Hope for Street Children in Malawi

Grace is 13 years old and comes from a poor rural village several hours away from Lilongwe, Malawi. She had managed to stay in school until 6^th grade, but her parents had warned her that her school days were nearly over as her labor would soon be needed fulltime on the family farm.

One day a man from the city came to the village and spoke to some of the girls near the schoolyard.  He offered them steady jobs as waitresses in a city restaurant – room, board and money!

“Wow – what a chance!” she thought, and decided to take the man up on his offer; maybe she could even continue her schooling in the evenings, and send a few kwacha back to her family….

On arrival at the outskirts of the city, reality hit her: this was no restaurant, but a seedy bar selling locally brewed beer to men. And now she was trapped – literally – locked into the compound and forced to accept sexual advances from men 2 and 3 times her age.

Unbeknownst to Grace, the Chisomo staff had recently held a “Trafficking in Persons” awareness campaign in the area.   Some members of the local community heard about a new young girl at the bar and intervened, calling the Chisomo staff to help rescue Grace from her plight,  and reporting the bar owner to the police.

After this traumatic experience Grace needed much care and counsel but slowly she has recovered from her ordeal. Thankfully, after counseling from the staff, her parents accepted Grace back home.  The staff also worked with the family to look at options for boosting the family income.

Some extra goats were given to the family as a way of strengthening their economic situation and Grace is now back at school, much more wary of strangers and very grateful for the help she got from Chisomo.

Links:

• Retrak America's website