“I was just 15 when me mommy tell me she sending me for a better life. We punishing so she wan better for me. Better? All now I wish I could be with me mother but me know how she and me sister and brother dem punishing so me don’t want go back, but me punishing hay suh too,” said Carol.
“She send me by meh uncle in another island and you know is no help I get. Is like he been want another wife and a slave. Soon as me come, he look to me fuh sex and when me say no he tell me how he me bring me hay. He touching me up and so, it was not nice.” Her facial expression revealed how bad the situation was.
Carol is now 19 and has been on the island for over three years, but instead of her life improving it has gotten worse. She is also now the mother of an eight-month-old baby boy. She is an illegal resident and also uneducated and as such it is difficult for her to find a permanent job even though she would get temporary employment from time to time.
“I does wuk but now it hard because I get baby and so me don’t get nobody to look at he sometimes. And when
