“I cannot imagine myself going back to the same trade” - Vanessa’s story

Vanessa lives with her father, mother and three siblings in one of the slum areas in Mandaue City, the Philippines. The family has a small sari-sari (neighbourhood sundry) store which her father tends to during the day, and through which they try to make do.

Vanessa was a frequent nightclub-hopper. During this course of time, one of her friends introduced her to exploring online meet-ups with foreigners. Her friend would book services for online transactions, and Vanessa would then go to a certain hotel and “put on a show”. Her friend would then get a portion of the payment. 

“I thought this was easy money. My parents were very suspicious of me as they were worried where I was getting the money from”, said Vanessa. 

In partnership with the Bidlisiw Foundation,  TdH NL was carrying out community outreach work in Vanessa’s area. During one of these sessions, Vanessa was invited to participate. She found herself relating to what was being spoken about in terms of sexual abuse and exploitation but didn’t say anything. Her friends also nudged her whenever topics came up that they knew she would identify with.

After the group session, Venessa participated in a one-on-one session with a peer educator from Bidlisiw Foundation. In this session, she opened up about what she was going through. 

She was then enrolled in the Child and Family Healing, Recovery and Re-Integration Services of the Bidlisiw Foundation – she attended weekly group sessions for five months. She was encouraged to go back to school and later enrolled in an Alternative Learning Session. Her family also took part in simultaneous sessions with the Family Development Staff. 

“I am now ashamed of what I was doing. I cannot imagine going back to the same trade”, she said.