While watching the video, you might find yourself counting your blessings.
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/17/domestic-servitude/
Hopes for better lives lead to slavery in U.S.
(CNN) – One was sold by her impoverished parents, the other willingly left her family to become a nanny. But both found years of their lives turned to domestic servitude before finally finding freedom.
CNN's Martin Savidge tells the story of Isabel. Her mother sold her into slavery at around age 7 to a Taiwanese family who later moved to the United States in an upscale southern California neighborhood.
So as other children went to school, Isabel cooked and cleaned. Her bedroom was the garage, her bed the floor. Her food - whatever the family didn't want, often spoiled or soured. And there were the beatings, she says, often with a spatula and once, when her owner accused her of drinking a cup of tea, a toilet bowl brush.
Isabel finally met someone who helped her escape and is now in her 20s and trying to learn what many her age have already mastered: driving a car, ordering at a restaurant, understanding money. No criminal charges were brought against the family who brought Isabel to the U.S. from Taiwan. But she has settled a civil lawsuit with that family and is no longer in touch with them. Watch more of Isabel's story above
CNN's Gena Somra reports on Laome, who was 17 in Nigeria when she thought she was getting an education in the U.S. in exchange for becoming a nanny for a wealthy Nigerian American woman, Bidemi Bello. Instead, she says, she had instead become a slave. Bello, Laome says, instilled that fear in her right from the beginning, abusing her almost every day.
She later escaped with the help of friends, and Bello was brought to trial. Found guilty of human trafficking, Bello faces 11 years behind bars. After that, she will be deported back to Nigeria.
For Laome, she says that with the trial behind her, she is finally free.
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The Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/23/2003519006
‘Isabel’ identified, name yet to be confirmed: MOFA
Wed, Nov 23, 2011
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter
Although the true identity of a Taiwanese woman who was reportedly taken to the US as an indentured servant remains unknown, Taiwanese compatriots in Los Angeles say they know her by the name Hsiao-feng (曉鳳), a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said yesterday.
Some Taiwanese have provided clues regarding the identity of the woman to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Los Angeles, but those have yet to be verified, Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), director-general of the Department of North American Affairs, told a media briefing in Taipei.
Linghu said TECO officials had met representatives from the Community Service Program, the US organization that is taking care of the woman — known by the pseudonym “Isabel” in a CNN report — adding that the ministry wished to help her reunite with her family.
TECO officials have yet to contact Isabel because the social worker who handles her case is on leave for a few days, Linghu said, adding that they hope to meet her by next week.
CNN reported earlier this month that Isabel had been sold by her impoverished parents to a wealthy Taiwanese family at the age of seven, and the family later moved to California.
Isabel said she was forced to live in a garage and often fed spoiled food, as well as suffering physical abuse, before she eventually managed to escape the family, CNN reported.
In the report, Isabel said she would like to find her mother.
Two families in Taiwan have claimed Isabel as a member since her story made headlines.
Ho Hsiao-ying (何曉英), a Paiwan resident in Taitung County, said Isabel was her sister, named Hsiao-feng. Another woman, Chi Mei-chou (紀美周), in Hsinchu City, claims Isabel is her daughter.
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