Marici is the Buddhist Goddess of Dawn,
the moment when light overcomes darkness.

She would sit around all day unable to communicate with others, just staring into nothingness. She was unable to cry or feel emotions even when finally meeting her parents when they came to the shelter home. During intensive sessions with our counselor, Sara would always ask her to help her feel again. She wanted to cry, to feel something, but was unable to. After a few months of counseling, Sara finally felt a flood of emotions during one of her sessions. She began to weep as she released all of her past suffering. After that, her healing truly took flight and soon she was laughing, playing, and joking with all of the other girls in the shelter home.

Her counselor asked her why she was always laughing and she replied, “I know what the other girls are going through. If I can make them smile then I can help them take away a little bit of the pain that I have experienced.” When it came time to testify against her trafficker, she bravely said to the judge, “I am not guilty of my past, but today I feel it is my duty to speak the truth and save hundreds of other girls.”

Now Sara wants to become a fashion designer. Our team has connected her with a female fashion designer for an apprenticeship. She is more fully experiencing her true being of joy, peace, and love.

She then told us that there was another location where more girls were being held against their will, including her cousin. Malee led the charge herself, directing the entire police convoy! We surrounded the compound with 30 riot police. As we breached the entrance, a group of minor girls came running towards us saying, “We were just brought here three days ago and they won’t let us leave, please help us!” The timing was impeccable.

We then searched four floors of rooms and eventually found Malee’s cousin. By that time, hundreds of villagers had descended upon the location and were closing in. We quickly assembled our teams and extracted the rescued girls back to the police station. 17 girls were freed that day and 16 traffickers were arrested because of this young girl’s valor. She and her cousin are now receiving excellent care in a private foundation’s home.

Years later she was rescued and rehabilitated by one of our shelter home partners. When she turned 18, she began working in restaurants to support herself. She recently left her job with enough savings to figure out her next move. When asked about her dream, she said she wants to improve her English so that she can work in an office. We discussed how we can help her find a job, but then realized that her dreams exist within our organization. We extended her an offer to work in our office and her first assignment would be to complete our English learning program. Everyone was in tears as she accepted the offer. It was a beautiful moment.

But then she revealed that her little sister was still stuck in a trafficking ring. She didn’t know how to get her back. We had to act fast. On her third day on the job, our new employee got her very own raid team. Amina joined the operation and rescued her little sister herself! We then caught and arrested her trafficker and the brothel manager.

Imagine being unemployed, not knowing how to get your little sister back. Then within a matter of days, landing your dream job, rescuing your sister, and arresting the people that tortured you both. She became a superhero, a true embodiment of Marici. And she now knows what she wants to do with her life. She will be a social worker who goes on rescue operations to free more girls like her and her sister.

Since we hired her, she has been very active, tasking our field researchers to investigate specific brothels. We have been hitting these locations and have already rescued 50 girls based on her intel. Amina has quickly become one of our highest performing employees. In only a few weeks since joining the team, she took down the very brothel that sold her. Her achievements thus far have been astonishing. The ripple effect of a girl getting rescued can lead to the freedom of many more.

In the shelter home, she found solace in her studies. Deprived of the joys of education her whole life, Mia fell in love with learning. She scored a 98 in an introductory accounting class in the 12th grade and became fascinated with finance. When we heard about this, we decided to fund her MBA program specializing in budgeting and forecasting.

She graduated at the top of her class and has now joined Marici full-time to improve our financial modeling! Instead of following a corporate path, her goal is to be a leader in our organization to save more girls from a life she knows is escapable. Mia is an incredibly bright, passionate and loving young woman. She epitomizes Marici’s light.