Rani Hong is a former child slave from India. When she was 7, a friend of her family, a slave catcher, came to offer her a better life. She went with this woman, but was later sold for international adoption. She was sent to a man who used her and other children to make money by illegally selling them. She was abused, with daily beatings, and starvation. Her master sold her to a woman in America, a very kind woman. Her adoptive mom took great care of her, and is one of the people Rani most admires. Fortunatly, Rani got to meet her birthmother, a long 21 years after she was sold away. Today, she is married to Trong Hong (middle)
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picture from: http://www.troniefoundation.org/about-us/trong-hong
Trong Hong from Vietnam was 8 during the time when the Vietnam where enlisting young boys into the military. Knowing this would soon become his son, Trong's dad sent him on a boat overseas to escape. Needless to say, the ship endured some struggles. They were on it for 2-3 days, and therefore ran out of water. Their ship got attacked by pirates.Babies were thrown overboard. The boat hit land, and sank. Trong swarmed to an island, and found a cave, where he lived completely alone for 2 years. People found him, and put him in an orphanage, where he was given money, and therefore came to America. Today, he speaks out to keep children away from the military.
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Iqbal Masih was born in the poor community of Muridke, Pakistan. His father left when he was young, and his mother was in desperate need for money for her son's wedding. She took out a loan in Iqbal’s name, but couldn’t pay it back in the two years allowed. She therefore had to loan Iqbal to slavery to pay off the debt. He worked 14 hour days 6 or 7 days a week. When he turned 10, he and some friends decided to escape. He ran to the local police, but was returned and chained to a carpet loom. He was forced to work, with physical abuse and no food. While on the streets, Iqbal was sadly shot in the back, even though it claims to be an “accident”.
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