“Point of Light” Lights Basma’s Life: The Victim of Debts and Organ Brokers:

In a collapsing room with a wooden ceiling, almost only taking up one person, in an old building in the Ahmed Badawi area, resides Basma Adly and her family of six. Basma sits with signs of distress on her face next to her elderly mother who’s on the room’s only bed. After a few moments of silence we speak to Basma about her journey with debts of 108k Egyptian pounds, Basma said, “The debt was 1k but the woman made me sign a fake cheque for 108k!”
Basma got stuck in a cycle of debt after her husband who worked in car saddler got in an accident during his job and they had to amputate his right hand and he couldn’t work anymore. “All I did was take 1000 pounds from a woman called Soha who lives in our neighborhood, she lends people money with a fine, and she made me sign a lot of cheques but I didn’t have any other option”, said Basma. Two months ago Basma who could not afford her daily expenses struggling to fight poverty on her own and obliged from Soha to pay her back 50k Egyptian pounds. Basma of course found herself in a very dire situation and decided to opt for more loans instead of the threat of imprisonment and she was able to pay the amount. Shortly after the woman demanded more money using a different cheque. “I was crushed and I saw a newspaper ad asking for people willing to sell their kidneys, I called the number and went the following day.” Basma went back to that day, shaking with tears, in early 2012 when she had to sell her kidney for 20,000 pounds to help pay off some of her debt. It’s her worst memory, exactly a year later her husband Mohamed also sold his kidney for 20,000 pounds, “we almost lost him during the operation because he was very weak, and they took from him his only healthy kidney.” Basma felt like she was on the road to death, she says how this was her only way out since she was sleeping on the streets to avoid the cops, she does not stop crying once when telling us more instances of struggle throughout her tough journey, like the woman who brought her into this mess kidnapping one of her kids to threaten her and pressure her into paying, she even went as far as threatening the boy with a loose dog to terrorize him.

Unfortunately Basma’s story does not end here, in 2014 she was imprisoned for a year and a half because of the never ending cycle of debts, and after she got out she had to leave her home with her entire family to keep running from the cops, with no option but the streets left for them. One day amongst the unfortunate circumstances Basma went through, she received a phone call from her neighbors telling her that the cops arrested the woman who’s been threatening her for years, and they know she sold her kidney and want her to come back to the neighborhood. Basma did go back and General Ayman Loay reassured her that he will solve her problem. Finally we saw Basma smile after hours of telling her story for the first time, she was supported by the General and the neighboring police station. Basma and her family went back to her mom’s room which lacks basic resources, Basma went on to many jobs including a housekeeper, in which she later on became the breadwinner supporting her family and her sick mother. With the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic she became unemployed again and returned to her fear of debts.
After a lot of trials Basma discovered the Children of Female Prisoners association and immediately the field research department reached out to investigate her case, additionally, Nawal Mostafa, writer and founder of CFPA, insisted on meeting her in person more than once to get to know her and understand her case and needs. Then CFPA started with providing financial and nutritional support and a moth later after discussions with Basma agreed on starting a project to sell and clean vegetables which matched Basma’s previous experience. The association helped Basma devise a plan starting from where the location will be to market research. During a week of field work, Basma became “free” as she says and had a stable income she said, “I used to only take my kids to the final exams they couldn’t go to school because I wouldn’t have a pound in my pockets, now I have my own project, this feels like a dream!”