On the downhill slide after Christmas and into the last week of 2018, you’re probably looking forward to what’s ahead in the new year. By now you’ve set goals, made plans, and are wishing for all the good things that are waiting for you.
Maybe this is the year you’ll fall in love, get married, have a baby, retire, move, or change jobs. Each new year is 365 days full of possibilities.
Unfortunately, for girls living in the sex industry, 2019 will be the same as 2018 — a year of being chained to a life of cultural slavery. It will be 365 days of selling her body for a little money to support her family. It will be 12 months of despair and little hope of a different future.
But what if 2019 could be the year of freedom for one girl you choose to rescue?
It takes $50 to help introduce one girl to freedom … a girl like one of Bhranti’s three daughters.
Bhranti, whose name I’ve changed for her privacy, couldn’t dream for herself. For years, she watched her parents struggle to make ends meet living in the impoverished Banchara community of India.
“Living in a house like that, where there’s poverty, they don’t have any dreams,” our partner in India said. Without an education, girls in Bhranti’s community and other countries like Thailand have few options for work. They often see the sex industry as their only choice.
Among the Banchara people, there is an added level of cultural expectation that the oldest daughter of every family will become a sex worker. It’s a decades-old tradition known as nari mata — the oldest daughter sacrifices herself so her brothers can afford dowries to get married.
At the age of 21, Bhranti entered the sex industry like so many other girls in her village. Soon, she became sick … and Bhranti discovered she was HIV-positive.
Now, Bhranti is married and has three daughters of her own. She doesn’t want them to enter the sex industry like she did. Both she and her husband want them to receive an education. But they can’t afford to send their daughters to school.
And even though Bhranti doesn’t expect her daughters to become sex workers, their community still expects them to. The pressure of hundreds of years of tradition can be overwhelming on a young girl.
But you can rescue a girl like one of Bhranti’s daughters from the pressure of the sex industry. By supporting Freedom Homes in places like India and Thailand, you will give her a safe place to live and study. In these homes, girls are taught that they have the ability and inherent right to dream of a better life.
Your $50 gift will help introduce one girl to freedom and provide her with essentials like security, education, medical care, counseling, outreach, and more. It will also give her a chance to hear about Jesus Christ.
You won’t just be changing one girl’s 2019 … you’ll be transforming her entire life.
So will you take that first step of helping introduce one girl to freedom for only $50?
A mother like Bhranti shouldn’t have to watch her daughters suffer like she did. You can help break this vicious cycle of cultural slavery by providing one girl with safety, education, and the opportunity to hear the Gospel.
You’ll be giving her the chance to dream again.