Not for sale: A real-life story of slavery and abuse, by World Vision

"I realised I'd been sold. For the next three years, I would be enslaved." This is Hnin's story. Photo / World Vision

Warning: This story contains explicit content and is recommended for adults only.

In Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale, the author describes a dystopian future where girls are subjugated and their bodies used to produce children for their 'owners'.

Made into an award-winning TV series right around the time of the global #metoo-movement, the story has landed at the centre of the debate on gender equality. It's a worst-case scenario. Horrifying fiction.

Except it's already real. And it's happening to children.

Hundreds of thousands of them.

World Vision New Zealand's Multimedia Producer Per Liljas travelled to Myanmar to hear the stories of trafficking survivors.

One girl, Hnin, refused to answer questions. She wanted to tell her tale – which is as riveting and horrific as any fiction – from beginning to end.

• Read the full story here

"I realised I'd been sold. For the next three years, I would be enslaved." This is Hnin's story. Photo / 123RF