The Women
Introducing our brave, shining women. I feel truly honored to have them working with me.
All of Coco Bombay's garments are made by their loving hands.
We feel that is is very important to explain in detail the extent of the abuse the Coco Bombay girls have experienced.
They are not just numbers or documentary statistics, they are real people who are now my wonderful friends and whom I love.
It is so important for me to spread the word of what is happening to sex trafficked women every day across the world.
Nalini
Nalini is a around 5 feet tall, tiny and thin which somehow makes her story all the worse.
Nalini grew up in a temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. She was found abandoned at the temple doorsteps by the priests when she was a couple of months old. All memories of her childhood were at this temple.
She has no recollection of her father or mother, but when she grew old enough to ask about them, she was told that her mother was a ‘possessed’ woman who used to run around the streets naked and screaming. To me this sounds like her mother suffered from mental illness, however, Nalini was also told she would turn out to be exactly like her mother. She grew up with the fear (and still has the fear) that she will suffer the same fate. They discovered that both of her parents were dead by the time she was found.
Aruna
Aruna was born in a very poor village in rural Karnataka, a state in Southern India & is the eldest of four. When Aruna was very young, her parents left her & her siblings to live with her uncle whilst they went to earn a living in Mumbai. She was sexually abused as she was growing up by her uncle. When she reached out to her mother for help, she was not believed & told that she was an attention seeker.
Aruna grew up as a total introvert and was forced to do all of the housework by her aunts. She was forced to marry when she was just thirteen & only met her husband on the day of marriage.
One day Aruna got word from Mumbai that her father had vanished and left her mother. She thought that this was the right time for her to finally go to Mumbai & try & make a better life for her & her family, so she left with her husband. On arriving in Mumbai she realised that her mother was actually a pimp...
READ HER FULL STORY HERE
Dipika
In memory of this special woman who was so brave & tragically died in May 2019. Her strength & ambition was an inspiration to us all.
Dipika was born in a very poor village in the mountains in the North Eastern Indian state of Assam. When she was six years old, she was told that she couldn't continue at school as her parents couldn't afford to send her anymore. She was devastated as she absolutely loved to studying.
One of her neighbors heard about this & he told her that he could take her to Mumbai where she would be able to enroll in school. For six year old Dipika, Mumbai was the place where dreams were made. The neighbor warned her that she mustn't tell her parents so one night the little girl packed a few clothes & ran away with him.
In reality the man had sold Dipika to a wealthy family in Mumbai who kept her as a slave, beating & starving her. When the family no longer 'needed' her, she found herself sold into in the largest Red Light area in Mumbai & in fact all of Asia, the notorious 'Kamathipura'. As a minor, she was kept as a prisoner inside the rooms, hidden from the public...
READ HER FULL STORY HERE