Gina had been locked up in a brothel for five years and was infected with HIV: No one thought she would survive. But today she says: “I love Anuradha and dancing. I want to be a movie star.”

Gina was sold to a brothel

“My father died when I was three. We were poor and mother wanted me to work. When I was seven a man came to our house. He said that I was beautiful and that he could definitely find a job for me in town. I didn’t want to go, but my mother forced me. I saw him giving her a few hundred in bank notes.

We went straight too the Indian border. From there we took a train. He took me to a house that turned out to be a brothel. I was little and knew nothing about the world outside of my village. I had never heard about brothels or Mumbai. I was scared. There were other girls from Nepal there, but I was the youngest. I don’t know exactly how old I was, but I remember that I lost my first tooth at the brothel so I must have been six or seven?

At first the brothel owner was nice, but then she became mean. When I refused to have sex with customers on the first day, she beat me. She beat me often because I used to refuse to work. None of the other girls helped me. There was one girl who talked to me a little with me, but then she was also hit. Even the customers hit me sometimes.

Gina became ill.

After two years I became ill. I couldn’t walk or eat by myself... couldn’t do anything. I ran a fever and was ill. I was sick for a whole year. I had no hope. But after five years the police stormed the brothel and seven girls were saved. I came to a children’s home where they looked after girls like me.

One day Anuradha from Maiti Nepal came and I told her everything. I was very sick. I had tuberculosis and sores covered my whole body. I couldn’t walk. Anuradha took me with her to Nepal and I was so happy. I love her and I know that she loves me. I was so ill that I couldn’t go to school, but Maiti helped me to learn how to read and write and to speak English. Anuradha asked if I wanted to contact my mother, but I said no. I don’t like her. She’s the one who sold me.

Two years ago I moved to Maiti’s clinic, near the border. I am very happy here. It is so beautiful and the climate is better than in Kathmandu. It is warm the whole year round. We have a big house with a garden, rice fields and a fish pond. During the day we sit by the pond and talk. Sometimes we weed the garden. Sometimes we sow rice or harvest. But we work only as much as we can manage. We’re free to do what we want. Some watch TV. I love to dance. I could dance 24 hours a day.”

Gina’s dreams:

• To walk to college, carrying a school satchel.
• To meet a good-looking boy and get married.
• To fly in a plane before I die.

Maiti Nursing Home

Maiti has a nursing home for HIV-infected girls who have worked in brothels and their children. The home is located in Kakarvitta, on the border to India, in eastern Nepal. The girls are here getting a dignified end to their lives. They receive love, care and nourishing food. Nurse Smriti Khadka is the ray of sunshine in their lives. Gina and the other girls can speak with her about everything.