love. I think when you dig into this industry, this anti trafficking industry, there's so many connections, so many God given, God directed inner workings in this world. And I would say that our relationship is one of them, of just how, you know, over time and how it all kind of worked together. And now we're doing a podcast with SJ, who also has some connections with the same threads and wild. Wild.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: I know. I love it.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Okay, so you guys are on the episode specifically because you both have spent significant time in the red light district in India.
Can you guys describe for our listeners what is the red light district and what is it like the red light.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Districts, I've always felt, is a very damp, dark area. You know, it's spiritually dark. It's a place that. It just sucks the joy out of you when you go in, and when you come out, you can feel that, you know, your heart has sunk.
You hear a lot of things there. You hear a lot of sounds that stay with you. You see a lot of things there which are just unpleasant.
It's just not a pleasant place. But one thing that never goes for me is the smell that kind of envelopes you when you're in there. And all the time you are there, it just kind of seeps into your skin. So I remember spending time in various of these various places like this with just going and talking to women that are there. And then while coming out, I couldn't wait to have a shower and just scrub that smell off me. It's something that just takes away the joy from your heart.
It's a place that I wouldn't wish for anyone to be in at any given point of time.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Libby, what about you? What would you add to?
[00:10:42] Speaker A: I completely agree. You know, our senses are, they, they don't really leave us, right. And there's so many things I remember, and smell is one of those. I also just think about the idea of just cold, damp, dark and oppressive. Those are the. Those are the things that I think about when I think about the red light district in India. You see these just beautiful people, you know, who have been exploited, abused, trafficked, fraud, deceived. And your heart just breaks. It absolutely breaks, thinking, oh, this is never what anybody would wish for their life, ever, ever. You would never wish it on your worst enemy to have to live a life like this. There's just. It's. There's just sadness. There's. There's grieving. There's so much shame involved.
Just this feeling of, you really want to see me, you know, you really want to talk to me. I'm nobody, you know, look at my life. Why are you here? Why are you coming to see me? I remember being there just a couple of years ago with a. With some friends that, that came with me. And one of the young girls said to one of the women that was with us, she said, are you. Are you angry at me for where I am today? Do you hate me? And this woman said, I traveled thousands of miles because I love you. And her just saying that, it was just probably words that this young woman had never heard before in her life. So there's just such a sense of shame. And sadness and oppression.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll just add to that maybe from a visual perspective.
I've also gotten to go to the red light district with SJ and just practically speaking, and kind of, again, painting that picture, it's about anywhere from half a mile to a mile long. This. This specific road, um, a lot of, uh, you know, inner city India are. Is seen as a concrete jungle. There's not a lot of green, not a lot of open spaces. This road has just back to back to back to back to back buildings that are six stories tall. Um, a bunch of shops, commerce at the bottom level. And then you have.
The rest of the stories are just rooms with beds and women's. And those are the brothels. And you walk this street, and you see windows that have bars on them. And you just see women looking out the windows during the day. Most of them are working at night, but you can just see, yeah, the hopelessness, I think, in their eyes. And, Libby, you talked about it would be helpful to describe the corridor. Just the commerce at the bottom and then the corridor. So maybe just. Yeah, describe that a little bit more, too.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: So when you're walking down the street, it's just like you said, hannah. There's just these tall buildings, and there's bars over the windows. But on the street level, as you're walking by, there are shops. It's like a place for consumers. There's, you know, tool shops, tire shops, battery stores. And you're walking on the streets. But in between these shops are these corridors. They're stairwells. And you look up the stairwells, and they are so dark, and they're very steep, and they're very cold. And you look up, and you might see a girl standing at the top of the stairwell. And one thing that I noticed is that at the very bottom of the stairwell, there was a number painted on the wall. And I asked SJ, I'm like, what? What does that number mean? And he said, well, the number is a description of where the girls are from. I was like, what? So when I was there with SJ, my very first time, we saw a young man walking down the stairwell, coming back down to the street level. And SJ just put his arm around him, and I. He just said, hey, what do you. You know, what are you doing? And this young man said, well, you know, this last one wasn't that great, but that's okay. Yesterday I got two girls from Nepal, and now I'm headed to number 82, which is designated for girls from South India.
And I just, I was like, he is talking about this and describing this as casually as you would talk about going into baskin Robbins, telling people what flavor you got of ice cream. Like, did you want chocolate mint or vanilla or strawberry? What was it? You know, and it was so casual. And I just thought, wow, that's.
That's the spirit here, that, yeah, these women are just a commodity. You know, they are just there to be consumed. And I. I just. I just was stunned at the casual nature of the exploitation that that is happening there in the red light district.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And then also, too, as you're walking, it's almost like the stores on the bottom are just a front, right? Like you just. You walk down that road and you just hear people chirping, what do you want? I've got girls. You want this one, you want that one. And it's like all kind of whispers and, like, under breath and. Yeah, I think what's so difficult to describe is how open and in plain sight this is and how it's just known that there are brothels even despite being in a country where this is illegal. Right. Like, that level of just contrast is wild. SJ, you were going to say something or draw a connection here.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: I think the only other place that I felt this dank despair is I was visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
I don't know if people have gone there, but for those who have, at the end of this whole tour, there is a room which has a narrow bridge where you walk through to get out. And on both sides of this room, there were a lot of leather shoes and belts and stuff like that. And I remember asking, what is this for? And they said that this was stuff that wouldn't burn, you know, in the gas chambers. And that's why we collected it just as a memorial to the victims that went through this process. And I still remember, even while walking through that, it was that smell that still gets onto, you know, the blood, sweat and tears that people must have gone through. That's one place where I draw a stock parallel through the brothels that are there now to what happened in the past.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Why? I think this begs the question, why did you guys go and SJ, both of you, actually, not just SJ, but like, why do you guys continue to go? And what do you do when you visit the red light district?
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Well, I.
Because of the nature of my work in terms of educating, mobilizing, training, it's very important to understand the reality of what is happening around the world in terms of human trafficking and modern day slavery. I just.
I'm a firm believer that I need to see it personally, you know, if I'm going to be talking about it, if I'm going to be staying in the fight. And so if I want to talk to people about it, then I've got to get my hands dirty. And so for me, it's very important to meet the people, to hear the stories of the women. And they're all. They're all different, but they're all similar, you know, in so many ways. I remember talking to one woman who, you know, was trafficked there when she was seven years old. And at the time I met her, she herself had a seven year old daughter. So you think about the life that she has lived in that darkness since she was seven years old. And now she has her own child who is being raised in this brothel. And it's. It's so important to know the stories, to be able to tell people, this is what's happening. Here's how. Here's how ugly it is. Here is how egregious this is. And people need to know, you know, that people are suffering, but there's something that we can do about it. You know, we can love people. We can help prevent these things from happening. And because, you know, trafficking happens all over the world. It happens in every country. It happens in every city, every state. It's everywhere. And so it's very important to understand, really, how ugly this is. This is not just a movie, you know, this is not like a Hollywood film. This is people's real lives of suffering and depression. And so it's just very important to see that and to know that. And from my personal experience, when I have brought friends with me to go and see, it changes their world. It changes. It changes their perspective on how do I want to live my life? How do I want to choose to invest my life, invest finances, invest my time, my talent, my treasure, all of that. And so I think it's critical for people to know.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's that quote I do not remember off the top of my head, who said this? You might, Libby, but you can never again say you didn't know. And it's almost this, like, facing up to injustice so that you can fight it more effectively is like, what I'm thinking about as you're sharing some of that.
SJ, what about you?
[00:21:07] Speaker C: So when I started off in this, and I was doing a lot of raids and rescues, I remember asking many of these victims, how did you guys get trapped in this. And there were two segments. One were women who got trapped, and one were children that got trapped. And to my surprise, their answers were nearly similar. They got trapped at some transit location, either a bus stand or a railway station. They were brought there. They ran away and were caught there. They were offered jobs. They were offered perks, like working at some place, earning money, stuff like that. And they were all deceived into falling into the strap of human trafficking. So children would get engaged with child labor, bonded labor. Women would get trapped in prostitution.
And I always thought we should mobilize a team that somehow stops these people while they're on the way to get to the place of exploitation. And when love justice reached out to me and said, hey, this is what we want to start here, I was like, exactly what I'm looking for. And I think that's why, you know, this connection grew so great, and we've had such tremendous impact.
But it's been such a blessing to be able to prevent even a single life from getting trafficked. And we see, every day we see new faces, new stories. There are similar threads of how they're getting trafficked. But having a team that is able to prevent that just gives us so much joy, so much satisfaction.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you're jumping ahead, SJ, a little bit, because I want to touch on this in just a minute, because I think it's so important, because I think when we're talking about something so dark, so insidious, like, where's the hope? Right? Like, that, we need to highlight that. We need to talk about that. Going back to just the logistics of, like, how you guys, you know, do you just. Did you just want to walk the red light district? How did you get into the brothels? I know both of you have sat in brothels, talked with women, um, talk about how you found yourself in those situations and what you learned by going into the brothels themselves.
Libby, why don't you. Why don't you start us off?
Sure.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So when I have gone, um, I've been with SJ. I've also been with a group of women that go weekly. Some of them are physicians. They will set up a little medical clinic for the women, or they will bring groceries, or they will have some type of, you know, Christmas service or Easter service for some of the women. And people often ask me, like, how did you even. How do these women even get in? It's because they've been doing this for many, many years now, and they have developed trusting relationships with the madams and the pimps believe it or not, but those relationships are critical in building trust so that you can go in and visit and talk to people. So one of. One opportunity I had was to go in with some people and go into one of the services that these. That these women were holding. And it was a very special time. So we had about an hour with these women, and they brought chai tea and some snacks. And the group of women that I went with just had, like, a service for them. And they got to sing. They got to talk to them. We got to hear some stories. But what I. What I realized during that hour that we had with them is that these women seemed to be free for that 1 hour. They were laughing with each other. They were smiling, they were singing. But what I was so struck by was just looking across the hallway into another brothel, and I saw young boys coming into that brothel, and they went in, they were laughing, and they went into this brothel, and 15 minutes later, they left, and they were still laughing and just talking with each other. And I was so struck by the casual nature of it for these young guys. And I was so struck by what had been happening to these girls in those 15 minutes that those boys were in there. And I just. Oh, I just felt so sick, and I was so thankful that the women we were with for that hour, they got that time, and that time is very special for them. It's just almost unheard of, you know, that there are some people that want to go and spend. Spend time with these women and help bring joy to just a part of their day.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, SJ, help us, you know, understand how, you know, maybe a group of women can go in and just support women in the brothels, but these women actually don't have the freedom to leave. There's an element of control here at play that I think is really difficult for people to understand and really grasp. Can you just help shed a little bit of light into that for our listeners?
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Sure. So the women that go in and minister, they've been at it for many, many years, and they provided medical care, they provided counseling, trauma counseling, even. They've just been there as a support base in case any of the women needed them. And it's just their consistency and their regular approach of going once or twice a week and just being there, offering help and assistance, I think, has warmed the hearts of these women towards them.
There is definitely a level of control. These women are not really allowed to leave.
Many of them are there because they owe a debt to either the madam of the house or a pimp or something like that. And those are those control factors. Plus, there are many unofficial guards that monitor these streets. There's a lot of CCTV cameras that won't really allow these women to leave. So there is definitely a level of control which, you know, they're subject to.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
So what, you guys have kind of shared intermittently different stories that stuck out to you. SJ, what is a story from your time in the red light district that sticks out most to you and why?
[00:27:27] Speaker C: Something that happened recently, actually, wherever for the first time in one of these brothels, I was visiting with another friend, and we were just speaking to the women and asking them how things are. And then there was a small woman who kind of approached us, and I had never seen her there before.
And she turned around in perfect English and said, where are you people from?
And when we told them where we were from, it completely struck me as, how is she speaking English in a place that really doesn't have women that speak English? And I asked her, how are you familiar with English? And she said, oh, I've been to college.
And I was like, there was a small child next to her. And I said, is this your child? And she said, yes. And this child was three years old. I was like, how did you wind up here? And she was like, I was married in one of the metropolitan cities, and I was working in a bank, and my husband brought me here and sold me about a year ago, and I cannot leave until I pay back the amount that was paid for me to my husband.
And that is why she was stuck here. And I will never forget that. She said, I don't want anything for me. My life is done with, but I just want my daughter to be out of this place. And this happened not too long ago.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: And, SJ, what's the realistic chance that she's ever gonna be able to pay off that debt?
[00:28:47] Speaker C: She somehow has managed to calculate it, and she said, it'll take me about two to three years, and then if I'm allowed to leave, I will leave.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: That is devastating. That is absolutely devastating.
[00:29:01] Speaker C: She also said that, you know, there are people back home that know that I'm stuck here, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back home, but I will leave this place at some point of time.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Because what a lot of people will never fully understand, like, people listening, being from more western countries, there's such a level and dynamic of honor, shame at play here that's so difficult to even convey. I'll just, I'll make a note of it, but we won't have time to dig into it. But there's that element of why someone wouldn't be able to go back home. Wow. Wow. Libby, any other stories that stick out to you from your time?
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. That. That just makes me.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: You know, the last time I went, I was.
I was so surprised. I took two friends with me, and the first brothel we went into, you know, there were several women in there. There were two sisters in there, and they had both been trafficked as young girls together. But I also. And they were telling us a little bit of their story, but they. I noticed there was a picture of a woman on the wall, like, several pictures of this woman, and I asked, who is this woman? You know, that. Whose picture is up in this. Whose pictures are up in this brothel? And they said, oh, that's the owner of the brothel. And she lives overseas somewhere else, and she just, you know, basically gets. Gets her check, you know, every month or whatever for the brothel. And I just, I thought, oh, wow, I can't believe there's somebody who's living probably a luxurious life living in another country and just making money off of these women who are being sold into her building that she owns, and she doesn't care about them. You know, they are having to do this work to pay her. And I just, I think that piece of it, I hadn't really thought about, like, oh, somebody owns this building and is getting paid for it. And I just. I was very struck by that. And it just. It just broke my heart at the injustice of it all, the abuse power over these. Over women. Yeah.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: SJ, we often talk about, particularly in the context of India, that it's a short walk between freedom and slavery. Why is that?
[00:31:54] Speaker C: So, primarily, we've seen that transit locations are not too far from red light districts. So I actually happened to walk down a path where many women said that they had been trafficked from. Many children said that they were trafficked from this particular point, which was a railway station. And I wanted to walk that path and see what exactly how long does it take for someone to lose their freedom and spend a life of slavery? And it actually took less than seven minutes to make a simple walk from a crowded public railway station to the hellholes of cities in India. So it's a very short walk for someone to just lose their freedom. And sadly enough, many of these victims are people who maybe ran away from home for a reason, or they got separated from parents because of the crowds and for no fault of theirs, they wound up in places where other people took advantage of them. And that's why I say it's a very short walk. And it's so important for people who are involved in preventing people from getting trafficked to position themselves in this top corridor.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And, SJ, what are your teams doing on the ground in terms of prevention, especially in that. That seven minutes? Like, you know, just even thinking about that from a practical standpoint of, okay, the timer starts now. Your team has roughly seven minutes to intervene. Tell us more about what the work of love justice India looks like.
[00:33:27] Speaker C: So our teams, they work on the ground, and they're usually in transit monitoring locations. Transit locations. And they are trained to spot what we call red flags, which is basically signs of trafficking, which most people would miss. But because our staff on the ground is trained, they spot these signs, and they will usually start talking to victims, asking them questions about where you're going, how you're going, who's with you. And in cases where we see traffickers, we try and separate the traffickers while we're asking this question. And in many cases, you'll find that, you know, the stories don't match. And those are immediate red flag points where we get authorities involved, and we prevent these victims from reaching the place where they will get exploited. So the team is very committed. They. It's not. It's challenging working, you know, in the indian subcontinent, just with the weather changes, with people who tend to form crowds watching what's happening. And in the midst of all of this, I think there's a very passionate bunch of people that know that something they do today can save someone's life, can save someone from spending a lifetime in slavery, in bondage and solid, you know, just being accountable to someone else for their life and having no control over it at all.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And it's not true for every country that we work in, that you get to see the exploitation so explicitly, as you do in India. And so that's almost a different level of motivation, right, for the teams on the ground to say, this is what this could result in, and I want to make a difference and intervene. SJ, you have a story, and we'll end with this. You have a story where you talked with a woman who had been in the brothel for 20 some years, and you were sharing with her about the work of love justice, and she said something really profound to you. Can you tell us about that story?
[00:35:22] Speaker C: Sure.
Incidentally, I was with Libby when we encountered this woman, and we'd gone into a brothel. And she asked, hey, what do you guys do? And we told her exactly what we do. How we prevent people from getting trafficked, how we monitor buses and trains, and we look for signs of trafficking, and we prevent people from winding up in this place. And she said, you know what? Many, many years ago, something like this happened to me. And then I remember she turned around and looked at Libby right in the face and then asked her, where were you guys 24 years ago? Because if you had been there, maybe I wouldn't be living this life right now. Libby, maybe you could elaborate a little more on that, because it was a face to face interaction, which I watched.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: Like, every time I hear that, just goosebumps.
[00:36:08] Speaker C: Same job.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: It was. It was. It was intense. It was very, very intense. She actually had her son with her, and she was telling us her story that she. Which is a story kind of similar to what you hear from other people. But she said, I was married, I was pregnant, and I lived with, you know, near my parents and my siblings. And she said, but my husband left me, and he abandoned me. And because of that, she said, I was blamed. My family said it was my fault that he left. Like, something was wrong with me. So they, like, blocked her from their lives. And so all of a sudden, she is left destitute and desperate. It's her alone now, pregnant. So she got on a train and went all the way to another city to try to find her husband, a city of millions of people. And she wound up in a train station. In the train station. Just, you know, not knowing anybody. She had no networking opportunities. She had no connections, no relationships. And she just said, I just started eating scraps of food in the train station and just started sleeping on the bench. She said, I got very sick. And a family approached me and just said, hey, we can loan you some money to get. For you to get some medicine. And what choice does she have? Here she is. She's all alone. She knows nobody. And somebody apparently wants to do an act of kindness to her.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: Yeah, right?
[00:37:58] Speaker A: So her decision is, do I trust these people and take their money, or do I starve and die here in what am I going? What's her choice? What's her choice? So she takes their money, and she was able to get medicine. Well, this family came back to her and said, okay, you have to pay us back. And she said, they drug me to the red light district and sold me to a brothel owner and who tortured me into submission. And she's like, this is where I've been. And this is where my son was born, and this is where we have been. And so when SJ and I had talked to her at that time, she said, this is where I've been for 24 years. This is where my boy was raised in that brothel. That is where he grew up. And that's when she found out what, you know, love justice was doing at the train station, intercepting. And that is when she looked at me and said, where were you 24 years?
And I remember after. After we had left, I went back to my little hostel that I was staying in, and I just cried all night. I just. Yeah, it was so sad. It was so hard. But it was a reminder also, though, of why the work is so important, of interception is absolutely critical. It changes the trajectory of someone's life. Someone like this woman. If. If somebody had been there for her, I just think, what if somebody of true goodwill had really wanted this woman? What if somebody had just said, let me help you. What if somebody had been the good samaritan, you know, to reach out to her in love and kindness and compassion? But what happened is somebody exploits instead exploited her and frauded her and deceived her. And now her life is this still today? She is still there, and she is, I think, over 50 years old now. And she said she still has to stay there, and she still has to service at least five people a day.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: What a sobering question. The where were you? And then even posing that question to our listeners of where were you when this was the greatest injustice of our lifetime, where were you? And I know that we didn't, you know, I know that you guys didn't have an answer for that woman in that moment, but we do have an answer now. Right? Like, we get to say we are at that train station, we're intercepting, you know, one to three pvs a day who were in that same situation as you. We've intercepted 4000, over 4000 potential victims in India since SJ got on board. And we get to say, that's how we've shown up. That's what we've done in response to this injustice. And again, it doesn't validate her experience in any way. But I think what is encouraging and where there's hope is that, you know, when people who are working for love justice, who are partnering with Love justice, who are advocating for love justice and other anti trafficking organizations, they can say, we're showing up and we're here, and we're here now and we're doing something about it.
And I yeah, I just. I. That story. I remember you guys said that, like, a couple years ago, like, three or four years ago, and that, you know, that story has personally stuck with me of, like, where were you? And I just think about everyone who's gonna listen to this episode and how, on one hand, we're holding a. These stories of injustice and heartbreak and devastation, while also holding the hope that is being the kingdom and being the light and showing up in this injustice. I think of SJ. I think of you showing up at that red light district not because it's a fun place. It's not because you want to be there. You're showing up because you know how important it is in this fight.
And so I just hope that that encourages listeners. I hope it encourages. I hope it inspires. I hope it motivates. And particularly with that brokenhearted anointing, I hope and pray that our listeners have been. Had a broken heart over these stories that you guys have shared today, and that it wouldn't just end in a broken heart, but it would lead to some sort of action that is hope filled, christ driven, and meaningful. And that's, you know, what? Organizations like the Freedom 58 Project and Love justice. What they get to provide is a way for people to participate in this fight, which is really encouraging. Guys, thank you so much. For, one, being really good stewards of these stories that you have been entrusted with, for better or for worse. And thanks for taking the time to share them with us today. We really appreciate. We appreciate both of you, and just. Yeah, just the incredible lights that both of you are in this space.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Well, thank you, Hannah. And, yeah, thank you for all that you're doing, as well, too. You are. You are in the fight, as well. You are being such a great steward of your life and your family and, you know, helping we all. It's like I used to tell students when I would speak to college students, I would say, find your piece of the pie in this fight. What is it? You know, are you good with tech? You know, are you. Should you be a social worker? Do you want to teach? What? How can you participate in the gravest injustices of our world today? How can someday you tell your grandchildren, here is where I showed up, and I showed up on time, and I invested my life in this. It doesn't matter what your talent is. It doesn't matter what your skill is. Every person can get involved in one way or another.
[00:44:52] Speaker C: Yeah, that's powerful, Libby. I remember so many people tell me that I came from the glitz and glamour of corporates. Why am I doing this job? And I tell them that it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: And the joy is just tremendous when we save a life from getting exploited.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And if you. If our listeners think about it, be praying for SJ and his team. They. Yeah. So, like, we won't get into it on. On a podcast, but the obstacles that those guys face are very real and they're big and can seemingly be insurmountable.
And hopefully, you know, in future episodes, we get to highlight all the ways that the Lord has really paved the way for these guys and the work that they're able to do in India, which we're excited to share at some point. But just be praying for them. Be praying for SJ. Thank you, SJ, for, you know, your level of commitment in this work. I mean, it's one thing for Libby and I to say, like, you know, we're showing up and here's how we're showing up, but you and your team and the monitors are honestly the heroes in this work because you guys are the ones that are seeing it firsthand. You're the ones that are getting your hands dirty. You're the ones who are physically there and doing the hard work. And I do not want our listeners to forget that just how important our monitors are in this fight. So, yeah, we're thinking of you guys and praying for you and just super thankful for the work that your team does.
[00:46:27] Speaker C: Thanks so much, Hannah. Really appreciate it.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: We are grateful for the generous support of the love justice community. Please consider joining our family of donors. Learn more at lovejustice Ngo.
