Silver Linings: Corona virus Closes the Brothel
Corona Virus causes customers to stay away from the brothels. For a short time at least, girls are not raped every night.
Mala Malstead
- Feb 12, 2019
- 3 min
New Year - Bend
When the storm comes Will you reject the rain If it falls not soft If it falls not tame When the wind blows And calls your name Will you...
Mala Malstead
- Feb 12, 2019
- 3 min
Africa and Appalachia
Displacement is real. The state of the uprooted is a true predicament. It’s the scream in the night, “I’m here but I’m not home.”
Mala Malstead
- May 4, 2017
- 3 min
Batten Down The Hatches
I’ve been using every spare moment granted to me here in India to “batten down the hatches” and to prepare for an unknown future.
Mala Malstead
- Mar 14, 2017
- 3 min
Waiting
I am on a tightrope, holding in one hand my desire to win this case, and in the other, the knowledge that this may be our time to leave.
Mala Malstead
- Mar 11, 2017
- 3 min
Many Roads
Today, if I am not given a stay order in the Madras High court, I will be deported.
Mala Malstead
- Feb 27, 2017
- 3 min
Living In Suspension
The truth about living in suspension is that there is no new life I am adjusting to, no old life that I can guarantee.
Mala Malstead
- Feb 23, 2017
- 2 min
Sheltered in Shadow
Days dragged by, I stayed with kind friends and kept out of sight, warned by my lawyer and others to stay hidden.
Mala Malstead
- Feb 22, 2017
- 3 min
Cotton Candy Palace
The palace felt like a pause between my past and future, a memory of a forgotten time pressed against the windowpane of a modern landscape.
Mala Malstead
- Feb 17, 2017
- 2 min
Leave India?
The outcome of this fight will have far reaching implications in our own lives as well as the lives of other foreigners in India.
Mala Malstead
- Jan 9, 2017
- 3 min
Behind The Mission: Little Earth, Less Water
Years ago we laid rough granite blocks (not exactly pavers) as steps, walls, pathways and patio. We filled the cracks with concrete and...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 9, 2016
- 3 min
Behind The Mission: A Home Called Stumpfields
At six-thirty yesterday morning, I awoke to the sound of my Labrador Waza barking furiously just outside my window. Through the muddle...
Mala Malstead
- May 17, 2016
- 4 min
Changing Stride
Celebrating ten years of Freedom Firm’s Growth “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting...
Mala Malstead
- Feb 14, 2016
- 3 min
Clay Chai Cups
Remember that you molded me like clay. Job 10:9 Recently a group of designers from Texas and some Ruhamah Designs staff and I met up for...
Mala Malstead
- Feb 10, 2016
- 3 min
Living out a Calling
My passion to see young girls rescued from sex-trafficking began before I ever met a girl who fit that description. It began when I was...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 23, 2015
- 3 min
Beauty In The Gift.
“Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed whether this or that, or...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 19, 2015
- 4 min
Allahabad Meetings and Mice
“But it seems to me that to put one's self in the second place is the whole significance of our life.” (On the Eve, Ivan Sergeevich...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 13, 2015
- 3 min
Kids Leaving Home
“I am in all the places in which I've left my heart." Marina Sofia We've had the luxury of keeping our four children in close proximity...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 5, 2015
- 3 min
Following Rani: Part 3
I remember many years ago, in 2006 when Rani was one of the first girls in our Aftercare home. Already her CD4 count was low enough for...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 5, 2015
- 2 min
Following Rani: Part 2
I am touched at her faith in us, that we will do the right thing and care for her children when she is gone. Am I personally ready to...
Mala Malstead
- Nov 2, 2015
- 4 min
Walking With Our Women: Sangeetha
“How awfully fine he looked! A regular landlord with clean linen and swell shoes! They were no common stuff! His wife, at all events,...
Mala Malstead
- Sep 28, 2015
- 3 min
The Kings of Justice
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." Gandhi Gandhi was...
Mala Malstead
- Aug 6, 2015
- 3 min
Looking Back: Who am I helping really?
“Although an act of help done timely, might be small in nature, it is truly larger than the world itself.” ― Thiruvalluvar, Thirukkural...
Mala Malstead
- Jul 10, 2015
- 3 min
Looking Back, The Rag Pickers
"Thunderously, unarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper throwers,...
Mala Malstead
- Jun 25, 2015
- 4 min
Looking Back: Arriving in Mumbai
In my next series of blogs titled “Looking Back,” I'll be tracing our beginnings in the city of Mumbai during our time with IJM. I want...
Mala Malstead
- May 13, 2015
- 7 min
Men of honour, men of power
When men of honour persist, and men of power choose to act, the practice of putting girls into prostitution will change.
Mala Malstead
- Apr 20, 2015
- 4 min
The Fatherless
“Often, I still curse my mother. Because of that woman, my life has been wrecked.” 'But how could you do that (dedicate your daughters)...
Mala Malstead
- Apr 15, 2015
- 4 min
Emerging from Disillusionment
“As I hear your story, your voice sounds a little jaded, but I also hear you have hope. Most people doing this work are disillusioned...
Mala Malstead
- Mar 23, 2015
- 4 min
January Journeys: Breathing Dead Hippo
The workshop is bursting with creativity and purpose. We try embroidering tiny flowers onto silk framed in a hand-hammered earring hoop.
Mala Malstead
- Mar 13, 2015
- 4 min
January Journeys : They Dream of Acquittals
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream" Amos 5:24 I love the Bible for many things, not least...
Mala Malstead
- Mar 9, 2015
- 3 min
January Journeys : We Dream of Justice
“I never met with a slave who could tell me how old he was.” (My Bondage and My Freedom, Fredrick Douglas) It's 10:20 pm and Greg,...
Mala Malstead
- Feb 26, 2015
- 3 min
January Journeys : The Rescue
For though, seduced and led astray, Thoust travell'd far and wander'd long, Thy God hath seen thee all the way, And all the turns that...
Mala Malstead
- Feb 13, 2015
- 2 min
Tragedies, trials and victories!
Update from Greg - Freedom Firm Communications At the beginning of every year in Freedom Firm, we establish our goals for the year to...
Mala Malstead
- Feb 6, 2015
- 4 min
January Journeys: Chaos in the Workshop
January Journeys: Chaos in the Workshop
Mala Malstead
- Jan 27, 2015
- 5 min
A January Journey : Brave or Safe?
“If you're wrestling with some sort of decision, reflect for a moment and ask yourself, am I being brave, or am I being safe? In the end,...
Mala Malstead
- Jan 19, 2015
- 4 min
Following Rani: Part 4
“I learned the hard lesson that all sense of control was an illusion, and that though my dreams for the freedom of girls were good, there...
Mala Malstead
- Dec 1, 2014
- 4 min
Following Rani: Part 1
Have you ever wanted to know what happens to girls after they are rescued? What do their lives look like a year after rescue, two years,...
gmalstead
- Nov 21, 2014
- 4 min
The seeds of Freedom Firm: Greg's Story
The Genesis of Freedom Firm
Mala Malstead
- Jan 27, 2014
- 3 min
A Vision Called Avalanche
Greg and I had just moved to Ooty after 5 years of what I call my “wilderness” years, in the heart of the teeming metropolis of Mumbai....
Mala Malstead
- May 14, 2008
- 3 min
Diana Bar: Beneath the Surface
We like to think of forced child prostitution in uglier terms; beatings, cowering girls. But at Diana, there's a gloss over the whole thing.