Kadama

Okay, all right, Francisca. So I'm very grateful and happy that the book is coming out, eventually. And we're featuring you, your story, Kadama. And so that's very exciting. And so I get you on the podcast because I want to talk about the story and I want to talk about you and I want to talk about the work that you're doing and I want to share you with the world. I think more people need to know about you and what you're doing.
So the title of the book is, you know, is rebellious women who broke the rules and changed their world. What does it mean for you, rebellious? I just think if I want to keep another, like, fearless, not the other type of rebellious, like being so aggressive, but pushing with all their strength to get through positively what they want and what other women are suffering. from wanting to make that change, but in a forceful way, in a way that we don't want to sit and be quiet.
We just want to push through and make that change aggressively. So would you describe yourself as fierce? Yes, I used to do that sometimes. I used to relate myself to any animal, like I used to say I'm a lioness or I'm a tiger. When you want to like any animal that can you relate yourself to, I always say that.

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The lioness or a tiger, I love it. Tell us a little bit about your story. Where to begin, I don't know, where do you want to begin? I want to begin, this is me, I'm Francisca from Cameroon. I'm a survivor leader and sometimes I call myself an empowered survivor, not because I am living the best of it, but I know that I've walked through the journey and I'm really equipped to push forward with. my leadership as a survivor and to change other women who are still in the same situation that I went through.
I led an anti-trafficking non-profit organization called Survivors Network, SN Cameroon, which we are mainly survivors who have gone through human trafficking and other abuses that women faced. Notwithstanding, we also have others there who have not been through enough such, but they have the passion, they have They feel a lot to be part of it and they really see that this is what the world needs to do. So they are joining with us to raise our voices to make a change.
We all know fighting against human trafficking is not a lone game and anybody even being a survivor or not a survivor is welcome to join the fight. So that's a little bit about Francisca. And what brought you to start this not-for-profit?

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After what I went through, actually my ordeal in Kuwait in 2015 is not the first. I have first been a victim of abuses during my study in Norway, but I was very quiet about that. But when I was trafficked, re-trafficked to the Middle East, specifically to Kuwait, I decided something in me. pushed me to start this movement because if I can be trafficked to Europe, return back home, then I'm re-trafficked, then it means that many others are in the same situation.
So there was that push for me to start creating awareness in my local community and the hinterlands, rural communities around my city. And we came together as a strong voice, the leaders that were returned at that particular time in the late the late of 2015. And we, as a group, we went into those villages because we realized that many of the traffickers were preying on women from the hinterland villages because they were not educated and they were not really aware about human trafficking.
So we decided to start a campaign in those hinterlands. And as we were doing it, we come across some royal chiefs, that's royal rulers. That really saw the importance of what we were doing and they advised us to go and set up a body to guide our work because we were just doing it with no body, no umbrella covering what we were doing, like we had no name. So that was when we decided to come back to our city and started the documentation for our organization to be registered with the help of Freedom for All, a New York-based organization that rescued us. and that was funding most of our activities and is still the mother funder funding our activity.
We came up with the name Survivors Network. It's a community-based organization actually. Many people often question me, why is it called Survivors Network? I believe that a survivor is a big body. Standing as a survivor means you stand as an organization and bringing our voices together, we become a network.

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So that's why it is called Survivors Network. And we were registered in 2016, but we started our activities in August 2015 when I was rescued. So that's how Survivors Network was birthed. And the first survivors were part of the team. And we started by myself being rescued, and other ladies were being rescued by Survivors Network and Freedom for All funding the flights. And Survivors Network also have been guiding the escape part, which at present, we guided the escape part of over 2,500 women from Gulf Cooperation countries to Sub-Saharan African countries, including my country, Cameroon.
And at present, we funded a flight of 28 ladies from Kuwait to Sub-Saharan African countries and 35 women and girls from Lebanon. Actually, after the Beirut's bomb blast, we helped to rescue 35 women. Added to that, we've rescued 63 women by directly paying their flight. And as of now, Survivors' Network has directly impacted the lives of about 5,000 women. We've had funds from the U.S. embassies and other organizations out of the country that we've directed, directly empowered, or directly touched the lives of over 5,000 women.
And… Notwithstanding, with those that we've created awareness, the number is really large. I can't really capacity that. Recently, one of our recent projects is a shelter home that runs alongside a little multi-purpose vocational skills center. As of now, we've had almost 492 persons since April 2021 when we started. that have passed through a safe home slash a multi-purpose vocational skill center. And we are very discreet with choosing who comes in. If not, then we'll be having even more than a thousand women and girls and children that have passed through.
So that's like statistical breakdown of what we've done over the years, getting seven years of existence.

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And we still hope to do more because there are still many people that still need help, still need awareness, still need all the services Survivors Network is rendering. Well, that's amazing work. And so that you started this organization because you had had this experience yourself of being trafficked. You were living in Cameroon at the time and you thought you were going to Kuwait to teach, to teach English. And so you wanted to be able to start a new life to provide money for your son and for your family.
And you were excited about going to Kuwait. And I remember you saying that you got on the plane and you first had that feeling that something wasn't quite right. What was going on on the plane and what happened? Even before getting onto the plane at the airport in Cameroon, I've been traveling and I've traveled to Norway and I'm back. But it was not like the flight to Kuwait. At the airport, we had to pass through the police before we had to go to the boarding room.
And the queue standing in front of the police office at the airport was mainly girls, more than a hundred of us from all over Cameroon, the French, the English speaking. And we all were heading to one direction, Kuwait. There was a ticket that I didn't really think or thought about. anything bad because my aim was just to go sort out myself, get go for my job and then work hard and come and help my family things.
I returned from Norway, my family was not happy that I've gone to a prestigious country and I'm back home and I could have stayed there after my education, get the best life. They become prestigious as a family who has a child that lives abroad. So I was looked as a failure and my all my mind was really fixed to go to Kuwait and do something to gain my family's love and trust.
So I just saw the group of girls at the airport in Cameroon. I had some thoughts, some thought that I just like to sweep it off from my memory. At the transit in Ethiopia, at Addis Ababa at the airport, that was when I really had some real thoughts because there was a transit town to get the direct flight to Kuwait city. I realized in the boarding room while waiting for the plane, we had ladies from Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon.
And the number was really huge. And then we were talking about 200 plus young girls, all of us heading to the same direction. I was like, what is happening in this Kuwait? Why only girls? Still again, my doubts started increasing. And finally, I really felt the real Like this is not right where I was in Kuwait at the airport. Spending over seven hours just for immigration, regularities was not an easy thing.
I've never had that in any country that I've traveled to at the airport. But I just said, well, I'm already there, let me give, let me just see what comes or what is ahead of me. So that was the feeling. I started developing the doubts from Cameroon, the airport in Cameroon, the transit airport in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

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And at Kuwait City itself, I knew something was not right. But my doubts were really clear and finalized when my employer picked me up and directly told me that you will be serving us as domestic servants. You will take care of us, everything, the laundry, and our children. That was it. I was already in it. There was no turning back because I needed that job. I needed… I was just quiet because at first you need to be quiet and try to survey your environment before you start to give any arguments or start to clarify or talk to the people what is happening.
So those were the stages of my doubts and how they were not wrong until finally I was into the whole mess that I found myself in. This is the thing that I think, you know, for me and for someone that doesn't know a huge amount about how trafficking works. There might be some assumptions or stereotypes about how you would end up somewhere like this and the fact that you thought that you were going to do good, you thought that you were going to get a good job and this is what had been presented to you and it had been presented to you by someone that you trusted within the area that you lived and your family were behind you going and I can just imagine your excitement. this idea of going and packing all your clothes and everything you wanted and then this feeling of doubt, something's not right here, something's not right here until you finally get into the situation where you are in this house and you realize what is really going on here, which is that you've been trafficked.
And we open the chapter of this book.

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with the woman of the house telling you, look at that TV, Francisca, I bought that TV and just like I bought you. How was that when you heard that? That was the end of it. I thought I will never leave that cage. I will never leave that situation because if a woman that have better children like myself, who look at a mere TV set and tell me, hey Francisca, come look at that television.
It's a commodity, I bought it. That's how I bought you also. If you want to live, then you reimburse me money I've spent to get you over here and then you have your freedom. I just had a very quick short prayer in my mind. that this is the end of it. This is the life I found myself in because I never knew in a short period of time I would leave that situation.
I already prepared my mind ahead of time that I'm into it. I'm in the mess. Let me just stay there, pull along with every situation that are before me in the house so that I stay alive. I knew it was the end of it. Not that I would die, but I just knew that I have a long time to stay in that house. since I cannot afford to raise money, to pay myself like the commodity that I am, and back home, looking at the family back home, they can't raise that amount of money.
So I just said, I just prepared my mind that I'm in, I'm in. It was really a bad feeling. So you thought you would be there forever, like that was it. That was where you would be forever. You were stuck. There's no way. There's no way out.

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They made you shave your body and wear different clothes, and you didn't sleep well. You obviously didn't get paid. You were working huge amounts of hours and baking hot sun. I had stale food. Yeah, I stale food. When the bread in the refrigerator is getting mold, then they give me. After the sparing, they'd written there and see the lady who said, you can eat it. It's still nice. The date doesn't matter.
What do I have to do? I have to struggle to remove the mold patches and eat because I needed food to sustain myself. They would drink bottled water from the supermarket and I would drink water from the tap, which they themselves said water from the tap is not really good. Sometimes I boil it, sometimes I drink when I'm really thirsty and I don't have boiled warm. I needed a life. I needed to be strong for myself because at that time I have just myself to talk to. just myself to be for myself.
So I needed the best for myself. And I know that you rebelled and you asked to leave and you asked to be in a different family. You asked to go back home. You begged to go back home. They didn't allow it. In fact, the first family got very angry at you and returned you to the shop. Yes.

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you had to sit in this shop and be bought again. I mean, unbelievable for me to write this story. And then you go to another family. And what I found so heartbreaking is that you go to this second family and you decide that you are going to clean the whole house from top to toe, including the kitchen, because you want them to love you. You want them to give you a better a better living standard?
That was actually the third family. That was the third one, right? The second one was the one that the lady went and the children just came out, stood on the staircase, looked at me, and maybe I was dark-skinned and they just didn't offer any work and they left back to their room. So the lady said, let me give her some time to rest. She's tired. So after about 45 minutes to an hour, She came out, drove me back to the shop where we were being displayed to be sold.
Then the third family came now, which I went there and I decided to do my best the same day so that maybe they'll know that this is hardworking. She's dedicated. She loves her job. She's willing to do what we want. And maybe from that output of the first day can gain me the trust that I belong there. I'm hardworking and they should treat me like a good person. But I didn't know proving to them that I'm hardworking and I'm energetic was proving to them that you work and work and work.
More work should be added to what you need to do. And finally, I know the situation became abusive in that family. Yeah. The same day the lady of the house travelled to visit her sick mother.

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in Lebanon with two of her younger sons. The same day, the man of the house that I never faced and look at him eyeball to eyeball. I cannot even stand when he passes. I need to bow my head not to have partial contact. The same day, he was asking me to come and give him a massage. How funny it is, just within hours that the wife left. So that was it. I was a little bit hesitant, but I needed it.
I have some self-thoughts and get to break through my freedom by playing along with his abuses. And he knew that because through that, I had to have his phone number, which I never had. Through that, they were confident enough to leave the house for me and go out, knowing that their home isn't safe and I'm really happy and I cannot go away. So again, the trust. to just pull along with the abuses despite how hurting it was.
And then that was how I escaped when they had gained the trust and I was always left alone in the house. So one fateful Friday that nobody was at home. It's the holiday they've gone to the mosque, so I had to use that opportunity to call someone to pick me up to safety. Wasn't it that you, I mean, I just think this is so amazing. So you're in this incredibly hopeless situation.
And you're in a country far, far from home in a situation where you have none of the power. And you saw a report on CNN, I think, and you started to message charities, not-for-profits to try and help get you out of there. And you sent messages to many. but only one responded. Only one responded. I find that unfathomable, that only one responded, which is inevitably freedom for all, which is the one that you're doing so much great work with now, but only one responded to help get you out.
And then you had to plan this whole escape. I mean, it's really, I mean, if Hollywood got hold of this, you couldn't make up this story, this escape that you…

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you, you, you did on a Friday and you, you, you, you got yourself to an embassy. You finally got out of there, but that wasn't that, I mean, we don't want to let it all out because we want people to read the chapter, but this was quite something, this escape, wasn't it? It was actually, because I wrote to, even without those I found on the CNN Freedom Project advert, I wrote to so many people back home in my country, so many great religious leaders across Africa, so many ministries.
I'll go online, get to tweet them, inbox, send them emails. There were actually two of them that responded directly. One of them opted, that was a Polaris, opted that they cannot work with me directly as a person. They need to work with me through an organization that fights against human trafficking from my home base. So when they got to organization from Cameroon, one never responded. One was walking, but along the line, they dropped, and they were not responsive again to me writing to them.
There was even an incident that the lead of that one organization said, stop disturbing me. I didn't send you to get yourself in that ordeal. But freedom for all never stopped. Instead, sometimes they would tell me to delete all their emails so that my phone should… My phone was… There was a time I was suspicious that my phone would be tracked when my employer asked me to give him my phone. He wants to go and do something on it.
But I thought to myself that you people have the Wi-Fi at home and you can't give me the password. I struggled on my own with the little money I had to buy my recharge card. You can't give me the password of the Wi-Fi when I asked. Your wife says it's very expensive and then you want my phone to put work there, that would be good for me. Something just, I told Freedom For All that he wants my phone.
They said no, I should not give him because he wanted to take him to the shop maybe to do some hacking, that he can see everything that I communicate on the phone. So I didn't do that and Freedom For All was always there. Even when I escaped, they were always there. Even when they paid my flight, they wanted to send more money but I said no.

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If I land on the soil of my country, I will make it to my hometown, because that was what I really wanted, just to go back home. In any town in Cameroon, I know that I'm free. I'm out of the dungeon. You know that moment when it was that Friday and you knew that was the day, and I know you had some stuff of yours in a trash bag to make it look like you were taking out the trash. and you were going to get this, you'd arranged to get a taxi with this other girl to the embassy.
How did that feel in that moment when you walked out the door? I was still terrified because the son has a car, the eldest one that was there, and he has a car. So I was like, what if they just like come in while I was living? I was really scared. Even inside the taxi, I was scared. until I had to change. Inside the taxi, I changed my dress. I did not wear the regular clothes we wear, the kadama dress, just for the sleeves.
I changed and put on a kashwa that I cannot be identified. I was really terrified. I was really shaky. And the bitter truth is that I didn't take up to 10 seconds to make that decision. That girl just wrote on the group chat that we all belong. We is willing to run away today. i'm free to pick the person to safety and i just said i'm ready i was not really serious saying it seriously i was not serious i was just like let me give a try to see what will happen and that was it so you saw a group chat and you're on group chat i think on facebook something like that and yeah and you this girl said who wants to escape today and you said you decided this was your moment and you gosh it must I must have been terrified.
I can't even imagine. Your heart must have been coming out of your chest as you got in that car. I was shaky and I used the behind door and I was terrified that I'm going out the behind door will be open since I couldn't go using the front door that have the big CCTV camera. So I used the behind door with my black bin bag with some few dresses there. I was shaky.
Because if I was caught, maybe I would never see daylight again. I would just be enclosed in the house, never to go out. And you know that, you know that feeling and that's why you do the work that you do because you know that there's so many girls, so many women and girls around the world that are experiencing this right now, right in this moment and they could be

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are a neighbour, they could be someone across the street, it doesn't have to necessarily be in a country far, far away. Like I know that, I've learned that about living in England and living in America, the trafficking happens everywhere. It's big business, right? It's big business, it has a profit loss account, it has marketing, it has branding, it has advertising. backing of the administrators because it's a big cartel. The people you think you can run to safety, the people you think can stand behind you, they are part of that big cartel.
That's why if you are not careful when you start a trafficking case, you can end up being the one behind bars. That's why most often we don't really work a lot on prosecution because our system is super corrupt. So we do little we can, but not really.

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up to the standard that I can really proudly stand and say, we work on prosecution. It's super corrupt. You escaped that Friday. You get yourself to the embassy and I know stuff happened at the embassy and it wasn't as easy as you wanted it to be, but you did manage to get your flight funded by Freedom For All to take you back to Cameroon. And how did it feel when you stepped off the plane back onto Cameroon soil.
I had to pinch myself. I had to hit myself hard if really, this is me, if really this is the freedom I've longed for. I was really happy that I didn't care about the physical appearance because I had a lot of acne due to the harsh sun that I was exposed to walking in the garden under the heat, the sun. I didn't care how down I was looking. I was just so happy that I'm alive.
I was just so happy. I went to my city. My parents told me that I would not go out of the house. I need to sit indoors for like a month to get myself together. I'm looking really physically deteriorated. But I told them that no, I don't care. I'm free. I'm alive. I have to face it. I was really happy that I didn't care about what people would say. Dude, there was many talks. about me being lazy, many talks about me being a failure for the second time, but I didn't care.
I was so happy because I had my life once more again. And what people say was their own thing. They were saying like, I was fulfilled to be free. I think that's the ultimate thing, isn't it? That you've got that freedom. Yeah. That feeling of, well, the feeling of freedom of actually being out of that. situation, and at the same time, the freedom of what people are going to think of you, because that had really driven you before, hadn't it?
And most importantly, to hug my son once more again, because he was so young, two years old. So when I saw him, I couldn't bear it. I had to cry. It was not just tears, but I had to cry because it was not really easy, but I had to be strong for myself. I had to be strong so that…

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I have the strength and the courage to help others. Though at the beginning it was not my main purpose, but when the ladies I met at the Central African Republic Embassy, about 18 of them, some from Ghana, some from Nigeria and some from Cameroon, many from Cameroon, when they started getting back to me that please, you are so lucky you've not been here up to a week and you've left. I've been here for like two months.
I cannot afford my flight. I cannot be able to follow up to have my alternative traveling documents. Please help us. Some of us don't even have our basic needs, like being a lady. We don't have even dresses, pants. So that was some of the beginning push factors that pushed me to know that I need to fight for women. Women's rights, women's upkeep, women's empowerment, women's livelihood, women's sustainability. That was like the start of it.
But without no knowledge, I was starting something that would be huge one day. So I reached back to Freedom for All and they were so happy to help. They decided to send some money, but they asked if they can send it to me. Before I sent to Kuwait, I said no. So I gave them the number, the name, and all the details for the diplomats at the Central African Republic Embassy, which they send him the money.
And the ladies will help, though he never gave all the money to them. But at least he did a little. How long were you in Kuwait for in the end? The truth is that I was in Kuwait, basically exactly three months. Three months? Yeah, from May. 2015 to August 2015, same date that I went in May, same date that I was retained in August. I think 26th to 26th. No, I went on the 26th of May and I was returned on the 28th of August.
Because actually that date was my son's two years' birthday, so I can never forget it.

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What do you think is the biggest thing you learned from this experience? The biggest thing I've learned from my experience living in Kuwait, right, is have hope. Never say it's over. Don't really die in the situation you are. Not like time, but don't really give in so fast. Sometimes pull along, even with the dirty things that come your way. You don't know. be after the dirty things that you see in front of you, you might.
Your freedom might just be ahead of it. If I was a little bit resistant with my employer's approach, maybe I would not have gained the trust for them to allow me in the house to have the freedom to be alone and to escape. Since I pulled along and they were so convinced, that was how they let it go. They let everything to me. to use that to escape. So the biggest lesson I've learned is use every opportunity in any situation you are to get yourself out of this situation.
When the bad one comes, pretend as if you're happy with it. That can be your means of freedom. That can be your means of an escape in that situation. Thank you, Francisca. It's an amazing story.

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and it's an inspiring story and it's a heartbreaking story all at the same time. So in awe of what you've created as a result of this experience and the amount of people that you are positively impacting. And I know also that it may feel endless at times because I know how many people you want to impact. But I hope that the people listening here today will find out more about your organisation, Survivors Network Cameroon, and they will support you and they will send you all sorts of hope and joy to the work that you're doing and that you would never be doing this if you hadn't experienced what you had experienced.
So I'm very grateful and I'm looking forward to you doing even more amazing things in the future. And I'm looking forward to you being part of this book and I'm looking forward to the book launch in a few weeks. So thank you very, very much. Is there anything finally you want to say? Finally, I wish to say everyone out there, whether a lady or a man, what your heart yearns for what you see around you, even in your small village or community that you think is not right and you have the courage. to do something, to make it right.
Go for it. Don't wait and say you need money, you need a big amount of money to start doing what your heart yearns for to make a change. Just go for it. Be doing it even by just talking, getting young people together and giving them a talk. That will help them in that situation. Just do it. Do it unnoticed. Do it from your heart. Do it with love. The world is watching.

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You will be amazed on how far people know what you are doing and where you will be placed in the days ahead. I'm saying this because I just received an award earlier in Morocco, two awards actually by Free The Slaves. I was just called. I never knew what happened. I just got an email. Presently, I'm in Lagos. I never knew who recommended me for Ashoka Fellow. By the end of the month, I'm heading to Kigali for the Commonwealth Head of State. head of government come together.
I just find myself in places that sometimes I don't know, a little community girl, hawking foodstuffs with the mother, going to the farm, this is me. I'm finding myself in places that where did I sit there. It's not something that I will say, it's a paparazzi that I, it's like I'm there, I'm there, I'm there. I just feel happy and relaxed and it's still me, it's the very me because I keep doing what I'm doing.
I don't stop. I do it at a local level. I don't aim so high, but greatness is searching for me because I'm doing it for my heart. I'm passionate about what I do. So my advice to young people is even if you're a medical doctor, find that particular thing that the community needs you to come and make a change. Do it with love and with all your heart. It will take you to places you never expected to be there.
Thank you. I love that. The world is watching. Thank you. Thank you very much, Francisca. And I will see you soon, sending you lots of love and health and peace and joy and celebration for all of your recent achievements. Go and celebrate and enjoy all that you are doing and creating along the way. Thank you so much. I'm so excited. Francisca is so completely and utterly humble.

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And at the time of recording this, she's receiving a number of awards in a number of different countries and a large amount of recognition for her work. So coming from the trauma and tragedy of what she's experienced to be able to create this organization and be celebrated and rewarded from it is really quite the journey. And she is definitely one to watch. She's doing amazing things and she's making a huge difference in an area that is is controversial at best and horrific and evil at worst.
An area which we all need to have more awareness of at least and we should all be more involved, actively involved in what we can do in human trafficking and modern slavery. Thank you so much to the amazing Francisca and for all that you've done.

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