Our efforts to remove women and girls who have been forced into prostitution begin with providing long-term shelter in a safe place in which trust and healing can develop. This often includes:
- Negotiating the terms of release of enslaved women and girls.
- Accepting trafficking victims who have been rescued during police raids and taking them to one of our Homes of Hope.
- Intervening to get sex workers' children out of the brothels during their
mothers' work hours and into safe and nurturing Project Rescue Night-care Centers.
During the first year of our efforts, Project Rescue utilized our financial resources
to dismiss many young girls' "debts" to brothel owners, so that her freedom could
be obtained. As we began to better understand the sexual slavery trade and comprehend
the horrors in the trafficking system, however, we realized that this strategy
only put money back into the hands of organized crime; money that was then used
to enslave other young girls.
Today, Project Rescue takes a different approach. We've established strong relationships with local police, city government officials, and even brothel owners who have come to trust our organization. Project Rescue workers are now recognized and trusted in the cities' red-light districts and have become known for showing genuine kindness and demonstrating Christ's example of love in tangible ways.
The second stage in our process, Restore, is designed to address the physical,
emotional, mental, and educational needs of (our) rescued women and girls. Restoring
a victim of forced prostitution from a world of darkness to a world of hope requires
a profound sense of trust and safety. As Project Rescue workers gradually gain
the trust of mothers enslaved in the brothels, the mothers in turn, gain the courage
to request help for their daughters and frequently later for themselves.
Thus, mothers and daughters can begin the journey toward physical, spiritual and emotional wholeness. Project Rescue provides many supportive services, including:
- General medical care
- Counseling for the trauma of abuse and exploitation
- Basic literacy training
- The study of spiritual development
- Vocational training leading to financial independence
- Hospice care for women dying of AIDS
Our Restore process is also taking place through Night-care centers. We have opened
childcare centers in buildings adjacent to several red-light districts. These
"night-care centers" give sex workers a safe place to leave their small children
during the hours they are working in the brothels. This intervention gets vulnerable
children out of harm's way, as they no longer have to remain in their mother's
room while she is servicing customers. Like a traditional daycare center, the
Project Rescue night-care centers offer nourishing food, help children with their
studies, and provide a caring environment where children can sleep. The children
also hear stories about God's love for them and his power to change their lives.
The final phase of our process, the Prevent phase, focuses on strengthening a community's lack of tolerance for sex trafficking and forced prostitution. As the ministry of Project Rescue has become known and respected in North India and other ministry site cities, it is not uncommon for our outreach team to be confidentially notified by concerned villagers that a village family is in the process of negotiating the sale of a daughter to traffickers. In response to this, several initiatives have been developed:
Providing safe houses: Project Rescue's donor-funded Homes of Hope have been created
with the goal of saving sex workers' young daughters from a life of forced prostitution.
Getting the word out into the red-light district communities that daughters of
brothel workers can be placed in a Home of Hope with the mother's permission,
ensures a new life of opportunity for young girls destined to be the next generation
of sexually exploited victims. Ongoing contact between the mother and child is
facilitated for the benefit of both.
Conducting AIDS and sex trafficking awareness projects - Project Rescue in partnership
with the Napali Community of Faith conducts community awareness projects to educate
and warn families in high-risk geographical areas of the tragedies of girl-trafficking
and AIDS. Several Communities of Hope have been established in Western Nepal,
to:
- Bring adult awareness to the subject of forced prostitution
- Provide basic literacy training for girl children
- Provide medical services via our clinics
- Offer spiritual outreach to the local community.
Unfortunately, travel has been severely curtailed in these areas due to increased Maoist activity and political instability. Project Rescue prevention projects have had to be temporarily curtailed until conditions improve.
Intervening and preventing the selling of young girls - Through careful negotiations, Project Rescue workers have been able to intervene and prevent the sale of numerous young girls into sexual slavery. By offering financial help to the impoverished parents and arranging to place their daughter in a Christian home, orphanage, or a local Home of Hope until more permanent arrangements can be made we have been able to redirect the course of many young girls' lives.
