A Lynchburg Woman Learns to Forgive After Being Kidnapped as a Child
By: Megan L. Horst | Photos By: Ashlee Glen
In the small rural village of Kakinada, India, lived a young girl. Born into poverty, captured, and trafficked before she was even eight years old, Devi reflects on her hardships and faith in Christ that has not only sustained her but allowed her to forgive those who kidnapped and abused her.
When Devi was a young girl, her mother ended up living on the streets and, out of necessity, turned to a life of prostitution.
“[At the brothel] we lived in one bedroom with six people,” Devi said. Her two brothers also lived with them. Devi worked a number of jobs, as do many children in India who are born into poverty. She recalls cleaning houses, selling snacks at the theater, and her favorite job—selling spices at the bazaar.
“Child labor is very common in India,” Devi said.
When the brothel was eventually shut down, Devi and her family ended up on the streets. Her mother became ill, and she was taken to a hospital with horrendous living conditions. Regardless, Devi did not want to leave her mother’s side.
“I slept under her bed on the floor,” Devi said.
“I just wanted to be with her.” After nearly a month of taking care of her mother in the hospital, a man who noticed their situation approached them, offering to take Devi to find work.
“Again, child labor is common in India,” Devi said. He promised to take Devi to a workplace and bring the money Devi earned back to her mom, assuring Devi she could come back to visit. Although she did not want to go, she knew her wages would help with her mother’s medical care. She never imagined that her mother would pass away that same night, and that would be the last time she saw her.
The man took Devi on a nine-hour train ride to an orphanage, where he was compensated for bringing her.
“He sold me to that orphanage,” Devi said.
“I remember them exchanging money in front of me.” At that moment, Devi knew she had been trafficked.
Devi soon discovered that she was not alone.
There were many other children who had been trafficked. The “orphanage” had a valid license; however, it was, in fact, a front for child trafficking. All the children at the orphanage had been kidnapped and were held until someone overseas wanted to adopt them.
“Every kid in that orphanage had a story to tell,” Devi said. When a child was brought to the orphanage, their hair would be cut, their names would be changed, and they would be told that their families were dead. Changing their identity and leading them to believe there was no family to be reunited with was a deterrent to running away.
Devi explained that they were not treated well and were put to work in the rice field, on the farm, and in charge of caring for the younger children. The girls were physically, sexually and mentally abused, but whenever prospective parents came from overseas to visit the orphanage, they would “put on a show.”
“They’d get all these workers to come and pretend they were working there,” Devi said. “We put on nice clothes, and they fed us. It was like a showcase.” Although the children were all kept in one room, there were other rooms in the orphanage, such as a dining room, that were kept nice and only used when prospective parents came to give the illusion that the children were well cared for.
“It was all a lie,” Devi said. “Behind the curtains, no one knew what was happening.” Most of the children were eventually adopted. The international parents who paid high adoption fees had no knowledge that the child they adopted had been a victim of human trafficking.
Like many of the children, when Devi learned she was going to be adopted and taken away from India, she tried to run away with other girls from the orphanage. Their plan did not work, and they were caught, brought back to the orphanage, and badly beaten.
In 1998, after being in the orphanage for two years, Devi was adopted by a family in Virginia.
“I didn’t want to be here,” Devi said, remembering the days following her arrival. “I hated it here.” Aside from dealing with the trauma she had endured, without knowing any English, coming to the U.S. was challenging for Devi, and she struggled to communicate with her new American family.
“She [adoptive mom] labeled everything in the house to teach me,” Devi said.
Once she was able to communicate, Devi told her adoptive parents what had happened to her and explained she was not even an orphan; however, they were skeptical of what she claimed.
“Who would believe a kid?” Devi said. Her adoptive parents were given death certificates of Devi’s biological parents, however, the certificates were fabricated. Around the same time Devi was trying to convince them of her story, there were two other girls from the same orphanage who had been adopted by a family in Alabama, and they were speaking out about their story. Their adoptive dad worked to bring awareness to the child trafficking ring that was fronting these adoptions. The orphanage was eventually exposed, and the owner was arrested.
When Devi was in high school, she returned to India and was reunited with her family.
“When we got there the first day, to my hometown, the streets where I grew up, everyone was still there,” Devi said.
She discovered that her town and family had looked for her after she disappeared, but with limited resources, they could never find her and assumed she was dead.
Although Devi’s parents were Hindu, she had heard about Jesus as a young child. While in the orphanage, she did not know Jesus as her Savior yet, but there were times as a child when she felt the Lord’s presence and comfort.
“I didn’t become a believer until I came to my U.S. adoptive parents,” Devi said.
“It came easy to accept it because I was aware of it. It clicked.”
Trying to heal from her experiences, in 2012, Devi again returned to India for a visit and decided to find the location of the orphanage, which had been converted into a glass business. Upon visiting the location, she came face-to-face with one of the people who had run the orphanage. He claimed not to remember her, but she remembered him.
“You don’t have to remember me,” Devi told him. “I was just a number to you. You were making money out of us.”
When Devi was about to leave, he asked if she hated him, and she said no, but she hated the system and what was done to so many children. She explained that the only reason she was able to forgive him and the others who abused her was because of the Lord.
There are still times that Devi strives to feel close to her Indian heritage by cooking Indian food, watching a movie, and crying over the memories of her past, but then she can let go of the hurt and move forward, giving it “all to the Lord.” She said you must decide how you allow your past experiences to affect you.
“You have to make that decision,” she said. “It can eat you up; let the poison get the best of you, or you can make peace with it and move forward.”
