ISHA SAT ON A ROCK CRYING. She didn’t really know where she was, and she didn’t really know why she had run away from home. A woman approached her and told Isha she would help her find transport back home.

The woman asked her sister, Madam Barrie, to help Isha find her way home, even providing her with 15,000 leones for transport. Instead, Madam Barrie took Isha to her own home and later that night to an unfinished building, leaving her in a small room.

Isha was scared. She didn’t know what was going on.

A man entered the room. In exchange for 10,000 leones, the equivalent of about $2.50, Madam Barrie sold Isha’s innocence, her freedom, and her virginity.

For the next month, Isha was taken to this room and forced to suffer brutal sexual exploitation. When she began to experience severe abdominal pain and bleeding, Madam Barrie dismissed her condition as part of “womanhood” and told her “your body will get used to it after you continue to have sex regularly.”

Finally, despite her fear, Isha found the courage to run away. She was met by her uncle and told him everything she had endured. Isha’s uncle was a member of the Village Parent Group (VPG) trained by WHI anti-trafficking team FAAST to recognize human trafficking. He took Isha home to her mother and they immediately went to the police.

Isha continued to bleed badly. The VPG members informed FAAST, and the rapid response team immediately responded by taking Isha to the Rainbo Center of I.R.C. for medical care.

Although months later she has healed physically, Isha still suffers the impact of what happened.

“I feel shame about what happened,” she says. “With my family and my friends at school. Everyone knows about what happened.”

FAAST has continued to assist Isha with counseling and encouragement to continue her education. FAAST has also helped to provide school fees, exercise books, ledgers and a school beret her family could not afford.

The notified police officer, also trained by FAAST, recognized this case as human trafficking. Madam Barrie was arrested and charged under the 2005 Anti-Human Trafficking Act. FAAST ensured the necessary court appearances and statements were made by Isha, her mother, the VPG member and police investigator. The case has been charged to the High Court where Madam Barrie remains in custody.

Isha says she feels better “small, small” knowing Madam Barrie is in custody.

“I wan fo be lawyer,” Isha says about her future. I want to be a lawyer so I can help other people, she says, other girls like me.

*Isha’s name has been changed to protect her identity.