Sasikala: 10-year-old Girl Rescued from Prostitution…
Imagine, for just a few moments, if this was your life…
You are an 8-year-old girl who lives in a very poor leprosy colony in India. Each day, your parents, who both have leprosy, go begging just to get a little bit of food for each day. If they do not get much through begging, you have to go to bed yet another night with an empty stomach. You feel so unhappy; you and both your parents feel empty from the suffering that is a daily part of your life. The clothes you are wearing are rags and you are cold at night. Your parents are far too poor to send you to school, so you have no hope for a better future than what your parents have. You may be stuck in this leprosy colony your whole life.
One day, even more calamity strikes: your father dies. Your mother decides that the only hope of survival is to earn a meager income through prostitution. Since her face is not yet deformed, she can disguise herself so that no one will know she has leprosy. However, it’s not enough money for both of you to live, so now your own mother has forced you to become a prostitute too. You must sell yourself at night just like she does…
But it’s still not enough to survive.
Your short and sorrow-filled life has now become a terrifying nightmare of shame and abuse.
Then one day something even more unthinkable happens… your own mother simply cannot take care of you any longer. She believes that the only thing she can do is to sell you as a child slave for the next two years. Now your body will be used for full-time prostitution and you cannot escape this horrible life…
Many times, you are beaten. You cry often, but no one hears your desperate sobs. It seems no one cares about the suffering of an “untouchable”. You feel so ashamed, rejected, and lonely. If only someone would show you a little compassion, things could get better… Is there any hope?
Then a relative of one of the children who live at one of ICII’s children’s homes goes and talks to your mother. They tell her about these wonderful homes, and how they have taken in a child they know, how well they are taking care of the children who live there. They tell your mother that if she would take her daughter to this home instead of selling her again for another two years, she will get three meals per day and will be able to study at school. Her life will be so much better. Your mother makes a decision: she will take you to one of ICII’s children’s homes.
This is a miracle! Since coming to ICII’s children’s home, you now have three nourishing meals every day, and you can go to school with the other children who live at the home. You can even be a normal child and go to school where no one will know that you came from a leprosy colony. Here you have toys to play with the first time, and your very own toothbrush and toothpaste. Someone was kind enough to build these homes for children just like you so they do not have to be alone and rejected any longer. You feel that for once in your life, you have a family who loves you. Best of all you, are learning about Jesus and He is healing your broken life. You feel like for the first time in your life there is hope!
Just think – what if this 10-year-old girl was you?
You would not want to spend even one night like this, but in India tens of thousands of children have to live in similar situations. This story is true, and a 10-year-old girl named Sasikala has now come to live at one of Independent Church in India’s Orphanages. Because of your love and support, Sasikala is being loved and cared for and has found hope for her future.
