Meet Mara, Mina and Jenny (not their real names) – three women who dream of providing for their families and securing a better future. But poverty forced them into the harrowing world of sex trafficking, a pervasive issue in the Philippines that has severely affected many families.
Mina, a struggling mother of three, fell prey to sex trafficking after a recruiter went to their town and approached her for a job in the city working as a waitress. However, once she arrived, she soon realized that she had been lied to.
Mara, on the other hand, was driven to work at a nightclub as a way to survive poverty and a troubled history.
Jenny had an older sister who, out of desperation to help their parents make ends meet, was also illegally recruited and tricked into working for a night club. Not wanting Jenny to suffer the same fate, she sought help to put her sister on a better path.
Women like them, who hail from the province and live in poverty, are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking, a criminal industry that has ensnared over 500,000 victims in the country.
Wipe Every Tear is a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the chains of sex trafficking and poverty, providing shelter, nourishment, and educational support. Over the years, they have been successful in rescuing many women whom they have supported throughout their education. Many have graduated, started their own careers, and are now able to provide for their families and send their younger siblings to school.
However, they know that more is yet to be done. As long as the women’s families back home are still struggling in poverty, the women will always be torn between staying in school and going back to the nightclubs to earn and help their families.
No one should be made to unchoose a bright future. Pure Bayanihan partnered with Wipe Every Tear to offer livelihood opportunities for the families of these women, starting with Mara, Mina, and Jenny. The project aims to empower their families so that women may focus on their healing and work on transforming their own lives for the better without worrying about their loved ones going hungry.
Pure Bayanihan has brought renewed hope to Mara, Mina, Jenny and their families as they became the recipients of livelihood support: a small convenient store, a motor taxi, and funds to help with raising poultry.
Helping their families back home to find a more stable, sustainable income has, in many ways, set these women on their way to a better future and unclipped their wings. “We are finally free to look forward to who we could become. One could be a corporate woman, a social worker or maybe an engineer. I am happy I can finally see the future,” Mara says.
“This is the chance. This is the time we can start anew,” she adds.
By supporting Pure Bayanihan, you can help more women like Mara, Mina, and Jenny to truly be free and change their story. Together, we can empower them to transform their lives and build a better tomorrow.
