Anna

Anna was coerced into prostitution by her boyfriend who promised to save up money so they could get married and buy a home together, but she would need to help him get out of debt first. He told her that if she was willing to work in the red-light district just once or twice, his debt would be gone in no time, and they could start saving for their happily ever after. But “once or twice” turned into days, days turned into months, and when Anna finally threatened to leave after discovering he had other “girlfriends” working for him in the red-light district, he beat her. 

After she came to, he threatened to kill her if she tried to leave again. One day, while the team was passing out coffee and tea to the women working in the windows of the red-light district, Anna mentioned that she would like to learn English better, so the outreach team invited her to come to the Oasis Center for English lessons. She said she did not have the freedom to leave her window because she was being watched constantly and was patted down from head to toe every day at the end of her 12-hour shift to make sure she wasn’t hiding any money. 

Eventually, realizing she was on the verge of a mental breakdown, she told one of Oasis team members she was ready to try to escape, so they led her to a safe house. She arrived with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. After the team helped her with food, shelter, clothing, and toiletries, we took her to the Embassy where we helped her apply for emergency documents to return to her home country. We connected her with a ministry that met her plane when she landed and reunited her with her family.