Love your neighbor: the girl enslaved

Every little girl dreams about what she’ll be when she grows up.

A teacher. A veterinarian. Maybe even a princess in a glittering castle.

But Nadia’s future was planned since birth. She was destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a sex worker — at the age of 14.

But Nadia doesn’t want that. Despite her community’s traditions, she doesn’t want to abuse her body night after night and earn money through the sex industry.

Nadia wants to become a doctor. That’s her dream.

And a Freedom Home in India is helping her achieve it. We’ve changed Nadia’s name to protect her privacy and help her make that fresh start.

Nadia’s mother always believed her daughters would follow her into the sex industry. After all, it’s a tradition passed down through the generations in India’s Banchara community. The oldest daughter in each family is forced to sell her body in order to help pay for her brothers’ marriage dowries.

Thankfully, a World Help partner convinced Nadia’s mom to let Nadia and her sister attend the Freedom Home. Nadia’s mother didn’t want them to experience the same pain she has endured, so she said yes.

“We watched our mother’s life, and we thought we would end up doing the same thing,” Nadia said. “We have seen the situations and the circumstances and the troubles that our mother has lived. But our mother didn’t want us to live a life like her. She wants us to have a better future. I want to thank the Lord for changing my mother’s heart.”

Instead of listening for approaching customers, Nadia now hears laughter. Friendly chatter. Footsteps skipping down the hallways.

These are the cheerful sounds that echo throughout the Freedom Home. It’s become a safe haven for Nadia. Here, she is able to receive an education, nutritious food, medical care, and experience the love of God.

Unfortunately, though, other little girls are still trapped.

Nadia’s village in the Banchara community is filled with girls whose families expect them to become sex workers — some as young as 12 years old. Most of them don’t know love, and their lives are already overwhelmed by poverty and despair.

Nadia wants nothing more than for those girls to receive the same opportunity she was given for a brighter future. “This is my desire and prayer that the other girls in our community would also [have] their lives changed,” she said.

Today, you can provide just that. With a gift of $50, you will introduce one girl to freedom by helping provide essentials like medical care, nutritious food, counseling, education, and a safe place to live.

You can help her chase a new future.

She is young and full of potential — like the girls in your own neighborhood — but her dreams are often crushed. All she has to look forward to is a life of sexually transmitted diseases and early pregnancies.

Will you help her dream again?

Right now, you can be a good neighbor … and extend a helping hand across the globe. You can show another girl like Nadia that you love her. By giving, you can put her on the path to a healthy, successful future.

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