Kyi's Survival Story

The baby’s  first cry out of the womb temporarily muted her mother’s pain. Ky had been in this hospital several times before, but this time was different. On each visit before, she Came to the hospital pregnant, but always left with nothing more than an intensely lonely pain – the kind of pain you can only know if you have been in love and then lost that same love.

As a teenage prostitute in a small brother, Kyi was forced to be with many men. You and I would call her a slave, but there were no chains keeping her in this prison. No chains made of steel that is.

Years earlier, Kyi had made a deal with a man from her village. He said, “I will pay your way to the city of you work in our restaurant. You can have freedom from your mom, your village, and the beatings your mom’s boyfriend gives you.” This sounded like a wonderful opportunity so she made the deal. Kyi said, “Yes, if you can pay for transportation to the city, I will work in your restaurant.”

Kyi arrived on a hot, rainy day. She was excited and determined to do the best job she could. She had only been in a restaurant two or three times in her entire life, and she had certainly never worked in one. Kyi recalled that she arrived wearing her nice shirt; one of two she owned. “As I walked through the door of what I thought was a restaurant, I immediatelky sensed that something was wrong. There were only a coiuple of tables. But many small rooms with beds or cots.”

Kyi soon realized she had been tricked; she would be tricked again and again and again.

She was given a choice: “Go service those men, or pay us back the money we spent to bring you here. If you pay us back now, you can leave. If you don’t have the money…and we know you don’t…then get to work.”

Years passed, and there were many forced trips to the hospitakl to have abortions. Kyi wanted a baby so badly. She wanted someone to love and to hold and who would hold her the way no one ever had.

One day when she was waiting for a customer, a couple of girls from an antihuman trafficking organization walked into the bar. They talked with her and started a conversation that over many monthsbecame a trusted loving relationship. Kyi anticipated their arrival each Tuesday night and would smile when she saw them coming toward the bar. The girls told her of a safe house nearby and extended an invitation to her. Kyi accepted.

Kyi has been out of the brothel for years and is doing well. She is married and busy taking care of her new baby while working in the same safe house that took her in years ago. Now Kyi visits the brothel that only meant pain for her in order to offer other young girls a chance at hope.

One of Kyi’s greatest joys is seeing a new girl come to the safe house. Because she knows that soon, just like her, this girl will be able to look at herself in the mirror and see someone she has never seen before: a girl who is loved.