Reunite Joyce With Her Kids
Trafficked. Enslaved. Now she can’t afford to go home…
When Joyce’s husband abandoned her with two young children, she looked for a way to support the family. Promised a job making $1000 USD per month for working in a supermarket, she left her children with her mother in her native Cameroon and went to Lebanon in 2015. She was instead made to work 18-hour days as a domestic servant, being physically abused, locked in, and deprived of food. Her theoretical wages of just $200 a month were almost never paid to her, but instead to the man who trafficked her.
After almost 2 years of mistreatment, she escaped. In the 5 years since, the jobs she has been able to find have not paid enough to be able to send much money to her family, much less save money to be able to return to live with them in Cameroon. Now the crashing economy of Lebanon has made it much worse. In this campaign, we hope to raise enough for her airline ticket, legal fees to get out of the country safely, and a fund for her to set up a small shop in Cameroon to be able to provide for her family.
False Promises
Before she left Cameroon, Joyce (her nickname; her legal name is Melvis) owned a small shop that sold groceries and basic home goods. When her husband failed to come home from a work trip and disappeared from their lives, she hoped to find something that would make better money so she could provide for her 6 year old son Fauere and baby daughter Lovelyn. Despite the heartache of leaving her children, the promise of a well-paying job in Lebanon sounded like a good way to provide for them, so she and her mother sacrificed to gather the $1200 needed for Joyce to make the move. She hoped to be able to send a good amount of money to her family and return in a couple of years.
When she discovered that the work was not in a supermarket but rather long hours in degrading conditions as a live-in domestic servant, she decided to put up with it for the sake of the high pay she had been promised. Only after 4 months did she finally receive one month’s pay— and then discovered it was to be only $200 a month instead of $1000 as had been promised.
Slavery
For almost 2 years, Joyce was literally enslaved by one family after the next. Only 8 months out of 23 did she receive even minimal payment, and whenever she asked to be sent back to Cameroon per the terms of her contract, she was refused. Under Lebanon’s kafala law, her passport and legal papers were kept by her “employers”, and fleeing meant being jailed if she was captured.
In some homes she encountered physical violence. She was regularly made to work 18 hours or more, and doing eldercare for a man who was very heavy gave her rib problems. Food deprivation was common, such as being given just one sandwich per day. In one instance, the family traveled to Canada for a week, leaving Joyce locked in the apartment with just one roasted chicken and two packages of flatbread to eat. To ensure that she would not touch any of their abundant food, the home was equipped with cameras everywhere, even in her bedroom.
During this season of severe mistreatment, Joyce’s faith in Christ grew. She had left Africa as a “baby Christian”, but in such extreme hardship, she learned to cling to Jesus despite being forbidden to attend church or to read “that book” (the Bible).
Escape
One day Joyce overheard a phone conversation which revealed that the man who had arranged her employment and was receiving her salary “for her” had no intention of ever giving her wages to her, even whenever she went back to Cameroon. She realized the depth of the trafficking scheme, and that very night she made her escape. When the family was asleep, she fled from the house, having almost no money and not even knowing where she was or how to get to safety. She took a bus, and someone directed her to a place where escaped domestic workers could take refuge and receive help. She remained in hiding indoors for 3 months, because— as her abuser told her mother in a harassing phone call— her photo had been put up everywhere for her to be captured.
On Her Own
Joyce took employment with a cleaning company, working 7 months and being paid only 4. When she was feverish, she was denied an unpaid day off. Because she was too sick to do the work, the owner then made an example of her in front of the other employees by physically beating her so badly that she was unable to work for a month.
After that, Joyce chose to find her own part-time work, cleaning individuals’ homes and being paid at the end of each day’s work. This has been safer, but the pay is still minimal, and she must provide for her own food and lodging. She has used her freedom to not only get involved in church but also engage in ministry. On days off, she goes out on the streets to evangelize. This takes exceptional courage, since she doesn’t have legal papers in this country (they’re still held by the man who trafficked her), and so being questioned by a policeman could potentially mean going to jail. She goes out nevertheless; some people get healed when she prays for them, and she finds many open doors.
In 2019, Lebanon began to nosedive into economic crisis. The local currency has lost as much as 90-95% of its value. This means that not only it is now harder for Joyce to meet her own needs, it is now virtually impossible for her to send money to her mother, such as for the children’s school fees. Fauere is now 12 and Lovelyn 8, and they are good students; Fauere has already skipped one grade and is talking about skipping another. Joyce talks with them regularly on WhatsApp and stays involved with their lives.
Being so far away has been especially difficult as the situation in Cameroon has worsened. Joyce is from the English-speaking part of the country, which has been under attack from the French-speaking side. Sometimes armed gangs roam the streets, killing people at will, while Joyce’s children are unable to go to school but rather hide inside their home. The situation is better and worse at different times, but whether in danger or in peace, Joyce wants to be with her family.
Hoping To Return
For some time now, Joyce has been trying to save up money to be able to return to Cameroon. At wages of about $2.50 USD per hour, it is very slow going. The airline ticket costs several hundred dollars, and there will also be significant legal fees to get out of the country (because it’s illegal that she fled from those who enslaved her!!). She also doesn’t want to go back to Cameroon empty-handed. After 7 years of hardship in Lebanon, she would like to return to her family able to care for herself and them. She would like to start up a little shop; one like she had before would cost several thousand dollars. Our goal is to raise $10,000 USD by May 10.
Joyce hopes to start another small shop like the one pictured here that she owned previously while still living back in Cameroon.
Can you join us to help Joyce go home to her children?
Please give what you can, and please share as widely as possible!
Financial Disclosure
The money raised will go to direct assistance for Joyce, except for a 10% administrative fee that will cover administrative and money transfer costs to Lebanon. If the money raised goes significantly above the goal of $10,000, the extra will be used to help other women with similar cases.