At 7 years old, Ann Marie and her brother’s parents separated because their father was pushing drugs and having an affair. He was later put in jail. Just a few years later, their mother left them to work in another province. They went to live with their uncle.
By the age of 13, Ann Marie wanted to study but couldn’t because her family didn’t have the money. One day her aunt took her to a place where she said Ann Marie could study.
She was taken to a stranger called “Daddy” who was described as a “holy man” but after a few days Ann Marie realized there was no school. She wanted to leave, but Daddy threatened to punish her family and said God would make her sick for being disobedient.
Daddy abused Ann Marie for almost a year. He told Ann Marie that these were religious rituals. After each “ritual” the young girl was given a pamphlet of devotional prayer. Once, she escaped with some of the other girls but eventually returned because Daddy and the cult members knew where her family lived and Ann Marie was afraid her family would be hurt or killed.
Eventually she was rescued and taken to a government shelter. There she was referred to Love146’s Round Home. In May of 2011, Ann Marie came to the Round Home. Just months later she was courageous enough to testify against those who had previously exploited her.
“I am happy that I can now face them without being so afraid, like before. I feel secure that there are many people protecting me. I was nervous before, but at the same time I have been waiting for this day when I can tell the truth about what kind of people they are and what they did to me. They have been threatening me. But Love146 is sending me to school, giving me a better future, so I feel supported, and because of that, I can be brave. Love146 is behind me in my search for justice.”
Diana is a gifted storyteller. She shares about her life in a way that transcends culture or language.She came to the Love146 Round Home after enduring years of sexual abuse and exploitation. In 1999, at the age of 12, she threw herself into oncoming traffic after her family forced her to have an abortion.
“I felt that I was the tree whose leaves all fell. Hopeless. I felt that my life was hopeless. I felt that ever since I was born I have always had problems, as if I was conceived in problems. And then I felt like a leaf that was withered. Lost. Dead. I felt dead during those times when I felt all alone. I felt hopeless.”
It wasn’t until August of 2008 that she came to the Round Home. It was here that Diana was given the opportunity to work for an employer who paid her fairly and treated her kindly. After a year in the Round Home she and another Round Home sister, Nory, were reintegrated into the community. They got an apartment together and worked at a local pizza restaurant.
“Now I am like a big strong tree. It is so strong that whatever typhoon comes it will not fall. It will still be there. Although some of its branches are gone, the tree will still sway happily as if declaring that she continues. There may be many storms, but the leaves continue to move with meaning. Like me now, if I did not come to the Round Home I would still be hopeless.”
Since being reintegrated, Diana has visited the Round Home in hopes of encouraging other young women who are in the place she was just a few years ago.
“Perhaps some of you are feeling hopeless. I felt that, too. Some of you are being watched closely because you want to take your own life. I was like you. I’ve been there, done that. But let me tell you that here in the Round Home, I have become the opposite of all that. I now love life and I feel that there is so much to live for."
Amanda’s past of exploitation began at age eight… trafficked through various cities, sold on the streets and on the internet, she was rescued at age 14. Amanda was moved from institution to institution, each time leaving and returning to work in the bar because they didn't send her to school. Rescued again, she came into Love146's care.
We lost no time putting in a home study program that would allow her to learn her own pace. At age 17, she
began at a fourth grade level. After just one year, she passed exams that allowed her to skip high school and go on to college. During college, we supported Amanda with private tutoring. Just last month, Amanda finished courses and passed qualifying exams to become a professional caregiver; able to work in hospitals, schools and other facilities with children, adults, and the elderly.
How many times does a girl need to be rescued before she can be free? For Amanda, the answer was until she was give access to education.
“The Round Home is full of people who love and support us... They believe that we can reach our goals...They give us strength to stand up and continue our journey. I thank them so much, and I thank all the supporters. I love you.”
Serey was the sixth of seven children in her family and it wasn’t long before money got tight and her parents could no longer afford schooling. In 2006, a woman came to their home and offered Serey work as a salesgirl in a department store in Manila. Serey’s parent’s agreed to let her work.
Upon arriving in Manila, instead of taking them to a department store, the woman took them to a bar. Her parents did not hear from her after that.
The bar was a front for a brothel. Serey spent months in this dark reality. In order to prevent escape, no two girls in the brothel were from the same province. After a month in the brothel, she managed to get hold of a cell phone and relayed a message to her family. Her father and brother rushed to Manila to look for her, but after finding the brothel where Serey was held, they weren’t allowed in and were told she wasn’t there.
In 2008, police raided the brothel and rescued Serey. After moving through three facilities, she found a safe place in the Love146 Round Home and began to come to terms with what happened, pick up the pieces, and build a new life.
After a year in the Round Home, Serey said:
"I have passed many trails and I have no worries anymore. My past experience was the most difficult in my life, but I have survived now and everything is peaceful and I am so happy and my life is bright."
But Serey missed her parents and siblings terribly and longed to be by her mother’s side. In the fall of 2009, after 16 months in the Round Home, Serey was finally ready to reunite with her family. Her homecoming was emotional. She was embraced by her mother who, through many tears, exclaimed, “My baby, my baby, my baby!”
While home with her family, Serey fell in love and married in December 2010.
"I love him very much. He will do all he can for me… My life has become beautiful."
When asked how she would remember the Round Home, Serey replied:
"It’s where my life changed. It’s where a new angel was born and grew. There were sad and happy moments. I do not want anything changed."
Heather came to the Round Home in February of 2010. She immediately made an impact on those around her. As courageous as she was selfless, after less than two weeks in the Round Home, Heather approached one of the caregivers and said:
“Outside my school, there are many street children. I was also a street child. I used to be like them. My daily problem was where to find food. When I grew a little older, I ended up in that job [commercial sexual exploitation], which was the only way to feed myself. But now I have a new life [at the Round Home] … and I am so happy. I would like to share my newfound happiness with those children. Their clothes are torn and dirty. They also look very hungry.”
Heather asked if she and other girls in the Round Home could bring these children food and clothing. She wanted to talk with them and tell her story so they might have hope. The girls prepared food from their garden, gathered clothes from their closet and collected some of their toys to give. A few days later, Heather led the girls to the streets to visit with children their age and give what they could.
Dr. Gundelina Velazco, Love146 Director of Aftercare, has probably said it best:
“[The girls in the Round Home] are wounded, yet they seek to heal. They are in pain but still they want to give comfort. They have nothing, but they long to give. Why? Because they have found Love. Love generates its own energy. The work of Love expands on its own. You can care for trafficked children, and the momentum of Love that is sparked in them prods them to care for other children at risk.”
Restoration perpetuates abolition. A lovely young girl brings her restored heart back to the streets where it once had been broken, but this time it is not with fear. It is with Love.
After leaving the Round Home and being reintegrated with her family, she fell in love with a man named Hector. We counseled the two of them, gave support where we could and facilitated a marriage—with sisters from the Round Home looking on through tears as Heather and Hector stood at an alter and said yes to a life with one another.
At Love146, reintegration is not the end, but another chapter in aftercare. Love146 staff visited the newly married couple to check in. They’d used the wedding gift from Love146 to start up a business selling fish and eggs, but the two were having difficulty without transportation. Knowing that a livelihood is crucial to the successful reintegration of survivors, we were able to provide the couple with a bicycle.
Heather has truly come full circle and is now in the growing number of girls who have moved forward from the Round Home to continue in a new life.
Remy joined our Love146 Round Home in December of 2009, shortly after her 16th birthday.
When she was young, Remy’s parents separated. Her father was sent to prison and her mother left to work in another city, calling a few times a month and sending money home when she could. Several years passed and Remy, now 13 years old, rarely stayed at home and instead went to work in a bar. It was here where Remy met someone who trafficked her into commercial sexual exploitation. She was transported by boat to another city, but police rescued her before she arrived in port. Weeks later, Remy was with us at the Round Home.
It’s been a little over two years since Remy came to us, but steadily she has grown as a source of
encouragement meets, writing poetry and songs about her transformation in the Round Home:
"The Round Home will never abandon me.
The Round Home is the reason for my strength.
She is my ally, trials that come our way, we will surpass them.
I see light and hope for my future.
The Round Home is my family. I’m cared for when I’m sick.
I’m fought for when I am oppressed.
Whenever I fall down the Round Home helps me stand up again and face tomorrow.
The Round Home is my family that fights for me.
Because of the Round Home, I have learned to fight.
The Round Home is the reason I am here.
I have achieved the things that I was only dreaming of before.
I’m sent to school for a good future.
Because of the Round Home, I have started in my new life.
For my every step, I see a light and hope for my future and other children like me.
I am sure I will lead a beautiful life.”
More than a year after she wrote that the Round Home was her ally in trials, Remy faced her traffickers in court and received justice. Her traffickers were convicted and received harsh sentences. Remy described the experience as a thorn being removed from her heart. We rejoice with her as we are inspired by her courage, bravery and creativity.
