Fainess Lipenga and Marga Fripp
Recorded
May 13, 2021
39:41 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
ddv000764
Description
Marga Fripp (47) interviews her friend Fainess Lipenga (42) about her experience being trafficked, what it was like returning to Malawi after ten years, are her work in the anti-trafficking field.Subject Log / Time Code
Fainess (F) shares what it was like growing up in Malawi. She says it was a very tough upbringing. She says she witnessed domestic violence from her father who suffered from alcoholism. F says she was very shy and quiet growing up, with low self-esteem. F discloses that she was raped and before her 18th birthday she’d had one miscarriage and two children. F says her husband was abusive and she was a survivor of domestic violence herself. F says she feels like she needs to help her niece because her niece is experiencing similar issues.
F retells the story of the labour trafficking she experienced when she came to the United States, invited by a woman who promised to pay her $908 dollars a month and give her an education. F explains the woman broke all of her promises and held F captive for three years under inhumane conditions. F says she felt like a slave.
F and Marga (M) talk about the first time they met.
F talks about what it was like going home for the first time in ten years.
F talks about her work as an activist in the anti-trafficking movement. F says she is proud of having received the national crime victims rights award. F says she is also proud that in 2019 she learned that there was no labor trafficking statute in Maryland and she testified and helped to put the statute in place.
M shares that F is one of the first people to win in court against their trafficker. She says F the case and was awarded 1.4 million dollars but has not received any money because her trafficker left the country.
F talks about what she would do if she ever received her money: fix her teeth which were ruined because of the conditions she had to live under when being trafficked. M says she would also donate money to homeless shelters and to organizations providing direct service. M would also fund her education.
F talks about people who have been very kind and impacted her life.
M talks about her and F’s relationship. She says she saw in F someone extraordinary who wanted to change everything not only in her life but to uplift others. M says her mother was also a survivor of domestic violence and although she could not save her mother, she always wanted to help and serve one woman.
Participants
- Fainess Lipenga
- Marga Fripp