New Beginnings

Eight young girls in Bihar, India, sit in a tidy classroom on striped rugs. They rest their elbows on low tables and study picture books. Several girls wear their dark hair pulled into ponytails. Their salwar kameez (long, cotton tunics accompanied by matching pants and scarf) are cheerful shades of green, fuchsia and orange. They receive excellent care from a dorm mother, in addition to education specialists and skilled medical staff familiar with their needs as recovering survivors of human trafficking.

The term human trafficking holds within it a range of violations from child slavery by the rug-making industry to sexual violations by adults seeking to satisfy their own desires. The adults involved in human trafficking are bold and ruthless. They are clever and corrupt. They take. They use. They don’t think of the future of the young from whom they profit. According to estimates, today there are 27 million slaves worldwide—India and the United States included— and many of them are children.

Carol Metzker, a local Quaker and Rotarian, has made it her mission since 2004 to counter such abuses of power, what she recognizes as the dark side of humanity, a dark side “just black as night.”

Metzker focuses her time and energies on the survivors seeking shelter at an ashram named Punarnawa, which translates to New Beginnings. Because of Metzker’s work in gathering donations and sponsoring fundraisers in coordination with the Rotary Club of West Chester Downtown (as well as others), and Willistown Friends Meeting, these girls, some escaped captives, some rescued, have access to education, vocational training and financial support.

Metzker began her journey after meeting an eleven- year-old girl recently rescued from a circus where she was forced into the sex trade. Metzker thought, “This child could’ve been mine.” (One of her own daughters was then eleven.) She’d looked into the eyes of this child and realized she had to either forget she’d ever seen her, or she’d have to do something to help support victims of human trafficking.

Back home in West Chester, she and others in her Rotary Club started “small” by gathering donations for a motorbike needed for an ashram. Over time, in conjunction with Free the Slaves, an American-based organization, they graduated to sustainable energy sources, a vehicle for raids and rescues, and shelter from monsoon rains and extreme sunshine, and in the future, sewing machines, tools, sidewalks and a fence for Punarnawa  Ashram.

Metzker’s recent trip to India included a three-day visit to observe Punarnawa’s bio-gas system and construction of a new pavilion. On the last morning, for a final activity with the girls, Metzker pulled out pieces of fabric, scraps from the fundraiser Dress for a Good Cause. Each girl wrote one of their hopes on the cloth. Metzker tied the hopes to a piece of twine and hung it along a porch, the bright colors of blue, red, pink and yellow holding their dreams. I want to be a doctor, I want to be with Mom and Dad soon, I love you God (written in Hindi, English and other Indian languages).

Metzker believes in a new future through these survivors of human trafficking, the futures of these young women, whose faces, whose deep brown eyes, and bright smiles matter. As to the hundreds of people who have donated money and time, she believes “what [they] gave has paid ten-fold. It is working…it is making an impact on that area of the world.” There’s hope now. Metzker has seen the progress with her own eyes.
Annette Evans is a Maryland-based writer and high school English teacher. She can be reached at didg@rcn.com.

How You Can Help

Donate your vintage or practically new dresses and jewelry to the Rotary Club of West Chester Downtown. Contact Carol Metzker at 610-793-4387 or echmetzker@aol.com.
Visit facebook.com/dressforagoodcause.
Coming Soon www.dressforagoodcause.com Website by Daralene Irwin

SAVE THE DATE!

Saturday, March 24, 2012 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Westtown School Join us at the next Dress for a Good Cause, a fundraiser that sells gently worn dresses and jewelry to benefit survivors of human trafficking and slavery.