Back in Bangalore ready to start with CSR!

Streets of Bangalore, Karnataka

After a couple of months in Sweden (during the best and hottest summer for a long time) I finally came back to Bangalore, ready to initiate long awaited activities in the area of support to victims of sex trafficking. I contacted the NGO Vidyaranya (that is running a 'Ujjawala shelter' for sex trafficked victims) and the Director D. Bhaskhar seemed happy to hear from me, however a bit surprised... I am quite sure he thought that I had forgot about them. This I definitely had not. After a meeting at the NGOs head office and after I told them about my plans, that I wanted to try to incorporate swedish companies in an effort to try to support sex trafficked victims, I made a site visit to the girls in the shelter home. I also made a visit to the NGOs other site projects and shelters. I was amazed to see their good work, and how they could have such a good spirit and hope, in such a devastating society that India actually is, at times. 

However, what truly hit me was the fact that things was more or less the same. Nothing seemed to have improved (not even the fact that both NGOs and the government is easily disclosing and publishing these intended safe houses' location). Sure, I had not been gone a very long time, but still. Despite the fact that I have seen a lot of poverty and misery, mostly in african countries, the site visits now seemed to present a worse picture. I can't really explain why. It just seemed to be so many people in, what I would say, misery. So much dirt, and sometimes such a bad smell, and when you see people living like that ... Gosh, I really realized how lucky I was! 

At the Ujjawala shelter, one girl (16 years old) told me about how she was deceived by an older lady that promised her a job. She took her on a bus to Delhi and sold her to a brothel for 25000 INR (about 3000 SEK). The girl was then abused and sold as a sex slave a couple of times a day. The girl has lost her life in a way, her family do want her back, but only after she can be of any use to the family financially, so she does not become yet another burden. 

During the evening, when I came home I threw myself at my baby girl, realizing her lucky she is, and how lucky 'we' all are.  It seems as though  the lucky never realizes how lucky the are until it is too late, and people in jobs seems to busy building their careers that hey never have any time to reflect on what is important in life. Well, who am I to say, maybe I am one of them, if not for my academic endeavors perhaps ... 

As such, I decided to start with a fundraising online for Christmas so that the girls in the shelter can feel some joy and hope again.