TRANSITION

At sixteen, away from her mother and away from the child she had been, she began to search for a gate out of this hell… Battered and defeated, she grasped the straw of hope in her dark life… he worked in the city and painted a glorious future… a job where she would earn hard cash, a home which was hers to enjoy and companionship… After all, he also was much liked by the village chairman… How could she not grab this chance ?

She left her life behind, took the bus to the city, her heart singing with hope and with excitement… the city, colorful and gigantic, filled with all kinds of possibilities, beckoned her. Days passed before she woke up to the reality, a frightening and terrifying one – she was sold, sold like an animal… here she faced not one but scores of men each night… while her owners made cash out of her sexual labor, her energy and her youth drained… no time to dream… no shame to feel anymore… Not a dream but a determination drove her to get away… Get away she did… with no illusions of job or of domestic bliss, she set herself up on the street, joining hundreds of women there… strangers and yet a shared experience of abuse, she felt this was her destiny…

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