SHERMAN, TX - An internship in Pakistan was all it took for one student to decide she was going to try to make a difference. She says it all started when she witnessed a shocking transaction - a child being sold.
Sameen Wajid says it's a conversation she can't ever forget.
"My mind was absolutely blown, I was like she's a girl who's 12, she should be either in school or playing outside with her friends."
During her summer internship at an orphanage in Pakistan, she witnessed the sale of a child.
"When I was there I saw a 12 year old girl being sold into servitude and the woman who bought her, bought her for the whole year for only 20 dollars." Sameen said.
As Sameen listened in horror, the woman buying the little girl, negotiated the price down from $25 to $20 for a year of service.
"Everybody feels for them, but it's different to actually become involved and actually do something."
"There's nothing wrong with being a maid, there's nothing wrong with getting married at 16, 17 or 18, as long as it's a choice and you're not doing it because you have to." said Sameen's sister, Zareen.
But these girls don't have a choice.
Many families live in poverty, so most young girls stop going to school around the 5th grade to become servants for wealthier households.
"What really happens is that the daughters will grow up, they will have their own kids and their kids will do the exact same thing. The cycle just repeats? Exactly it's like a vicious cycle." Zareen said.
It's a cycle Sameen and her sister want to break, so she started her own conversation with the kids she was teaching English to.
"And I'd ask them about their personal experiences, and it seems like they wanted to do so much but they were like in the end we're not really going to do anything, we'll end up as maids or something and I was like why do you say that, you're children the sky's the limit, you can do anything."
And so they launched a web site to sell goods that many women in Pakistan make, in order to give them a different choice.
To check out items being sold, and learn more about how to get involved, visit http://www.jashnadesign.com/.
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