Nadhiya - South Asia

In South Asia, 12-year-old Nadhiya sat barefoot on the classroom floor where the older girls studied their lessons.  Other boys and girls dressed in brightly colored clothes sat in their study groups throughout the room writing on lapboard tablets.  With a breeze flowing through the windows, the schoolroom spoke of serenity even in its sparseness.  But Nadhiya had not always known this sense of protection and belonging.

Since her mother’s death when she was six months old, Nadhiya’s father gave little regard to his fragile daughter.  When the father remarried, nine-year-old Nadhiya became an unwanted burden to the new family and was sold for a couple hundred dollars to support her father’s drinking habit and her stepmother’s needs. 

Instead of sitting among friends in a schoolroom, Nadhiya sat working her weathered little fingers rolling hundreds of cigarettes a day in the shadows of some dingy shack. Her owner forced her to work 9½-hour-days without a break.  Working to buy back her freedom, Nadhiya earned about a dollar each week—barely enough for food.  This continued for three years until IJM investigators discovered her situation and freed her from the illegal bond. 

Today, Nadhiya has a grateful heart. She keeps in touch with IJM field workers, telling them how thankful she is for her new life—a life where she is free from physical and emotional abuse, free to believe that she is special, free to study and play with friends, free to smile.

For More Information

For more information about Loose Chains to Loosen Chains contact Jimmy Fenwick, Director or Student Ministry at or 281.634.8912 or Jason Clarke, Student Ministries Intern at or 281.634.8913.