"Around the world, their eyes cry out for help. They are captives in a 21st century slave trade that rivals in magnitude the African slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries. They are the women and girls, some as young as 10, who labor in the brothels of India, Thailand, Cambodia and a host of other countries around the world. Whether they are kidnapped, tricked or coerced into prostitution, the result is the same: pain, anguish, and hopelessness."
So says "R.," who founded and directs a ministry for women who wish to escape prostitution in India. For fear of retribution from pimps and organized crime lords, information that could in any way identify the ministry or missionary cannot be used.
The numbers are staggering, according to Christian Aid Mission. While exact figures are unavailable, government officials from around the world agree that millions of females are forced into sex slavery each year, with children alone accounting for 2 million -- larger than the populations of New Hampshire and Vermont combined. Many become prostitutes in their own countries, while others are smuggled into foreign lands to spend much, if not all, of their lives in a virtual prison.
According to the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking in Washington, D.C., almost 200,000 Nepali girls, many under the age of 14, are sexual slaves in India. They estimate that 10,000 children between 6-14 are enslaved in brothels in Sri Lanka and that 20,000 women and girls from Burma have been forced into prostitution in Thailand.
This is just a sampling of statistics and doesn't even reflect the numbers of women and children being traded for sex in Europe or the United States.
Why does this outrageous practice occur? Simply put: money. Asian women are sold to North American brothels for $16,000 each, say officials at the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking.
Most of these women and children are kidnapped, often being drugged first, then sold. Others are tricked by promises of good-paying jobs in distant cities or countries, only to find themselves trapped in the clutches of the crime bosses who run the brothels, according to Christian Aid Mission.
Still others are coerced by family members - mothers, fathers, even husbands - to engage in sex-for-hire in order to help support a poverty-stricken family.
The Light of Hope
But, even in the dark despair of prostitution, a flicker of hope is burning. God has touched the hearts of people like R., who considers her ministry to the brothels to be God's call. "In 1980, I had an encounter with Jesus that changed my whole life," she told Religion Today while in the United States. "On my death bed, He appeared to me and said He has a task for me and has called me for a purpose and a plan in my nation."
Not long afterward, the Lord showed R. what that plan was via Matthew 21:31 -- "... you shall see the harlots enter heaven before you." Her vision and ministry started then. She opened her home to three women, rescued from the Bombay brothels, who were referred to her for help and rehabilitation.
"When we prayed, their eyes were opened and these women were delivered," says R. "Even today, they are my contact people in the brothels. And they are like missionaries there; they are children of God. They have followed me and became my fellow proclaimers of the gospel."
She adds, "Jesus is the friend of sinners and the only hope for the women we work with. I am convinced that if our Lord Jesus visited here today, he would be doing exactly this kind of work. Jesus reached out to women trapped in sin and He transforms their lives today just as he did in the days of the New Testament."
R. has experienced pain and difficulty in following God's call: "This area is not reached by the churches and I have risked alienation to reach out to them for my Kingdom. I have been attacked and stigmatized, but the Lord said, 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'"
She adds, "It was very hurtful and humiliating. I became the dirt of this earth. They called me a prostitute; they said my family ran a brothel."
Up until seven years ago, R. housed the ministry in her home -- then started a separate house for the women. It is like a halfway home for them, she says. They provide food, shelter, job training and counseling.
"We also have a program for the commercial sex workers, as the government calls the prostitutes. We call them every 15 days to meet for prayer and fellowship, and we have praise and worship. Every time the place changes because the pimps would follow and attack.
"We also have counseling," R. continues, "and they come out with their problems, why they are into this, why they are stuck. This is for the prostitutes who are able to come out of the brothels. They pour out their feelings -- they cry."
The women have told R.: 'You are the only person who touches and who speaks to us, who accepts us as a person. No other government programs do this. That is why we come to you, because you pray for us. You are concerned about our health and our life after death. We come here because we get peace.'"
So they keep coming and going, "until one day they are saved and they become rehabilitated," says R.
Saving the Children
Once the women decide to change, they often ask R. to take their children. "They tell me: 'We don't want our girl children to go into prostitution or our boys to become pimps or antisocial elements.'"
She used to send the children to Mother Theresa, while Mother Theresa would send her women for rehab. Then in 1995, R. felt the Lord directing her to raise the children herself, "to become missionaries of the nation."
That is how the Children's Home started. They currently house 150 children who come from this background. Since 1997, R. has run a Babies Home, too, "for the girl babies who are thrown out into the garbage when they are born."
Just last year, she started working inside the brothels in Bombay for the first time. In years past, she ministered from outside because the government won't allow anyone into the red light district.
"The mafia runs it," R. explains. "No one can get in. Since last year in November, I gained favor in the eyes of the mafia, who made arrangements and took me right into the area of operation."
Living and working conditions are horrific for these women and girls, she says. Prostitutes work in tiny stalls, which are open in front, and separated from the next stall by only a sheet of corrugated steel. A thin, filthy mattress lies on the floor.
When a police raid occurs, the women scurry into small, claustrophobic compartments where they wait out the raid. Some have died of suffocation while hiding in the cramped quarters. In one brothel, 15 prostitutes are crammed into one hiding place.
It is very dangerous, admits R. "Our lives are threatened; our lives are in danger. I have been attacked by pimps at knifepoint. But because God called me to this, He continues to be the protector and the provider."
R. says this, the part of the flesh trade where women don't have a choice, where they are absolute prisoners, is particularly heart wrenching. "Girls, 10 years old, being kidnapped and drugged and sold into this flesh trade. Especially girls from Nepal who think they are being given domestic jobs and sold here. The parents do not know about it because the money goes to them. They think their daughters are still in a home, working as maids."
R. has secret help in rescuing the girls. "I need to keep my favor with these people in the mafia - in being able to come and go," she explains. "One at a time, or two at a time, we help them escape." It is through their eyes, she reiterates, "that they express they want to be rescued."
