By Elizabeth Barish –
Sushila was brutally beaten and sex-trafficked – by her own husband.
“He would beat me, electrocute me, and beat me again and again until I was unconscious,” Sushila says on a video uploaded by Venture, a group that helps rescue victims of sex-trafficking.
Today, Sushila herself rescues victims. She stands on the border between Nepal and India to share her story with girls showing the signs of being trafficked.
Sushila’s horrors started with poverty. She was in 11th grade when her “husband” proposed to her, promising that she would be able to continue her studies. The promise was a lie.
After she was married, he took her to Delhi, India. She found out what his job was; he was a human trafficker, a pimp. She became one of his call girls. He began systemic torture and terror to force her to accept her new life.
‘He kept me locked in the bathroom,” she says, “I survived four days by drinking water from the toilet.”
Sushila got rescued when a neighbor intervened. The neighbor called her father and a group called Our Daughters International (ODI) to rescue her.
She was taken to a safe house in Nepal, and did counseling with the women at ODI, who were supporting her and telling her she needed to be strong.
Sushila now works at a patrol station at the Nepal-India border, helping to rescue those who are at immediate risk of being trafficked. “Until my last breath, I will continue to work to make our society free from human trafficking.”
About this writer: Elizabeth Barish is a student at the Lighthouse Church School in Santa Monica.
