This Liberian woman was trafficked to Oman. A Vancouver man helped get her home [Video]

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Evelyn Zaccheus spoke in a whisper as she recorded the voice note. That’s because she was describing her slavery ordeal from inside her trafficker’s home in the Gulf country of Oman.

After she hit send, her missive landed with a ping on the phone of Ward Reddick, a Vancouver resident she knew only through the kind-hearted voice memos he sent in reply. 

Those WhatsApp exchanges with Reddick had become her lifeline.

His was one of the only voices the Liberian woman had heard for about a year, as Zaccheus had been passed between three homes in the Omani capital, Muscat. She worked roughly 20-hour days in domestic servitude, cleaning nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms every day.

Through those voice messages, Zaccheus told Reddick that her so-called employers kept her locked inside the house, where she was not allowed visitors. She eventually needed medical treatment, because her feet had become so swollen she could barely stand and the pain in …