Joanna's Story, October 2006

Now for a bit from my heart….

I was in Calcutta exactly a year ago today.  The city itself is overwhelming…the smells, the noise, the traffic, the trash, the homeless people...every couple of feet on the sidewalks….that is the reality of Calcutta and what the Hiltons and the employees of Freeset deal with EVERYDAY.  I was in Calcutta for 4 days, and was so desperate to leave….this of course made me feel great respect for the Hiltons who have CHOOSEN to live here.

Anyhow, I met the women who work for Freeset and heard snippets of their stories…I was shocked at how young most of them were…though there are some that are in their 40’s and 50’s who had worked in the sex trade for decades before Freeset gave them a way out.   They were ordinary, working women, who’ve been given a new lease on life…and it shows! 

The girls work 5 days a week, in a clean, respectable place with people that truly care for them.  They work from 10 to 7, a choice the girls made because many of them have small children to care for in the morning.  Also each day begins and ends with devotions by the Production Manager, who is a local Indian woman.   One morning a week, Annie Hilton teaches reading, writing and basic math to the women so they are better able to function in the world outside the brothels they once knew.  On Wednesday evenings the Hiltons open their apartment to whoever wants to stay for a time of Bible Study, singing or just talking about their life…past and present.  Many of the girls have shared horrors that they’ve experiences at the hands of madams, customers, and even husbands who forced them to work the ‘trade’ for income. 

And the income is nothing compared with what they receive as Freeset employees.  A typical transaction in the ‘trade’ can earn the women less than $1.00 and then their madam keeps about 75% of that…if they are fortunate they have enough money to buy a small bag of rice the next day to feed themselves and their children. 

While I was in Calcutta, Kerry Hilton took my husband and I on a walk through the Sonagacchi.  I was very apprehensive to go. It was an experience I’ll never forget, nor ever want to relive.  The neighborhood itself is just that…a neighborhood full of apartments and a few shops.  It was full of winding streets too narrow for a car to drive through.  And there were children running around … and then there was the girls, literally lined up shoulder to shoulder for what seemed like miles…dressed well, not exactly as I expected…most were dressed in typical Indian garb and looked like any other woman I’d seen in Calcuatta, but then many were dressed as one would imagine they might be…in Western dress with lots makeup and jewelry on…not like I’d seen anywhere else in India. 

The most heartbreaking thing was the looks on their faces and the sadness that was so evident in their eyes…when you could actually see their eyes, for most of them hung their heads.  You could feel they didn’t want to be there doing what they were doing.  But if they wanted to survive another day and not be beaten, they would stand in line and take each customer…up to 20 per night…that came their way. 

There were lots of men filling the street that night too, but I won’t tell you what I saw or thought as I passed through the crowds.  I was so shocked at the reality of what I was seeing and horrified that these women were there because of these men…I can’t even finish my thought.  My heart broke for these women and every time I think about them, I am motivated to work harder at my ‘bag business’, finding more markets here in the States so that we can help more women thousands of miles away.  And I know I really am making a difference…I’ve seen it.

One other quick story…

One girl had just started the week before…she had never worked in the ‘trade’ but was heading there because she had nothing and she and her children were starving.  Someone told her to try Freeset before she gave in to working the streets and the Hiltons found a place for her within the business. 

Every week they are faced with situations like this and unfortunately they are not able to take in every girl that knocks on their door, though they’d like too.  If the business is not self-sustaining, if there is not enough business to warrant more employees, they will run themselves out of business and lose the freedom that is already given to the women they do employ.  They long to take the Sonagacchi away from the brothels that are running their horrific, enslaving businesses and turn it into a neighborhood for freedom…full of businesses that give women freedom to live life with dignity and respect.