"This picture shows I am going through a lot of pains, back there in Nigeria. I lost both my parents in a motor accident when I was 13 years old. I was taken back to the village to stay with grandmum because my uncles sold my parents’ house. Only a male child can take property and my younger brother was too small to do anything.
I couldn’t finish my education any more. My auntie came and she said she want to take me to the city to live with her. She woke me up at 5am to clean the house—she just treat me like a slave because she is not my biological mum. She wake me up to do everything, to cook, look after her kid, everything.
One day my auntie asked me to leave the house and I went back to my grandmum—we hardly eat, there was no money. So my grandmum came home with this idea that there is a lady in France, she want to come and pick me from Nigeria to Europe so she can help me further my education.
Hearing that, I was so happy that maybe I could take care of my younger brother, as he is the only family I have left. My grandmum took me to a park—a man collected us, and that is how I got to Libya."
This image was taken as part of the Voice of Freedom workshop in Asti, Italy, working with ten Nigerian women trafficked through Libya to Italy. The title of the photograph refers to the name of the individual who took the photograph, and not the figure therein.
All images sole copyright the photographers. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduce in any format without the written permission of Leila Segal, Director, Voice of Freedom.
