Therapeutic community-600 sex trafficked victims

Six weeks back, a strange sight greeted our rescue team during a rescue in a red light area in Medak District a place close to Hyderabad. The rescue team of Justice and Care a partner organization was leading the mission with the police. With a credible and validated information that 30 minors were enslaved in the area, the team had entered the brothels. In one of the cubicles in one of the brothel they a found a 14 year old child, a customer was still lingering around when the operation took place. The striking sight was that the child could hardly move and was more or less bed ridden.The team removed the child from the brothel and brough her straight to our therepeutic community. One look at the victim and we all felt she should be rushed to the hospital.

The doctors in the hospital informed us that all her organs were malfunctioning and both her kidneys had already failed. For 17 days and nights a team of four from our organization stayed in the hospital and looked after the victim...she died on the 18th day surrounded by strangers who loved her as an human being...the last few words she uttered a few hours before her death was...."I died every day in the brothel for the last 4 years,nobody rescued me, but now when I am rescued and I want to live...I am not given a chance"

The therapeutic community in the last few months has an increasing number of minor girls rescued and admitted. Most of them suffering from multiple infections and substance abuse.The work of the health team has increased multifold with more and more child victims being admittted in the hospital. It is also baffling to see the growing impunity when even dying children are not spared by sex buyers. Today more tha even ever it has become necessary to work on demand reduction and prevention.

These incidents have made us more committed to also invest our time in preventive activities. As the irreversible damage of sex trafficking is something no human being should be ever subjected too.

The Swaraksha(self-protection) campaign in the three state of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana & Odisha will now be replicated across the country in 26 more states. This preventive campaign lead by survivors will hopefully awaken more and more people to the dangers of sex trafficking and eventually prevent women and children from being trafficked.

The therepeutic community is now becoming the basic resource base for the entire prevention campaign. More and more survivors have come forward to invest their lives to prevent others from being trafficked.