Love and Acceptance: Saidan's Story
UPDATE: Mitchell has reunited with Tim in India! We are praising God for His goodness in quickly bringing them back together. We are so grateful for the many prayers lifted up on their behalf. Today, Tim traveled to a remote village to meet Saidan, a survivor of sex trafficking who was rescued by our partner, Freedom Firm. Here, Tim shares her story of restoration.
When you get down to it, each of us has a yearning for love and acceptance. These are desires hard-wired into humanity by God designed to draw us together and point us to Him.
For survivors of sex trafficking, this tandem need is often heightened. After experiencing so many horrible and traumatic things, many girls begin to secretly ask themselves: “Will anyone ever love me after what’s been done to me?”
Today, following a four-hour journey to a remote village, I had the privilege of interviewing Saidan, a young woman who was rescued from sex trafficking by our partner, Freedom Firm. Once we arrived in Saidan’s village, the first person to meet us was her husband, a friendly man with a warm smile.
Quickly he ushered us down winding pathways past ponds swollen with monsoon rains to the house where he, Saidan, and their two children live. Along the way, we picked up a following of friends, family, and more than a few curious children.
When we arrived at her home, Saidan met us outside with her two small children clinging to her side. She struck me as both shy and strong, at times exuding both confidence and uncertainty about the attention we brought to her home.
On the trip to Saidan’s village, Rinku, Freedom Firm’s social worker, shared some details about Saidan story—including the fact that her husband knew the full details of her rescue from sex trafficking. In a culture where stigmas run thick, honor is highly prized, and women are often viewed, especially in rural communities, as “damaged goods” because of horrors inflicted on them, Saidan has found a man who looks beyond the labels and accepts her for who she is.
For Saidan, this acceptance has helped to restore what was taken from her. And it has given her the ultimate answer to her question, “Will anyone ever love me?” In spite of cultural norms and her painful past, her husband’s response and hers are now resoundingly one in the same: “Yes.”
Saidan is free today because of our partner, Freedom Firm. Their commitment to rescuing minor girls from sex trafficking and exploitation and prosecuting their perpetrators is made possible through your support. A day of work for a Freedom Firm investigator costs roughly $24. Please consider giving today at www.Freedom424.org/Give to help provide rescue and restoration to more women like Saidan.