Another delicate situation is the cases of girls prostituted in the centers for minors in the refugee camp. These girls are from 14 - 17 and as they can come and go from the children's home, they are picked up near the gates, taken to be sexually exploited, and then returned to the home. There are police investigations on these cases and we have been able to intervene in three cases, interviewing the girls and taking them to our homes.

One of them was Munira. She was very shy, didn’t speak much of the native language, and always looked down. She traveled by boat, train, and metro to get to our home. She was terrified of the metro and didn’t want to use the elevator or moving escalator, it was the first time she had seen these.

She had just turned 18 years old.

She was beaten badly by her father, who sold her to a family that had her as a slave in their home. She never went to school or out in the street. She had to work all day and received no pay. She was treated like a dog and heard insults all day long. After this, she also suffered sexual abuse.

For us, these stories are horrific but for the children and women who suffer, it’s their “normality.”

Munira had never received love and didn’t realize that what was happening was a crime.

After being found and put into a children’s home at the refugee camp, she was sent to us. Today she is the life and fun of the home. Laughing out loud and going to language classes - life for her begins here at 18 years old.