Me

equivalent of five years of work. The parents see it as an opportunity to buy food and medicine, and tell their daughter that it is time to go to work.
    And that’s how the whole thing starts.
    There are the traffickers who come with stories about being from a modeling agency. And this, of course, excites the girls and their mothers. What little girl hasn’t dreamed of one day becoming a model? So they tell them that there is a European agency in the capital that’s looking for girls who have eyes and hair just like hers, and that she will be featured on television and in fashion shows. Both the mothers and daughters eagerly accept. But the moment the girls are taken from their homes they are thrown into a brothel.
    Every time I think I’ve heard it all, that there couldn’t possibly be a more horrible story than the one I just heard, an even worse one appears. I attend conferences all over the world—in New York, Vienna, wherever the issue of human trafficking exists—and always find out about new cases that have been brought to light. And the most startling thing about it is realizing that I really know nothing about human malice. I have always wanted to believe that human beings are naturally good, but when I hear these stories I realize this is not the case: Just like there are individuals in the world who are incredibly good and generous, there are also people who are disgustingly evil. So harrowing are the atrocities that the moment always comes when I feel I should just give up and go home because no matter what I do, human trafficking is a tough battle. It’s a massive and powerful monster.
    It doesn’t matter how many laws and regulations are in place to control human trafficking; there are too many countries in which laws are simply not obeyed. In other countries, the laws are outdated. For example, there are some very powerful countries in Latin America where prostitution is tolerated, and the constitution says that a boy becomes a man at eighteen, while a girl becomes an adult at twelve. Therefore, if you see a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road selling her body, well, technically—and according to that country’s law—she is considered to be an adult and has every right to be a prostitute. Is it immoral? I think anyone would agree that it is. However, is it illegal? No. And therein lies the tragedy.
    That really frustrates me. I have to ask myself, when the very governments of certain countries are allowing this to happen, if they don’t realize they are exploiting their own girls, their own citizens, then what is it that I am actually doing? Am I trying to abolish slavery in the twenty-first century?
    But deep down I know it does not matter how hard it is or how impossible it may seem; I have to continue with my struggle. It is one of those tests in life we must all face. The most important things are never easy to accomplish, and the more important the cause, the more we have to struggle for it. Climbing to the top of a mountain doesn’t happen in one jump.
    One of the things that helped me to forge ahead was meeting a Scottish activist when I was in Cambodia. I told him that sometimes I want to abandon the cause because the reality of the struggle consistently brings me so much disappointment. It seems that it doesn’t matter what I do or with whom I speak, because each day I hear about more young prostitutes or more children who are victims of rape. It’s as if I take one step forward and twenty steps backward.
    He listened to me attentively and then said something I will never forget: “Focus on the people you have helped. Each life that you save is nothing more and nothing less than a life. It is one less life that is enslaved. Don’t focus on what you have not been able to accomplish, or on what is yet to be done. Focus on what you have been able to accomplish. You rescued three girls off the street. And tomorrow you may have the opportunity to save another one. That’s something to celebrate.”
    He’s right. To continue with this fight, like in any battle, it is crucial to focus on what has been accomplished, and the results yielded. To not give in to disappointment about the goals that must still be reached. Each individual life saved is a victory in this never-ending battle.
    There’s a story I love that perfectly illustrates the point this Scottish activist was trying to make. There was once a man who was walking along the seashore, and he came upon a place