God promises to use the humble, the weak and the broken to bring his kingdom to earth. Ami’s life is a beautiful testimony to that promise. And it is proof that God is fully present in our world, even in the darkest of places.
Life restored
Hope radiates from 21-year-old Ami. It is difficult to equate this glowing woman with her harrowing story: a girl who was sold into prostitution at the age of 13, then mistreated and used by nearly everyone she turned to for help over the next three years.
Ami has learnt useful skills at House of Wholeness
Rescued from a brothel in Mumbai when she was 16, Ami has now been staying at Purnata Bhavan, run by Tearfund partner Oasis India, for five years.
Purnata Bhavan means House of Wholeness and is a home full of friendship and laughter in the hills outside Mumbai. It is a place of healing for girls who have left prostitution and for children who have been orphaned by AIDS or who are vulnerable to being trafficked.
Journey of abuse
When Ami was 13 she ran away from her home village in Andhra Pradesh. Her elder sister was jealous of the attention she got from her parents, and her mum and dad wanted her to get married. Ami says,
‘I wanted to do something with my life. I left home but was feeling afraid. I found a shop and asked the lady, can I stay here for the night? She said I don’t have a daughter so stay here with me.’
But the lady’s son, along with another lady, told Ami she could earn money doing domestic work in Goa. So Ami left with the second lady and her two daughters. When she arrived in Goa, famed for its hippy vibe and golden beaches, the nightmare started. The lady sold her to the madame of a beer bar.
‘They took me to a room and started applying makeup. When I refused they beat me.’
This young village girl was upset and bewildered. ‘A man came into my room and started touching me. I didn’t like that so I started crying, I even bit his hand.’ He realised Ami was new and stopped trying to touch her. He explained that men would pay the madame money to sleep with her.
In time, Ami was sent through to the front bar, where groups of four or five men would regularly pay to share her.
Fragments of faith
She had become a Christian before she left her village, along with the rest of her family. She says of her time working in the bar, ‘I was in pain, and I was sad because I thought I was stuck there. I had forgotten about God but I still had this feeling that if He wants me to get out of here, I will.’
One day the girls who had gone with Ami to the bar told her that because she was young, men would indulge in unsafe sex with her and she could get sick. So once again, she ran away, climbing out of the toilet window. She had not been paid for her work at the bar – the money from customers going directly to the madame – but she had the tips given to her by customers.
Capture and escape
Ami wanted to get back to her village, but did not know the way. Eventually she managed to get a bus bound for Obli, from where she could get a train back to Andhra Pradesh.
She sat beside a lady who said she could work with her daughter in the fields. Ami trusted her, but when they arrived at the village the lady announced to the men that she had a new girl.
‘The men used to pay the woman to have relations with me. At that time I developed blisters in my private parts, and it used to be very painful. Still the men used to go ahead. The men used to beat me up because I tried to resist.’
Then the lady sent her back to the bar in Goa. ‘I was not blaming God because I thought this is my destiny. And I began smoking and drinking.’
She escaped from the bar a second time, using the tips that she got from customers to buy a train ticket.
To Mumbai
She met a man at the station who told Ami that he had an elderly relative who needed care, and she could work for him. Alone and afraid, Ami agreed and went back with him to his house. He tried to rape her. Ami got very angry, because he’d referred to her as his sister at the station. He defended himself, claiming he had just been testing her.
Then he took her to Mumbai, saying he had a friend who had a small baby that needed looking after. But there was no baby, he sold Ami to a brothel in Mumbai. Bizarrely, it was here in the brothel that Ami’s fortunes began to change.
Freedom
After six months one of her customers realised she was not happy, and offered to marry her so she could escape the brothel. Ami says,
‘Because of my experiences - one lady treated me as a daughter then forced me into work then another treated me as a sister and then he sold me too - I said if this man marries me anything could happen, and I lost all trust.’
But this customer still wanted to help, so he told a police inspector that there was a young girl in the brothel who wanted to get out. The next day the inspector went to the brothel. The madame, knowing he was a police officer, only brought out the older girls for him to see. The inspector went upstairs and found Ami, who had been made to hide in the toilet.
Ami told the policeman that she wanted to leave. Two days later, he came back for her with other policemen in a raid. The madame pushed all the girls into a room and locked it, but the police broke the lock. The madame tried to force Ami to hide under the bed but she resisted and the police rescued her and all the other under-18s.
‘When the policeman asked about my family address, I did not want to tell him, because they would tell my family where I had been rescued from. And also I wanted to do something and stand up on my own feet.’
Rejected
So the police put her in a hostel in Mumbai. While there, Ami looked after a little girl who had learning difficulties. Ami says, ‘that kid was shoed away by everybody, but I used to bathe her and love her.’ Because of this, Ami was sent to another hostel where she looked after children.
When she was at this second place, she often fell sick so they did a blood test. She was not told the results, but they started to keep her cup and plate apart from all the others. She was stopped from doing her embroidery work and made her work in the garden and pick up litter instead.
‘I felt really hurt. I prayed I could go to a Christian home. A week later I realised I was being transferred here to Purnata Bhavan.
‘I took part in the worship and the bible studies and I chose to forgive those who had wronged me. I realised the Lord had taken all those beatings on the cross for my sake. I was told I was HIV positive but the girls explained I could still live long. I got TB and thought I would not survive, but I believed there was a purpose for my life, and that God would heal me. The doctor was surprised I survived.’
She says animatedly, ‘I am trusting the Lord that he won’t let me fall, even though Satan has tried to make me stumble.’
Hope radiates from Ami, despite her traumatic experiences
Dreams and visions
She smiles as she talks about her future and her voice grows stronger. ‘I received a vision through Elina [herself a former prostitute] that the Lord will make me stand in the place that I have come from.’ And a visitor to Purnata Bhavan had the same vision for Ami.
Now she intends to do just that, to stand in the place where she has come from. She is hoping to go to Tamil Nadu, southern India, to work with other girls who have been trafficked. In her five years at Purnata Bhavan, Ami has learnt a lot about God’s love. She believes that God will help her love the girls in the new home as she teaches them embroidery skills.
Please pray
Ami says that many girls who are in prostitution do not see any future beyond the brothel walls. Please pray that they will have the desire to leave prostitution, and that they will want to be used for God’s work.
The girls’ names have been changed to protect their identities.