By Ray Umashankar | Executive Director
Last week in Hyderabad, I was thrilled to meet Puja whose story (below) I have shared with you.
Here is the story of Puja, who benefited from your past generous donations:
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Puja at age 9 sat outside in the cold when her mother had a client inside the hut in the slums of Hyderabad. I was horrified when she said she had to hide under the bed on rainy nights!. When her mother died, Puja's uncle sold her to a wealthy doctor who raped her daily. She escaped and fell into the hands of a trafficker. Puja was finally rescued by our partner Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala, who has rescued nearly 15,000 victims. (http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha_krishnan_tedindia#t-3817)
When I met eighteen year old Puja, she told me ASSET India Foundation's English and computer training makes her equal to everyone else out there and she had just spoken in front of 150 delegates at a social work conference. When I asked her what kind of job I should get for her, she replied "I don't want a job, I want to do my MBA"!
I wept.
Puja has since finished college but did not do well in the MBA entrance exam but finished her MSW degree. Now she works with Sunitha Krishnan helping girls like herself.
Sunitha runs the largest shelter for trafficking survivors in the country, feeding and clothing more than 1,400 girls. The youngest one I met was 6 years old and it took therapists 18 months to help get her speech back!
We are presently setting up digital classrooms in five elementary schools
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