Wow, I've been so lazy this week. Well, it could be due to my tiredness...
I've been watching the football until 2am every night, and have been up for work at 8 – it could have something to do with it.
I have helped re-organise the
financial statements this week, and I spent the whole of Wednesday and
Thursday answering questions for the company on their background and
goals. The purpose of this was for a friend of the director, who is
doing a presentation on small businesses; ours being one of them. I
wrote long essay-style answers for each question she had asked, and
doing this really helped me to understand the organisation and how it
does what it does.
As I think I've mentioned,
the business initiative I work for is part of a charity, which is run on
Christian values. So on Friday, I partook in a fast, and then went for
an afternoon of prayers and such at the charity's Bangalore
headquarters. Although I don't practice religion myself, I joined in all
the prayers and songs, and it really helped me see how the faith these
individuals had helped them with their work. Working in anti-trafficking
and community development, many of them see upsetting and distressing
things every day, and their beliefs really helped them to keep going
through the hard times they faced in their work.
One particular point that was
made was that when going undercover in brothels, many of these people
meet young girls who have been forced into prostitution, and their faith
in God helps them to remember that “everyone was made in God's own
image”, so they see that the people who have been taken advantage of are
the same as themselves, and have been forced to do horrible deeds; and
the traffickers themselves are not born evil, but have become involved
in what they do through a series of events which has pushed them into
that path.
Gavin had only been telling
me a couple of days before that human trafficking exists in UK, and it
is possible to buy another human being for as little as £500! We think
of UK being very well managed and that nothing as horrible as
trafficking could ever happen, but it appears that it is present, just
not with the same awareness as it has in India.
The afternoon finished with a
film by the founder of the charity, explaining how he had been inspired
to start the charity, and how Christianity was part of it's ethos, and
led it's values. The time at the charity was really helpful in
introducing me to the people behind the work, and how they were
inspired.
I'll update my blog again soon, but bye for now!