Dignita: The Store with A Story

In the streets of the Red Light District, where hope shatters for most women who were being trafficked and forced into prostitution for a living, lies a cafe called "Dignita", a former brothel transformed into the store with a story....

100% of profits gained from the store and cafe goes towards supporting the work of Not For Sale (NFS).

And every Tuesday and Thursday night, volunteers will come and distribute food to the prostitutes working along the Red Light District.

Curious about how the organization works, I asked them a few questions...

How does this organization helps in tackling human trafficking?

They provide food and comfort in any way they can to the women working in the Red Light District. Policemen do investigate if the women there are being trafficked or are there voluntarily. And if the police finds people who are being trafficked there, we provide training for the victims to be able to sustain themselves in the future, having to leave their old life of prostitution behind the window or glass doors.

Does it matter if the women chose to be there willingly? And how would you be able to find out who is there voluntarily rather than being trafficked there? 

It doesn't matter if the women chose to be in the Red Light District willingly or not because most of them do not choose to be here. 

The store sells pretty cool items for you to buy in support of the organization and has a small seating area for a group of 3-4 to fit and watch videos on human trafficking that often occurs behind the Red Light District

They even sell quite affordable tea & coffee ! There was no reason not to support their cause especially after watching the video again and again, which really got to me....

The soup kitchen is also part of the cafe....

And they also store their supply of basic clothes, footwear and drinks for the ladies in the store...

It was literally the light at the end of a dark tunnel,

You could even come on Tuesdays, or Thursdays-Sundays at 6PM to get free information about the Red Light District. The informative talk will give an inside look into the history of the Red Light District, The Culture and Realities of the Red Light District, Legalization of Prostitution and Life Behind the Windows which will only take 30 minutes of your time

I've even attached a link of a very interesting yet viral short clip tackling the issue of human trafficking in the Red Light District down here, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uta5xdGJcqI

You can find the location on Google Map as 'Dignita Retail' but nevertheless, here's the address,

Oudezijds Achterburgwal 82A,

1012 Dr Amsterdam

Please do visit and support their cause :)

Also, please do share this post to inspire others !

The Day We Bought More Than We Can Carry

So, as you can see, mum's finally here in my uni !

And I kinda gave her a rough start, literally haha. 

Anyways, since we're gonna be here for another 2 months or so, we decided to shop as much as we can for the 2 months straight away (Just cause I have exams coming up and I didn't want her to carry the heavy stuff alone, which was really not much of a point as you can see her lifting all the weight as well..... hehehe)

She told me to bring the grocery shopping trolley to Tesco's and I kept on insisting her I could carry all the stuff.... which we all know I can't but I just didn't want to bring the granny trolley around town before going Tesco ! You know.... the one that looks like this....,

We left for town before going to Tesco and FoodInc (where you get all them halal stuff at like a runcit store), and mum decided to look her best for our first day out in town together ! Wearing her new boots and all.... not knowing that she would regret her decision at the end of the day hahaha

As you'd expect, we got lost in town ! Not surprising eyy? Its cause I barely go to town...Also trying to secretly prove to my mum that I'm a good student who doesn't go out often, which we all know are liesssss !! Its just that I barely go to town, doesn't mean I don't go out ;)

So after making her walk around for hours, we went grocery shopping ! And I told her the list of food I was craving for which she would have to cook for, so imagine how much we bought..

We got ourselves some chicken, beef & minced meat, which wasn't so heavy....

Till we went Tesco and got ourselves some milk and wait for it,

5 kilo rice !!

Don't know how we ended up filling 2 huge grocery bags !! 

The worst part was the walk up the hill to my uni from the bus station....

Mum went like "I'm too dressed up for this ! Dah la dengan boots ! Go take the grocery trolley from one of your friends and come down again!"

And I insisted my mum that we could carry them up the hill... which we did ! With a lot of stops from laughing too much at each other carrying more weight than we actually could hahaahaa

After all the good laughs, and a 15 minute walk up the hill which usually takes me only 3 minutes, we made it !

Got ourselves lying flat on my bed after with a long nap right after that to reward ourselves for our unintended workout.... not forgetting the magnum we bought at tesco's !