Dalton* worked as a night watchman at a housing complex. When he noticed early one morning that the vehicle belonging to one of the residents was missing, he knocked on the owner’s door to alert him. Because Dalton had recently needed to remind this particular resident of some of the rules of the housing complex, the man still harbored a grudge from their earlier conversation and did not take kindly to his appearance. Upon searching the complex with the owner and determining definitively that the vehicle was not there, Dalton went to the police station to report the theft. The vehicle’s owner, frustrated at the loss and still angry with Dalton, made the unsubstantiated allegation that perhaps Dalton himself had taken the vehicle. After his initial report, Dalton returned to the police station to make a second report. During this second visit to the police station, the policewoman taking his report alleged that he was lying, likely upon the suggestion of the vehicle’s owner. On these grounds, Dalton was thrown in a cell and charged with the offense of stealing the vehicle. He was told by the police that the only way for him to get out of jail was to produce the vehicle himself. On the basis of an empty accusation made in anger, Dalton was trapped in jail.

Helena* and Wilma,* Guatemalan sisters of ages eight and 11, suffered profound betrayal at the hands of their mother. She prostituted her children, selling them to multiple men to be raped and profiting from the abuse.

Emeldah is a subsistence farmer in rural Zambia. When her brother and his wife both became ill, she cared for them until the time of their deaths. After her brother’s death, Emeldah was named administrator of his estate, responsible for providing for his children. Emeldah’s brother had served faithfully in the Zambian army for 18 years – service which entitled his dependants to receive pension moneys. However, the pension had not been provided and his family desperately needed the funds.