New Light is dedicated to both the children in the red light district but also to the sex workers, many of whom have been trafficked or coerced into the trade by their families. These women are trapped in a world that keeps getting smaller and smaller. A world that closes in on you until there doesn’t seem to be any way out. Many times these women are uneducated and believe there is nothing more for them in this life besides simply surviving one day to the next.
Seeing women on the streets every night, this is something I will never become immune to. In my work with SafeHouse Center in Ann Arbor I meet with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence immediately following an assault. I understand the scars one assault leaves on a person and how deep they go. I see it in my work with SafeHouse, I’ve seen it in family and friends and I’ve experienced it myself. It stays with you, it doesn’t have to dictate the rest of your life but it will always stay with you.
The women in the red light district endure not one, but multiple assaults each day, compounded by years of working on the streets. These women endure and they survive. I’ll pass these women on the streets, some of them mothers of the children living at New Light, and will always say Namaskar, which means my soul honors your soul. I honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you, because it is also within me. In sharing these things we are united, we are one. And these women will always bow their head in return and smile, these gorgeous smiles.
I’ve experienced the profound ripple effects one assault has on your life. But I will only ever understand a piece of what these women endure. But that one piece, gives me such respect for these women.
And these women always make me think of this quote I hold close to my heart from Little Bee by Chris Cleave.
“On the girl's brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.”
Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive. The next thing you know something fine will happen to her, something marvelous, and then she will turn around and smile.”
Again, New Light exists for the children and the women of this community. They believe that becoming a sex worker is never a choice and that there is always a way out. One of their roles is rescue and rehabilitation and one of their programs that supports this is the Aanchal project.
The word Aanchal refers to the end portion of a sari symbolising comfort and protection. A fitting name for what New Light has created here with the assistance of students from the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design).
The Aanchal project creates alternative, sustainable avenues of employment and income for exited or ready to exit sex workers. These unemployed, socially and economically marginalized women are trained and equipped to produce exquisite Kantha embroidery.
These women meet about three times a week making quilts, blankets, pillows, bags... anything you can think of out of old saris. Each blanket is comprised of five or six layers of gorgeous old saris of different colors and patterns, resulting in an utterly unique work of art.
Part of the money earned from the sale of blankets goes back into the training programs and to purchase additional materials while the rest goes directly to the women as their income. The women, for the first time in their lives, have an entirely independent and sustainable livelihood that is based on skills and dignified earning, away from sex work and its associated stigma.
Through Aanchal Project New Light continues to reach out to areas where women are uneducated, extremely poor and vulnerable to being trafficked. The income generation program is expected to reduce the risk of being trafficked for girls and young women and help rehabilitate and reintegrate rescued victims and survivors of trafficking.
I had the opportunity to spend time with these women this afternoon. While the children are taking their afternoon nap at the creche cum shelter these women will settle in a circle in the corner of the room. Every woman has an inherent understanding of what every other woman has been through. Simply by working together, they’ve created a support network for themselves.
The intricacy of their work and the attention to detail is stunning. One of the young women was showing me how she’ll begin to piece together the saris, one layer at a time. She would let me try a few stitches then she would show me again how to perfect my stitch and let me try again. Very patient and very kind. It’s so easy to laugh with these women, to simply be with these women.
I imagine what these women have endured and it makes me appreciate their work that much more. I imagine each blanket has a story attached to it. Each woman has a story and their story is woven into their work.
Buying one of their blankets would be a privilege. You can help support these women by visiting the Aanchal project website- http://anchalproject.org/