Annie Dieselberg, founder and CEO, heads the staff at NightLight, a ministry in urban Bangkok, Thailand, that reaches out to women and children working in the bar areas of the Nana-Sukhumvit district. Located in a neighborhood with a growing sex trade, Nightlight’s vision is to share the Light of the world in both word and deed to those who live in darkness, and to combat the sexual exploitation of women and children, both Thai and foreign.
Trafficked Once, Trafficked Again, and Again
“Leena,” an Uzbek, was first trafficked when she was 16. A neighbor sold her, and a few others, for $100 each to an agent. They were then smuggled across the border of Uzbekistan into Kyrgyzstan. After waiting for a few months in Kyrgyzstan, they were sent to Dubai. The opportunity to work in Dubai sounded like a good deal to the 16-year-old who wanted to run away from home. When Leena was still very young, a relative had abused her. Her parents were divorced, and Leena did not have a good relationship with her mother. She knew the job in Dubai would be prostitution, but she didn’t really understand what that would entail. Leena said when she got to Dubai, she resisted taking clients, but she was threatened and beaten until she learned to cooperate. Her nose was broken during one of these beatings. One of the other young girls in the group was taken to the desert and beheaded. Leena and the others were threatened that if they tried to escape, the same thing would happen to them. Somehow or other, the trafficking ring was discovered by the authorities and a raid took place. The girls were arrested, placed in handcuffs, and sent back to their country as criminals. There was no intervention, no rehabilitation, and no justice. They returned home broken, desperate, and afraid for their future.
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