What can be more humbling that someone telling you that in their next life they want to be as educated as you? I’m not sure, but I was humbled. We all were.
We all sat down in a big circle with the wonderful women from Aastha Parivaar, an organization that works with the sex worker community in Mumbai, exchanging smiles and excited looks.
Aastha Parivaar provides reproductive health education, HIV/AIDS counseling as well as medical services. Our goal for the day was to lead and facilitate a session on reproductive health, more specifically the menstrual cycle, hygiene, menopause and breast cancer. We had very little time to plan our session and to gather information, but this did not put a dent in our exciting to converse with these women. The group of sex workers we met has formed a community-based organization that teaches other sex workers about safe sex and how to take care of themselves and of each other.
Listening each one of these women, and sitting next to them was a very inspiring experience. Sex work is illegal in India as it is on most countries in the world. Most of the women we met during the training session have been in this profession for over 20 years, putting themselves at risk everyday so they can provide for their families. One of the women told us that she does not know how to write or read, but she has been able to put her kids in school and even provide them with a computer at home to ensure they have better opportunities than she did.
I hope that the very little time we spent with them, and the very little knowledge I was able to share with them helps their mission. Was I touched and inspired? You better think so. I hope they know we learned more from them, than what they did from us.
I hope in my next life I get to be as inspiring and brave as the women we met today.
Great picture!
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