Elementary education major Lauren Meyer ’16 teaches a group of girls in India, where she spent the summer learning about sex trafficking and ministries that fight it.
by Rachel Bing
Lauren Meyer ’16 never wanted to visit India. In fact, she said, “I wanted to go everywhere else except India.” Then Meyer’s youth pastor from Adel, Iowa, asked her offhand if she wanted to go to India to save women from prostitution. Before long, Meyer had embarked on a seven-week trip.
Meyer, an elementary education major at Central College, traveled with an Evangelical Free Church of America organization and spent most of her time in Kolkata, India, learning about threats and ministries to women in that region—one of Asia’s largest red-light districts.
As soon as she set foot on Indian soil, Meyer said she was struck with contrasts to American culture. “There are people everywhere and piles of trash on the streets,” Meyer said. “The city is so packed, the smells are crazy, and the traffic is insane—you literally feel like you’re going to die in the traffic.” Meyer also found herself at a loss trying to follow vague cultural rules. “One person will say to never make eye contact with men,” Meyer said. “Another person will say if you make eye contact, just look away, while a third person will say it’s fine.”
One of the trip’s highlights was Meyer’s visit to Freeset, a fair trade business that offers jobs to women trapped in Kolkata’s sex trade. “Their factory is right in the middle of the red-light district,” Meyer said, “and they invite women who have been trafficked into their factory. They teach them how to sew so they don’t have to be a prostitute. They get benefits and their kids can get scholarships for school.”
Kolkata is also home to many street kids who are on their own and vulnerable to trafficking. “Traffickers can kidnap these kids and no one will come looking for them,” Meyer said, “and 99% of anyone who is trafficked is never found.” Meyer spent the last two weeks of her trip helping with children’s ministries and teaching English.
After a taste of life in India, Meyer said she is grateful for classes at Central that have encouraged her to observe other cultures with an open mind. “Studying human geography and human relations at Central prepared me to go to India and look at this culture and try to understand,” Meyer said. “So much of what they do in India is because they have been doing it for hundreds of years.”
Meyer added that she is grateful she can continue to combat trafficking by supporting the ministries she encountered in India while she studies and works in the U.S.
