Aleya’s Story: Reunited with her Mother
September 2, 2020
Aleya grew up in extreme poverty and her father died when she was seven-years-old. Rather than go to school, to simply survive Aleya ended up being sent to work as a domestic servant in people’s homes in Dhaka, cleaning and cooking. She was often sexually abused.
At 16-years-old she managed to escape but, groomed by a brother and sister duo, she was trafficked to Bangalore in India and forced to live as a sex slave.
Earlier this year she was rescued and repatriated to Bangladesh, where our team was asked to help. Aleya was desperate to be reunited with her mother but unable to track her down.
Justice and Care specialists were able to travel with Aleya to her home district and began to piece the jigsaw together.
Last week, with local partners, we were able to find Aleya’s mother and reunite the two of them. Our social worker, Shikha, said; ‘Seeing Aleya and her mother embrace was an incredibly moving moment. Both had all but lost hope of seeing each other again – now they can begin to rebuild their lives. To see their joy and the love they had for each other is something I’ll never forget. Aleya will need her Mum’s help to come to terms with everything that has happened to her.’
Just as we have been relentless in reuniting Aleya with her family, we will now stand with her to help recover and rebuild, and we will fight to see her traffickers brought to justice.
Our supporters are saving lives and helping survivors like Aleya have a hope-filled future. Give now.
