24-year-old lily samad had lost all hope. working up to 22 hours a day for a demanding diplomat and his family, lily says her employers even made her work when she had debilitating fevers. penniless because the family refused to pay her, she lived a life of desperate isolation and growing depression. she is, you know, my everything. back in indonesia, lily s husband, andy, had heard nothing for three long years. he feared that she was dead. who can i call somebody here? i don t know. because she don t have phone number, didn t give me a number. it s really hard. no communication with her. finally in 2006, lily reached a breaking point. the diplomat s wife, who insisted lily wash the car, even in the rain accused the obedient lily of shirking her duties. i just cleaned the car from
days a week. no holidays, no days off. no ability to go anywhere, visit her parents, nothing. and then after a while, she told me she was never paid. and i thought what a strange thing. for many, it s hard to understand why lily didn t just run away. but cindy liou says it s important to see the situation from lily s perspective. in the beginning, it doesn t regions it ter that it s necessarily really fishy. they just think, oh, this is normal. this is what s expected. in fact, lily had a good experience working as an international nanny. at 15, she left indonesia to live and work for a diplomat in saudi arabia. the family treated her well, paying for her vacation time, taking her with her to europe and teaching her arabic and french. so when she received an offer to work for another diplomat, she leaped at the chance. i m so happy i heard diplomat
ability to go anywhere, visit her parents, nothing. and then after a while, she told me she was never paid. and i thought what a strange thing. for many, it s hard to understand why lily didn t just understand. but cindy liou says it s important to see the situation from lily s perspective. in the beginning, it doesn t register it s necessarily really fishy. they think oh, this is normal, this is what s expected. in fact, she had a good experience working as an international nanny. at 15, she worked for a diplomat in saudi arabia. the family treated her well, paying for her vacation time, taking her with her to europe and teaching her arabic and french. so when she received an offer to work for another diplomat, she leaped at the chance. i m so happy because i heard they re really nice people. but this family could not have been more different.
a demanding diplomat and his family, lily says her employers even made her work when she had debilitating fevers. penniless because the family refused to pay her, she lived a life of desperate isolation and growing depression. she is my everything. back in indonesia, lily s husband heard nothing from his wife for three long years. he feared that she was dead. who can i call somebody here? i don t know. because she don t have phone number, didn t give me a number. it s really hard. no communication with her. finally in 2006, lily reached a breaking point. the diplomat s wife who insisted lily wash the car, even in the rain accused the obedient lily of shirking her duties. i cleaned the car inside and outside. she said to me, why don t you
there and she would see me standing there getting my mail. she would fly over and start talking to me. and she had this beaming expression on her face as if she was so happy to be talking to another human being. even though lily didn t initially convey any distress, heidi slowly began to have concerns about the welfare of the harried young woman. it was always clear to me she did not have much time to chat. she would say i have to go now, i must go, almost like she was afraid someone would see her. meanwhile, lily began to confide in heidi, one brief conversation at a time. heidi gradually peaced together the ugly and unrelenting reality of lily s daily life. she had to work from morning till night, midnight till 1:00 in the morning, 2:00 in the morning, 18 hours of work, seven days a week. no holiday, no days off, no