Dan’s Story

Dan’s father died when she was young, and her mother had to work hard to make ends meet for her family. Therefore, Dan always tried to find more work to help out her mother.

Knowing Dan’s families’ struggles, their neighbour offered to help and made an agreement with a broker to devise a trap to trick 15-year-old Dan into being trafficked to China. The neighbor promised Dan a part-time job close to home with a high salary, which would ensure a sustainable living for her family. Trusting the kindness of her neighbor, Dan agreed to accept this offer with the pure thought that this could decrease the burden on her mother’s shoulder.

When she showed up at her new workplace, she was immediately trapped in a dark room, blindfolded and secretly taken off in a car. When the blindfold was taken off, Dan found herself in a seedy brothel in China. Here, the owner forced her to learn how to massage and work as a prostitute to earn money for the brothel.

Every time Dan said no or felt tired to serve customers, they hit and beat her hard as punishment for misbehaving. One time, when the trafficker caught Dan attempting to escape, they tortured her by using a hammer to break her kneecap so that she was no longer able to run away. After this time, Dan was paralyzed for 3 months and could barely walk.

However, despite the severe pain, Dan remained strong and kept trying multiple times to escape. Finally, after the fifth attempt, Dan managed to trek across a forest and stream to reach the Vietnam border. After countless days of walking, Dan finally touched Vietnam land and was rescued by the local authorities and taken to a Women’s Union. From there, the Women’s Union referred Dan to Hagar.

With the support from Hagar, Dan learned how to manage her emotions and started to process more encounters of the past through specialized trauma-informed counseling. Furthermore, Hagar provided her with medical support to help her heal from the severe injuries. Once Dan had healed and recovered, she was safely reintegrated with her family and reunited with her mother! Through Hagar’s Economic Empowerment program, Dan and her family received husbandry support to raise chickens and gain economic capital.

Dan’s mother happily shared:

“This is my best day. Seeing those chickens makes me overjoyed and all my fear or doubt has completely disappeared. I just want to send my sincere thanks to Hagar. Dan and I are so lucky to have Hagar’s support. I can never thank you enough.”

This project has received support from the Australian Government under the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).