Hopeless to Hopeful
Surya Bhaga was born into a poor family in a rural farming village in South Asia
Her father farmed a small plot of land while her mother worked for a wealthy family, but even with their combined income, they only brought in $1 a day. Their situation grew even more desperate in 2013 when a severe drought struck their area and none of the crops grew. News of the drought traveled to human traffickers who came to Surya’s village posing as agents for rock quarries.
Desperate for a chance to survive, Surya’s family reluctantly sent her and her younger sister to the quarry in exchange for a $140 downpayment and an additional salary that never arrived. The girls were separated, and Surya never saw her sister again.
Life in the quarry was torture.
Surya and the 8 other girls she worked with in the quarry were always hungry and exhausted from dehydration. Not only was Surya forced to work in outrageous conditions, but in her first week at the quarry, she was woken from her sleep and thrown into a van with 5 other girls. A few hours later, they were dropped off at a huge mansion. Women in fancy dresses brought them inside and took them to bathe and get dressed.
Surya was confused and scared. She couldn’t figure out what was going on until she was dropped off in a room all by herself. A drunken, old man stumbled in after Surya and raped her repeatedly. Afterward, she was driven back to the quarry and dropped off as the sun came up. She was expected to work in the quarry the whole day.
Soon this torture became an endless pattern.
During the week, Surya completed her back-breaking work in the quarry and every weekend, her abusers drove her to high-end brothels to be raped.
Over 5 years, Surya lost hope completely. Her sleep was filled with nightmares and her time awake was no better. She didn’t believe her life would ever change.
In 2017, a group of pastors we work with heard about the girls enslaved in the quarry and began planning a rescue operation. A man in the group named Raj was once a slave in the same quarry, so he planned the escape for night time when he knew it would be easiest to escape. When their plans were complete, Raj went down into the mine and brought Surya and 17 other girls into freedom. They were then taken by truck to a nearby church where they received food, water, and a safe place to rest and recover.
The team of rescuers searched for her parents in the village where she grew up, but found that they had moved because of the drought. As a result, Surya couldn’t be reunited with her birth family, so at the age of 16, she came to live at the Sylom Children’s Home in South Asia. Here she met other girls, who understood what she had gone through. The staff helped her to process her past and guide her to begin her education. While the younger children who enter our care receive a full education, older girls often choose to begin vocational training as quickly as possible.
In the Sylom Children’s Home, Surya learned of God’s love that rescued her physically and spiritually.
Today, she loves to participate in worship and prayers. She also loves to learn new things about God and His great rescue plan for the world. Being a Christian in South Asia is difficult, but she is willing to give everything for the God who has given everything for her.
Now, two years after her rescue, Surya has received a basic education and has been selected to receive a vocational training scholarship as she begins to phase out of Child Freedom Coalition’s care. Surya dreams of providing for herself by learning to design and sew clothing.
Earlier this year she learned that she’ll be able to begin a tailoring course provided by Grace Church.
This scholarship allows Surya to own her future. She wishes to use the money she earns to help rescue other girls, particularly her younger sister, and to locate her parents. When she completes her vocational training program, Surya will have the choice to be placed into one of our partnering businesses in the area.