The Tronie Foundation

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Since we’ve already had one depressing story about child slave labor in India today I thought, why not end the day with an…errrrrr, uplifting story about child slave labor? Thank goodness for the Seattle Times for reporting on this gem to take some of the earlier slime off:

As a 7-year-old girl in southern India in 1978, she was taken from her parents and sold into slavery.

At the same time, a 9-year-old boy in Southeast Asia was surviving alone in a cave, after the fishing boat on which he was fleeing Vietnam became shipwrecked.

Rani and Trong Hong would eventually be rescued from their separate childhood nightmares and brought to safety in Washington state. They would meet as adults on a blind date, fall in love and marry…

Now, motivated by the pain of their early years to help others, they are renovating a home exclusively for victims of human trafficking — people recruited, transported and harbored for sexual exploitation or slave labor. [Link]

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p>Talk about a power couple! Click on their names in the passage above to read about their unfortunate childhoods. The non-profit they’ve established, partly on the profits from their lucrative home-building business in Olympia Washington, is called The Tronie Foundation (and it could use your donations):

Rani works with victims who have been abused by all forms of Human Trafficking. Whether the victim was part of a mail-order bride schemes, sold into servitude, sexual slavery or victimized as part of an international adoption ring, Rani because of her own personal experience has a heart for these women and children. She shares openly her own personal story, in hopes that they too can be restored and live a productive life, free from the pain of their past.

“No woman and child should be so severely abused that they end up looking like they are mentally and physically ill. As a survivor of human trafficking, I personally have chosen to speak publicly to give hope and encourage those of you that may be afraid to come forward. [Link]

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Recently the Hong’s were also on Oprah where Rani mentioned this very interesting fact:

Rani says she didn’t learn about her husband’s past until after they were married. “He was so traumatized and … he hadn’t found somebody throughout life to talk to,” she says. “So once we got married, he felt comfortable and open…” [Link]

It just goes to show how sometimes people are drawn to each other when they share a common bond, even if unaware of the exact nature of that bond. In any case, here is a drop of good vs. that other bad.

14 thoughts on “The Tronie Foundation”

  2. Today, Rani and Trong are living the life they once thought was impossible. They have four children and a successful business building luxury homes in Olympia, Washington. They are using the profits from their business to help others.

    I thought the above was a nice detail from the Oprah link. Unspeakably sad childhoods, yet their later story is so beautiful, poignant, and hopeful. Still, the human potential that gets wasted every generation worldwide by war, poverty, cruelty….kudos to these two for doing what they do.

  3. In 1999 Rani visited India for the first time in twenty-one years. She investigated her past and was able to discover what had happened to her that brought her out of a loving family into the life of being a commodity. She was told that her mother had died. Miraculously, out of billions of people in India, Rani found her birth mother in a tourist hotel. Rani discovered that her mother had searched for her for years, but had been told, as Rani had, that she was dead.

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    Touching story, even without the hyperbole.

  4. What an uplifting story!- thank you, thank you for covering this – I have to forward this to my friends!

  6. Only in America! This is what this country is about. Lovely, lovely story and lovely, lovely couple.

  7. What an uplifting story. Thanks, Abhi. The stories of both Rani and Trong are nothing short of inspiring.

  8. Wow, amazing stories!

    I was trying to find out what they do before making donations, but that’s hard to find on the website. The ‘projects’ tab leads to some conferences that Rani attended. The only thing I could find is a proposed shelter in Washington (under the ‘shelters’ tab), which hasn’t been started yet. Am I misreading?

    They don’t have a presence on Charity Navigator either.

  14. 6,13

    Only in America! This is what this country is about

    America does a lot of philanthrophic activties. But to keep our feet our on the ground.. the following is also another face of America from this news article – Herberet : The hidden slave trade:

    “Leaf through the Yellow Pages in some American cities and you’ll find pages upon pages of ads: “Korean Girl, 18 -Affordable.” “Korean and Japanese Dolls – Full Service.” “Barely Legal China Doll – Pretty and Petite.” The Internet and magazines have staggering numbers of similar ads. Thousands upon thousands of women have been brought here from Asia and elsewhere and funneled into the sex trade, joining those who are already here and in the business but unable to keep up with the ferocious demand”