Rani Hong, the Vanitha Woman of the Year 2018, has gone through backbreaking child labour, brutal tortures and near-death before she decided to fight back against modern forms of slavery.She was just another seven-year-old girl in Kerala when she was abducted and trafficked out to work as a slave. Four decades later, Rani Hong is a human rights activist who rubs shoulders with the decision makers around the world.
The Olympia, Washington resident, who was chosen as the Vanitha Woman of the Year 2018, has gone through backbreaking child labour, brutal tortures and near-death before she decided to fight back against modern forms of slavery.
She has been working as a rights activist against human trafficking for 19 years. She won a battle in 2014 when the United Nations accepted her proposal to observe July 30 as the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
Hong has never forgotten the cruelty faced by the seven-year-old girl. Her captors showed her no mercy. She was pushed into a cement factory along with many other children condemned to be slaves for life. Overworked and underfed, she could not even cry if she were to escape more beating.
She cried for her mother. The cruel man told her that her mother had died and nobody was going to come for her. She wailed and wailed.
Unfit to work
The hard work and the miserable existence took their toll on the child. She became weak and frail. Her captors understood that they cannot make her work as a slave or push her into brothels. The only way to make money out of her was to put her up for illegal adoption.
A year after she was taken away from her family, she was trafficked into Canada. From there she was given in adoption to a single mother in Olympia, Washington.
Hong’s adopted mother, Nell, was shocked to see the girl’s condition. The emaciated girl bore still-fresh wounds all over her body and mind. Nell cared for her and slowly brought her back to life.
The girl learned that love and mercy were not dead yet. She went to a special school because she spoke no English. Life was peaceful again. However, good times were not to last forever.
Nell died when Hong was still a teen. She could continue her studies only with the support from the Rotary Club.
She eventually met Trong Hong during her school days. Like her, Hong was also a victim of trafficking as a child in Vietnam, she would learn later.
Rani and Trong HongBirth of a fighter
Rani Hong’s life took another dramatic turn when she visited the country of her birth in 1999. She searched out her biological mother somewhere in south Kerala. She learned how her family was tricked into parting with her.
“I learned the truth from my mother. I was a victim of human trafficking. I was weaned away from my family by the traffickers,” Hong said.
“Our family was poor. A reputed woman in the locality approached them and offered to provide good education to one of the children. My parents agreed because they believed they could see me whenever they wanted to. They used to visit me. They were happy to give me a better life.
“One day, that woman took me somewhere. She said that I was going to be put up in a school in some other town. She handed over me to a man in Tamil Nadu. They were part of a human trafficking racket. They made me a slave like many other children,” Hong said.
She said that she was shocked to hear what had really happened to her. She realised that she was destined to fight trafficking. The association with Trong Hong strengthened her conviction. “We decided to work against human trafficking. We started the Trony Foundation with an aim to wipe out human trafficking from the face of earth. We started the foundation in 2010 to end human trafficking within 25 years,” Hong said.
Stolen childhoods
About 40 children on average are being trafficked across the globe every hour. Thousands of children are made into slaves every day.
“This cruelty has been going on for many years. Even now, there are lakhs of people around the globe who languish in slavery. They can’t even raise their voice. I wanted the world to wake up to this misery with my own story. I started a campaign called ‘Rani’s Voice’. This campaign encourages the victims of trafficking to share their stories,” Hong said.
Hong has visited India several times in relation with her work against trafficking of children. Meeting a group of girls in Delhi as part of her work related to rehabilitation of trafficking victims was particularly etched on her memory.
“All of us could not help crying. Those girls told me that nobody had ever listened to their pain and miseries. I assured them that I would tell their experiences to the world. I did not know how I was going to do it.
“I took over as a special adviser to the United Nations in 2011. I spoke to the leaders of the world on behalf of the victims of human trafficking. I demanded the UN General Assembly to mark a day for the victims of human trafficking in 2013. As many as 193 countries decided to observe July 30 as the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
Challenges galore
Hong said that the rehabilitation of the victims of human trafficking was the most challenging problem. First of all, their safety has to be ensured. Then their basic needs have to be taken care of.
“It will take a long time to heal the scars from the days spent as a slave. We could understand it because we ourselves had gone through it. When they are mentally prepared, we proceed to the next stages, which would take care of their education and rehabilitation. We work to bring them back to life by helping them forget the pain they had been to. Sometimes it may take a lifetime to forget the pain. You have to live it to know it,” she added.
Hong and her team are planning to organise an event called Rise For Freedom Signature on July 30. “The scars from my days as a slave have not fully faded yet. Whenever I relive the experiences I can feel the same pain. I would keep on talking even when I am burning inside. I talk about that pain for 60 hours a week. I keep recalling those miserable moments which are best forgotten like a nightmare. Because I dream of a world where children are not trafficked and made into forced labourers. I am ready to go through anything to achieve my goal,” she added.
