We met Meena in December of 2022. She was sold into the city and began working at 14 in order to pay back an impossible debt. She become pregnant and a very difficult pregnancy followed by an emergency C-section has prevented her from being able to work for months. The workers are required to pay $3 per day for rent or they are evicted.

At 26, with no viable alternative for income, she is desperate. Like Meena, every woman is stuck in a sex or starvation reality. Girls as young as 12 are sold and forced to work and most “age out” at 35 hoping to pass the “family business” to their daughters. This is the cycle that needs to be broken.

In January 2023, we began a holistic childhood development program for the 300 children in the city. Too often they are forced to be at home while mom is “working.” A brothel is no place for a child to grow up.

This program provides a safe place for them to develop cognitively, physically, socially, and spiritually. Our mid-term plan is to establish alternative means of income for the workers, while our long-term plan is to establish, advance, and multiply the justice-seeking church in Daulatdia. This is “The Meena Project.”