Safe and Sound: Eradicating Trafficking by 2025

We continue to see good turn around stories of real life rescue that gives girls a solid foundation for their future. Our new 150-bed shelter is expected to be fully operational in early 2020. In addition to that shelter, we continue to offer 6 month sewing/tailoring classes all over India. Women are given their own sewing machine and a certificate of course completion. Not only are they able to sew for their families, they are able to earn extra income as well. And, they feel so good about themselves to have learned a skill that enables them to provide for themselves and their children.

Here's just one great Turn-Around Story:

Manjula's story reads like fiction, but it is real. I have not met her, but she is my sister.  And, although she has suffered unimaginable horrors, her spirit embodies human dignity. Freedom. Hope. Here is her triumphant turn-around story.

MANJULA’S LIFE SHATTERED

At just 14, Manjula’s life shattered. Facing a financial crisis, her family decided she should be dedicated to a horrific life of ritualized prostitution. Manjula’s destiny was to become the property of her village to be used by any man, anywhere, any time for the rest of her life.

BUT A FREEDOM FIGHTER  RESCUED HER

Thankfully, one of DFN’s local Freedom Fighters was able to stop her dedication and get Manjula to a safe place where she would no longer fear being awakened in the middle of the night by self-seeking men. In our shelter she learned to sleep peacefully as counselors gently worked the demons from her fears and prayed love into her soul.

SHE FOUGHT FOR HER FUTURE

Manjula refused to let her past determine her future. As her heart healed, so did Manjula’s mind. Through our network of schools, she graduated from high school, earned a college degree and completed teacher’s training.

TODAY, SHE THRIVES

As a teacher at one of our schools, Manjula uses her voice to empower other young women. She wants a better life for people like her. And most of all, she wants girls to grow up free from the risk of slavery and free to dream.

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The turn-around stories of girls like Manjula is the very reason DFN exists. It's why we go to work each day, leave our families to travel to India, and determine every day that we will stop one more dedication, rescue one more young girl, extend the promise of dignity and freedom to people society casts aside.

That's what you do, too, with every donation you make and every social media post you share. Thank you for believing in DFN. But most importantly, thank you for giving girls like Manjula triumphant turn-around stories. Real life is always better than fiction!