Mali and the Broom Factory- Part 1

We have had a special guest living with us for the past month.   Mali was an 'at risk' young child here in Thailand, cared for by many different people who then handed her over to an orphanage and then she was finally adopted by our American friends Pete and Diane at the age of 5.

It has been her dream after graduating from high school to come back and visit Thailand and search for her birth family.  That is what we did together for the past month.  It has been complicated, we've had to talk to a lot of different people and the stories did not always match up- but we have found out so much about her past that Mali had never known.  Because there are so many parts to her story of being rescued, I want to divide it into segments of the whole story, although they are  all intertwined.

Mali is a very classic example of an 'at risk' child who most likely would have been exploited.  Everything in her background should have led her to a place of oppression and being taken advantage of.  In God's grace we have seen how He has had His hand on her and rescued her time and time again from what could have been a whole different story.  If you're not sure what I am referring to- please read these statistics of how many children in Thailand are exploited and used for human trafficking.  The most 'at risk' people are an exact description of her parents.  They were migrants, ethnic minorities and stateless people.  I believe that God spared her life for a reason and it's been a privilege to be a part of her life, thus far.

The search for her background story started in January 2011, when her parents went to the orphanage that she came from  and found in the records the name of the woman who had dropped her off.  They went on a search of that woman and found her near Chiang Mai, and started to hear how this woman had cared for her.

In January 2012, we went with her parents to find this woman again and found her at a broom factory and she shared more of the story of how she had rescued Mali.  I blogged here  about finding her back then.

This October and November of 2013, we have made 4 trips back to the broom factory as we continued to gather more information about her past. This is Mike spending a long time with some of the relatives as they tried to explain the family relationships. The longer they explained it to us, the more confusing it got, it seemed.  He was a huge help in the translation process.

This woman, Mala, has been the most important character in rescuing and saving Mali from a life that could have been so different from what she has.  Every time we came to visit her, she smiled non stop and looked at Mali with a look that felt like to me she was so relieved, and proud of Mali and happy to see what a healthy and caring  young adult she had become. For the past 15 years, Mala had never heard and never knew what happened to Apple (her Thai name).

A lot of brooms to be made on one of our visits to the broom factory. 

Apple's parents worked in a broom factory that Mala manages.  The employees are migrant workers, and Apple (Mali) lived there from the time that she was a few months old, off and on until she was 3 years old. She was transferred around from worker to worker at the broom factory and taken back and forth to rural villages a few times.

To show how special Apple was to them, they immediately pulled out a small photo album from the top drawer in their office desk (they knew exactly where it was) that they had saved with photos of her.  This one shows that she was a pretty spunky and well loved little girl to all of them.

Mike and I had been to the broom factory a few times to get information, but the first time we took Mali there was a buzz of chatter moving throughout the factory that the little Apple had come back. All the workers that had been there for 15 years or more remembered her and were shocked to see her again. These are some of the people who had cared for her.  They even told us stories of transferring her from person to person in the evenings in a cardboard box.  The two on her right are a distant aunt and uncle.

As we'd walk around the factory, people would acknowledge her and say if they remembered Apple. She had reddish brown hair, which is unusual for Thai children, so they called her 'Apple with the red hair'.

Each time we've gone out, it has been interesting to watch the process of broom making.  Here the grass is being dried in the sun.

They are paid by the piece and consequently work so fast. 

Almost finished products and ready to be shipped abroad. 

At one point (around the age of 18 months)  Mala went to check on her in a remote village  along with Mr Phan and they found her  in very bad living conditions.  Mala told us "Apple was  filthy dirty in a grass roof house with mud walls.  Her face was black from dirt.  When I saw Apple, I decided to take her because I was afraid she would not live long in those conditions. I took her, bathed her, washed her hair, bought her new clothes, and she started talking again."  Mala also told us that Apple called her 'mother' because she really had no mom to care for her. Her mom had left her.

Mala cared for her and actually wanted to adopt her herself, but was not able to because she was single and the government would not allow that. Several people have told Mali that if she wants to know what her birth mother looks like to just look in the mirror. We were told numerous times that all the workers at the broom factory loved Mali and took such good care of her.

Mr. Phan who owned the broom factory loved her also and looked after her.  When she was later transferred to the orphanage, he'd still go visit her. He passed away this year, but they brought out his picture to show Mali.

They told Mali that this was the truck that she rode around in with Mr. Phan as a little toddler. 

Mali had a lot to take in from her visits.  This is her auntie that told her that Mali Apple would play in this area by her when she worked.  Mali enjoyed just sitting by her and watching her work  one day.

Yesterday, before leaving Thailand- Mali wanted to visit Mala one last time.  She wrote her a thank-you note and took a special gift to her, realizing that it was such a very small gesture in comparison to how much Mala saved her from in her first 3 years of life.  Mint, one of our staff and a special friend of mine came along to help us try to clarify some remaining confusing parts of Mali's story. 

-There are an estimated 5 million children between ages 5-14  in Thailand working, who do not go to school.
-40% of prostitutes in Thailand are children.
-Globally, 12.3 million people are trapped in forced labour.
-Mali had everything in her life set up to go that way- and yet her story of redemption gives her much to be grateful for.  She has been sought out and cared for by many people throughout her life, mainly her loving caring Christian parents and family in the USA who have raised her.  This is just chapter one- believe it or not, there's a lot more to the story. Mali, you are one loved girl with a story to share of redemption.