Beautiful girl,
Do you see her?
Soft pink lips painted by a carefree smile,
Bright sparkle in her dark eyes.
Her laughter shifts the atmosphere
Melting hearts of stone,
Influencing the masses with her charm.
Beautiful girl,
Can’t you see her?
Running free in the wild flowers,
Dancing beneath the shadows of the mountain.
She gathers flowers in her arms,
Twists a fairy garland for her crown.
A gentle Queen upon a mossy throne.
Oh Beautiful girl,
Who stole your carefree smile?
Who pinched your cheeks,
Smearing red paint upon your lips?
Who tore your flowered garland?
Who dethroned you,
While the mountains mourned their Queen?
Desolate creature,
Caged and bound.
No more a girl,
But still not a woman.
A new wildness,
Fierce and harsh,
Entertains you now.
They drugged you till your heart was numb,
Pierced your body with their lust.
Now you crouch in your cage,
Your eyes rolled back.
An actress chained to the stage.
Leading lady for every man,
Way too young to play the part.
The mountains miss your laughter,
Silence screams in every valley.
Your memory wafts among the flowers
As they rage in silence
Against the anarchy,
Against the lust and the greed
That pulled them from your hair.
The injustice makes me sick;
As chaos consumes you.
I pull at the bars of your cage,
Pounding the lock,
Striving to set you free.
Terrified I call out to you
But you do not lift your head.
Oh, Beautiful girl…
I still see you.
Hidden deep inside the pupil of your eye,
Safe inside a memory.
I see you warm beneath the sun,
Lulled by the mountain breeze,
Secure upon your mountain throne.
This month my team is living and working at an organization called Asha Nepal in beautiful Kathmandu. Asha is Nepali for ‘Hope’ and set like a sanctuary in the Kathmandu valley this beautiful home personifies that hope to the women and children who live there. The organization exists to offer hope to girls, women and their children who have been rescued from brothels in India after being kidnapped, sold and trafficked there from various villages across Nepal.
The price for younger girls is a premium and the average age of the girls sold and kidnapped is about 10 or 11, sometimes younger if the brothel owner is able to give them growth hormones. These girls are kept locked in cages, drugged, beaten and tortured when they don’t submit and refuse to do the ‘work’.
Our contact explained that according to Nepali culture girls are considered a commodity. When a baby girl is born to a family she isn’t considered a family member because you’re just going to give her away in marriage or, if the price is better, sell her to a brothel.
Asha House partnered with Teen Challenge Mumbai takes women and children rescued from the brothels of Mumbai India and gives them a home, a hope and a future. Our time here has been spent playing and loving on the kids at Asha House before and after school and on helping the women make jewelry and candles to sell during the day.
Simple things but sometimes simple things are extremely profound. There are many individual stories that I want to share but I’ll have to do that in my next blog. 🙂
Keep the women and children of Asha House as well as our team in your prayers as we continue to press into relationship with them. 🙂
In Him,
Nicole.
