unr3ality

thequietworld:

pikitis | jhameia | sparksummit:

Vang Thi Mai is the founder of an all-women textiles cooperative in Vietnam that provides victims of human trafficking with food, shelter, employment, and emotional support. 

“When I began working with the victims, the town ostracized and criticized me for being associated with the women,” Mrs. Mai, 49, recounted in an interview. “They said the women were unpure and I should not befriend such unpure women. I told them what happened was not their fault, as they were the victims of others’ wrongdoings.”

Mrs. Mai, who had worked as a nurse and had been president of the district’s Women’s Association, told the women who had returned to ignore the village’s scorn. “I said to them that when they would be able to earn money, to live on their own and to care for others with their earned money, the town would have to change their thinking,” she said.

Mrs. Vang Thi Mai is a fucking hero. Her work is revolutionary through the healing it has brought to her community, building relationships that under patriarchal norms would have remained destroyed. It’s long-term, slowly-transformational work. The whole article is worth clicking through. 

(via coffeelaced)