I STOOD UP FOR A STRANGER

It was year 2012 on the month of July I heard someone cried behind me. I was sitting at the cafe, waiting for my friend to come. We wanted to do some business together, and as we started our conversation that was happened.

A girl's cry was heard from the back again. I woke up and went to the table following the direction. Three girls are sitting, the two are crying bitterly. The taller one had old scars on her face, the shorter and younger looks fine except her tears.

\"Anything wrong?\" I asked.

\"No, we're fine.\" said the taller one. The third one dressed well. The short one covered her hair with Hijab and had a black gown over her cloth.

\"Please tell me, if i can help you?\"

\"We arrived this morning at the airport. They deported us from Kuwait. We were in prison for six months. We both are in a same underwear for the whole six months. The country is a desert, living in their prison is just like hell.\" She bursts out in to tears again. My friend left after she took tea. I sit with them.

\"How did you travel? Who sent you there? Illegal brokers?\"

I bombarded them with a of questions. The girl with scar told me they traveled with important document through the government offices.

\"If you traveled with them, let's go and tell what happened to you.\"

the younger girl is from country side. She came from north. This one was willing to go and challenge anyone in the government office. The tall girl with a scar was not in the mood of getting help or standing for her rights.

\"I went to Ethiopian embassy in Kuwait, I was not helped by the diplomats. Who's in the office of foreign affairs? it's the same person with those guys. I'm not going anywhere.\" said the girl. the one who dressed well was a sister of the tall girl. i beg for their cellphone numbers, they refused. At last, the girl from countryside gave me a number of her friend. Who was deported earlier than them.

After three days of struggle , I connect the girl from the village. I brought her to my house, gave her clothes and food. I brought her to foreign affairs office and the other office which sent them there as a government agency. The girl with me has such a story to tell.

She worked in Kuwait for six years and deported with out any payment. The person who hired her was trying everyday to rape her when his wife is not in the house. When the wife is around, he speaks bad things about the girl and used to beat her. AS we all know, all the girls passports will be snatched and hid on the day they arrived at their employer's house. They're locked in and kept like domestic animals. They work hard and no rest, except few of them.

One day, she found the door of her employer opened and she run away and went to embassy. A female embassy worker shouted at her; \"I'm tired of you women, go away.\" The girl walked out of the embassy, she was caught by a police few meters away from the embassy.

She found herself in a prison after some hours. She was making noise and lead a strike in the prison. She tried to escape from prison, and her leg was tied with chain for months. She showed me the big scar around her ankles. She starved in the prison. They had no underwear to change when they'd their periods.

She showed me her Lessie Passe' and pointed to the stamp. It's a man's name.

\"This man should be judged. He came to prison and registered our names in our areas. He divided the girls from the regions and girls from Addis. He always comes and used to take the girls from the regions and give them to the Arab guys. That girl'll disappear from prison for three days and she used to come back. I was also used by him, and the guys who took me every three days used to pay ...money. The girls from Addis suffered from hunger and miss sanitary materials, but us ..we suffered a lot. \"

The guy who was sent by the government to protect them is making business out of them. She also told me how they were hired when they arrived first. The same guy and others same like him at the embassy must sleep with the girls before they go to work. There were two houses in Kuwait, One is a consular office and the second one is a house to keep the maids until they get hired.

I went with a big enthusiasm to brodcast a big news at the foreign affairs office. i was thinking that guy would be called and sent to prison.

Nor the agency neither foreign affairs was not surprised by her story. We were mistreated by the people we meet in the compound and in the offices.

I got out of the compound, i bought her a lunch and went home to write her story. I published it on Ethiopian Herald. Her story went to 178 countries with the paper. I kept the girl with me for two weeks. In case the government officials wants to hear her story from her mouth. She was my evidence, in case i was caught as a fake story teller. But, nobody bothered. I saw that her friend was correct. There was nobody to look for them. Nobody reacted on their behalf. I asked the paper to be sent for the Foreign Minister. The editor in chief told me he did. They translate her story and published it again in Amharic with her own picture and her real name.

Justice had not been done.

My sisters hated her and forced me to chase her away. \"The girls who returned from Arab countries are thieves, let her go before she rob us. I fought for her with officials, and indoor with family members. The house girl complained about the girl. When i went to work, I took her with me. She got annoyed and insulted passer by. I advised her not to do so. At last, she was a wounded person. I didn't judge her for that misbehavior.

I stood up for a girl I mate in a cafe, even if I didn't get any justice. I called her father, we helped her to go back home. She went to Wollo where she came from.