Rescuing young girls from terror

Inside the Prajwala Home for children you would never imagine that all 50 children are rescued prostitutes. Or that each is HIV-positive. You would never know that the women who run and staff this home, including teachers, cooks and administrators, are all rescued prostitutes.

The laughter and joy bursting from this small, simple home in the Old City of Hyderabad, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is contagious. Songs, poems and lessons are read aloud, creating an atmosphere typical of boarding schools for young women.

It is a home for growth, learning and laughing, and for trusting again. What is not apparent is the incredible hardship many of these girls have known. Most come from poverty-stricken villages or areas affected by drought, famine or other natural calamities.

In such desperate places, where disadvantaged women and girls are hard pressed to help their families stitch together a living, traffickers often prey; they lure some girls from their families with false promises of "respectable, domestic work." The reality is far different.

As the demand for girls as prostitutes continues to increase in cities - in part because of the prevailing myth that sex with virgins will cure sexually transmitted diseases - child trafficking is rising and the age of victimized children gets younger and younger.

India is home to 400,000 or more child prostitutes - many infected with HIV/AIDS. The disease remains the greatest health and development challenge facing poor countries. More than 4 million people in India are infected with HIV, which is spreading faster in Andhra Pradesh than anywhere else in the country.

Recently, the United Nations warned that India could soon surpass South Africa - where nearly 5 million are HIV-positive - in having the most cases in the world. The U.S. National Intelligence Council predicted India could have as many as 25 million HIV-positive people by 2010.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) combats AIDS through care, support, education and empowerment in partnership with local organizations, sponsoring 85 HIV/AIDS programs in 31 countries.

The Catholic Church carries out more than one-fourth of all HIV/AIDS projects worldwide. CRS' HIV/AIDS projects aim to increase communities' capacities to deliver physical, nutritional and emotional care for people with HIV/AIDS.

CRS works to decrease the stigma, denial and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS in communities around the world. In India, CRS has 18 projects to provide necessary care and support to HIV-positive people.

Prajwala, a CRS partner, has a range of HIV/AIDS and anti-trafficking activities. They include offering the daughters of prostitutes alternatives to entering the profession, rescuing trafficked children and socially reintegrating victims of trafficking into mainstream society.

Prajwala, which means "a society to enlighten," took on HIV/AIDS when it found that many children it rescued were infected and that there were no hospitals or homes for them. It bought and renovated this home to protect, support and care for these children.

Typically, these young girls enter the home traumatized and suffering a host of physical and emotional problems. Here, they begin to learn and play again, to laugh and giggle and tease one another like typical young girls. Their health needs are taken care of, and they live the rest of their short lives in dignity.

One nine-year-old girl entered the home so traumatized she did not speak for several months. But the love and care she received enabled her to trust again, and to again use her voice.

Through innovative programs like this, CRS shows support and solidarity with people living with AIDS, their families and caregivers around the world.

World AIDS Day - Dec. 1 - alerts us to the fact that we each have a role to play whether by personally helping someone infected with HIV or by praying for all those needing comfort and support.

(Herrboldt is South Asia analyst for Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community. The agency provides assistance to needy people in more than 87 countries and territories.)