Legacy Education Student Adira Becomes A Lawyer
CLIENT STORY
Legacy Education Student Adira Becomes A Lawyer
“I decided not to give up.”
Embers International is excited to announce that Adira*, our Legacy Education student, has successfully completed law school and is now a lawyer. We are immensely proud of her and what she has achieved with your support.
At age 13, Adira was trafficked into Mumbai, where she remained trapped in the sex trade for three years. In 2005, a partner organization of Embers International and the local police rescued Adira and placed her in a government shelter home. When a social worker named Sumi* met Adira at the shelter home, Adira was determined not to talk for the fear that doing so would jeopardize the safety of her family. Her traffickers had successfully conditioned Adira to believe in their lies.
Adira refused to talk to Sumi for months. When Sumi approached her, she would say, “Try as much as you want to change me – I will not be able to help you or share anything . . . I’m not going to change. Don’t waste your time.” For over 6 months, however, Sumi did not give up despite Adira's hostility and rejection. Sumi persistently visited Adira twice a week and again and again, extended her friendship.
Love is patient, love is kind, and love does not give up. Little by little, Adira started to open up to Sumi. “As [Adira] saw that I was not leaving her,” Sumi recalls, “[and through] small encouragement not only from me but the shelter home, her teacher, her friends who were in the shelter home – that gave her more encouragement that she can do something.”
For 16 years, Sumi has walked with Adira in her journey of healing and restoration. Adira is now married with a child, and she has successfully completed law school. “Law school was not easy for me, to remember all the case laws. . . Every day, I used to leave my house at 5:30 am. I would travel four hours daily. But at the same time, I was determined, and my focus was the same. I decided not to give up,” says Adira.
Embers International supported Adira studies in law school through our Legacy Education program, a powerful initiative designed to provide survivors of trafficking and at-risk youth with an opportunity to transcend their past and pursue their dream. With your support, Adira has graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (“L.L.B.”) degree and is determined to defend the elderly, poor, and homeless. To bless Adira's new beginning as a lawyer, one of Embers’ corporate partners (a U.S. law firm) has generously donated a computer for Adira's legal work. Adira continues to dream: “I want to open [an] old age home to needy people and homeless people. I would also like to take poor people’s cases in the court since they don’t have money to give, and because of that, they don’t get justice.”
Adira is one of the first trafficking survivors to become a lawyer in India. You made this success possible.
You can continue to help make stories like Adira's become a reality for others. With your help, we can continue to serve those who are waiting to re-write their own destiny.
*Pseudonym.
“I believe every single person should be educated. In my family no one is educated. I am the example for my family and coming generations to become educated, and I want to become a role model for my daughter [so] that one day, she will tell everyone that her mother is a lawyer.
I want to encourage women to choose right goals for themselves. If they determine it, then no one can stop them from doing what they want in life. Education plays a very important role." – Adira
STAFF UPDATE
Embers Welcomes New Hire For Sahasee Embers Nursery School
Embers International is pleased to announce a new hire for our Embers team in India. Dipti Mirpagar is our new teacher for Sahasee Embers Nursery School, caring for the children ages 3 - 6.
Q&A with Dipti:
What is your favorite book and why?
The latest book I read was by Joyce Meyer. I was moved by the struggles she had overcome in her life.
If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would you choose and why?
I highly admire the work done by Mother Teresa. She had so much love, care, and compassion for everyone. She just looked at people as people, above their caste, creed and skin color. So if given a chance, I would love to have dinner with her and thank her for all the selfless love she has given to humankind and especially my country men.
How do you hope to see the children at Sahasee grow?
I believe education is the foundation for a good society. Hence I would like to do my bit in helping these children to get that education and make them understand the values of life. This age and the given [the environment where] these children come from, [it] can easily make them lose their path . . . At the end of it, it gives me immense satisfaction to contribute in this noble cause.
This July, you joined us in reaching one of the most exploited populations of India and providing the oxygen supply necessary to keep the critically ill alive. In partnership with Emmanuel Hospital Association (“EHA”), Embers International launched its Oxygen Project to build a medical-grade oxygen plant providing COVID-19 relief in the remote province of Assam. Assam's high demand for cheap labor for tea farming and its shared borders with multiple neighboring countries make Assam one of the busiest hubs for human trafficking. Backed by our wonderful friends who pledged to match your gifts, we are pleased to report that together we reached our goal of raising $80,000 to fund the construction of one oxygen plant in Assam, and construction has begun! Because of you, those who face social, cultural, and economic oppression will receive life-saving medical support. We are humbled and grateful for your generosity that made our Oxygen Project such a success.
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