Akosiwa, 12  Dogbo, Benin
Phil Borges

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When Akosiwa was 3, her father sold her to a distant cousin who promised to give her an education, clothes and shoes.  Instead, she worked in servitude 12 hours a day and went to bed hungry every night.  Eight years later, she returned to her family and enrolled in a program to educate girls who have been trafficked.  She is the only 12-year-old in a classroom full of children half her age.  “I love all my subjects,” she says.  “I get the highest marks in the class because I study the hardest.