Hardships, Personal Story

Scam Nurse Recruitment Agency

My story of being cheated by a Scam Nurse Recruitment Agency

My name is Akila (Name changed), from a very poor family living in Andhra Pradesh. I was born and brought up in a Seventh Day Adventist family where we celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. I went through a lot of trials in my life because of my religious ideas. In fact many friends used to tease me as a student in school because I never used to work on Saturdays. This made my resolve to get through life successfully. I was also a loner because I hardly had any friends who really understood me.

It was at his juncture that I heard about Mother Teresa and learnt about her kind heartedness . Her hard work and determination to work for the betterment of Leprosy patients in Kolkata impressed me. Her concern and caring that she had for her fellow human beings was compelling. Though I initially wanted to become a Doctor to serve the sick and the suffering like she used to do, I later decided that the best way in which I would be able to serve the poor and sick would be by becoming a nurse.

I decided to join a School of nursing after my schooling. After schooling, I joined the Nursing school at Narsapur in Andhra Pradesh. The nursing course was completed by me in 3 years, as a mediocre student. I did not have enough money to do my graduation in nursing, though I wanted to do a graduate course. After completing my nursing education I worked with the Leprosy Mission at its hospital in Vizianagaram and then at Salur. My work was to the best of my ability and I treated the patients with exceptional care and concern. My goal was to emulate Mother Teresa and her love for Leprosy affected. This gave me immense satisfaction.

I was leading a happy life by serving the poor people who had no other people to care for them. Many of the Leprosy patients whom I cared were destitute. This was the time when my parents told me that I should get married and think of starting my own family. Since I too was open to the idea, I was soon married to Mr.Anand (Name changed). He was a mechanic in one of the factories in Vizianagaram. We soon had a lovely boy baby. All our happiness was shattered one day when our son fainted. He was taken to the hospital and after a whirlwind few days, during which many tests were done, he was diagnosed to be suffering from a rare cardiac condition that could be treated only in highly specialized hospitals. The treatment cost was beyond our means. Both I and Anand were from very poor families.

At this point of time, my only focus was to save the life of my son. My decision was to go abroad as I knew it was easy for nurses to go to Western countries and to the Middle Eastern countries. I opted to go to Kuwait. Heard from a friend that she had applied to go abroad through one Nurse Recruitment Agency. The cost of application and processing was only a few thousand rupees. My decision was that this would be my best opportunity as I need not spend a lot of money to go abroad. I too applied to the same travel agency in Vishakapatnam. I was told to deposit Rs.20000 initially.

My initial payment was through money borrowed from money lenders at a high rate of interest. The reasoning was I would repay it once I got the ‘high paying’ job in Kuwait. After 2 months, I was called by the travel agent and told to pay about Rs.15,000 which was the fees for the visa and other processes. I borrowed more money and paid this amount. Then came the bombshell that I had to pay a further 75,000 rupees for the air ticket and also for the initial stay in Kuwait. This was a huge sum for me, but my future and my sons’ health blinded me to any possible thoughts of being duped. I borrowed this by pledging my house and paid the Nurse Recruitment Agency.

It was a month later that I got the shock of my life. I was informed by a letter from the police that the Nurse Recruitment Agency where I had applied for going to Kuwait was a scam. The people who were at the agency had swindled many hundreds of people and had closed shop. They were absconding and I had little or no chance of ever getting back the money again. My world collapsed in front of my eyes. The scam left with a huge debt to pay off, dreams of going abroad were shattered. My sons’ health was also deteriorating due to lack of proper treatment.

I was depressed and even contemplated suicide as all the troubles were overwhelming me. The faith in God and the support of a few friends was what kept me and my husband going. A few doctors who knew of my plight got together and then talked to their friends. They were able to help my son get adequate treatment that helped him get cured.

Find government registered Nurse Recruitment Agency

I am extremely happy that my son was cured. At the same time, I feel upset that when I was so much in need of money immediately. My fault was not reasoning properly and approaching a travel agent. Not even double checking if the company was registered with the government was another fault. This made me lose a lot of money and put me in a huge debt. Nurses who want to go abroad should find government registered immigration and placement companies. Payment of money should be only after proof of starting paperwork. I learnt it the hard way. Hope this sad incident in my life will help others to be more careful.

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