At 13 years old, Abha* was the youngest girl Beeja* took around the city. She hid Abha's youthful face with a burqa as she sold her in different houses, hotels and offices.
Abha began to numb the fear and pain with drugs that an abuser introduced to her. Drugs that would ultimately leave her overdosed and passed out in the streets of a dangerous neighborhood of Mumbai.
But you would not let her disappear.
IJM has been rescuing girls like Abha for 15 years now. But too little was changing for the countless girls who were lost in the brokenness of Mumbai’s justice system.
Because of you, IJM was able to attempt something we never have before: in 2015, we trained 10,000 police officers, prosecutors and social workers to combat human trafficking in Mumbai through one-day trainings conducted over the course of a year. And they worked.
As a result, a small group of these 10,000 IJM-trained officials found Abha passed out in the street, brought her to safety and helped us piece together her testimony throughout the night as she fell in and out of sleep. Her testimony eventually led to the arrest of 11 traffickers and abusers — including Beeja.
John, thank you. Because of your support, people are rising up in places like Mumbai to fight sex trafficking. Now, this team has an ambitious goal: to make Mumbai’s red-light district a zero-trafficking zone — rescuing every single girl like Abha until all are free.
“So many people are being rescued because of [those who are fighting sex trafficking. But there] are so many children who have not seen the outside world and are made captives,” Abha said.
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