How are the slaves treated?
Horrendously, almost always. They are worked hard and denied food and/or whipped if they do not meet their scheduled quota of work. Usually this involves hoeing the priest’s fields all day with a short-handled hand hoe. The girls are made to understand that they will be cursed and die if they ever eat a single bite of grain from the fields. At night some of them stand over the priest, fanning him to keep away flies. At bedtime or whenever he desires, they are summoned for sexual services. If they refuse or if they displease him or sometimes for no discernible reason at all, they are starved, whipped, or made to kneel for hours on shards of broken glass. They are never shown any affection, even when the priest is having sex with them. Many of the girls have confided to us that they felt absolutely worthless while in the trokosi system. However, it must be admitted that practices vary from shrine to shrine. How does Every Child Ministries get the slaves freed? Basically we try to negotia
