About Me
Inspirational Speaker
Beatrice Ferando
Author/Activist/Speaker
I am a native of Sri Lanka, a victim of human trafficking and modern-day slavery. I moved to the United States to escape the stigma of slavery and in search of Freedom. I published In Contempt of Fate, a memoir of my life in Sri Lanka and my experience as a slave in Lebanon, which became my entrée into a life of activism in the field of human rights. I have worked with the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group and founded the Nivasa Foundation, which I served as president, spearheading its flagship campaign to provide aid to the families of victims of human trafficking in Sri Lanka.
I address audiences across the United States about my experience as a slave and my activities as a human rights activist. I have spoken at Harvard University, MIT, University of Miami, Ohio, University of Illinois, Drew University, Quinnipiac University, Unitarian church, Baptist church, and in 2005 testified before Congress in support of the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. I have been interviewed by the Boston Globe, Vision Magazine, Bold Faces, Magic 106, and appeared on Night Beat Cable Television. My story has also been published in the book Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery, Palgrave Macmillan 2006. Speaking on behalf of the millions suffering in the grip of modern-day slavery, I inspire my audience to be concerned about the issue and to become activists in the fight for humanity and freedom.
Beatrice's visit and talk at Brown University was marvelous -- simply marvelous. Before the evening talk, she met with some students, and then a group of us went to dinner and the conversation flowed easily and was lively and interesting. As a speaker, she was astonishing -- eloquent, quietly passionate, and deeply moving. The audience gave her a standing ovation. She spoke with such power and so articulately, not only telling her story but illuminating the whole issue of slavery. She gave a human face and a human voice to what many people today probably consider an abstract issue, a piece of old history. I am sure that she opened many eyes. She is warm, charming, and lively, and has tremendous grace. It was a great event.
-Coordinator, Providence chapter
IN CONTEMPT OF FATE
This novel is a heart wrenching memoir of a brave Sri Lankan woman’s fight for freedom and justice against incredible odds. Beatrice Fernando’s story is one of physical and emotional anguish; a story of compassion and passion. It is a story of modern day slavery, a brutal reality most of us can’t even imagine.
The youngest of 13 children Beatrice grew up in extreme poverty. She marries young but is soon abandoned by her husband and left to fend for herself and her 2 year old son. Forced to live with her parents until she can stand on her own, she answers an ad for a housemaid in Lebanon. Despite the horror stories she’s heard about slave labor, rape, and even murder, she feels as though she has no choice but to leave her child behind with her parents in order to forge a better life.
Follow Beatrice’s amazing journey from Sri Lanka to Lebanon, and finally to the states as she struggles through the heartache of leaving her son and family only to be held captive in Lebanon by an evil employer who not only imprisons her, but routinely beats and starves her while expecting Beatrice to work around the clock. After months of brutal captivity and no contact with the outside world, Beatrice is mentally and physically exhausted. Not knowing if she will survive one thought keeps her going – her son. Finally, in a desperate move to escape, Beatrice makes a pact with God and leaps from a fourth floor balcony. Amazingly she survives, but is paralyzed from the waist down. Once again she is set against the odds, and again she finds the courage and strength to go on and make it back to her son. But what awaits her upon her return home may very well be her toughest battle yet.