Meet the Girls

Aashi was trafficked at age 6, rescued, and then kidnapped and trafficked again. She was rescued two years ago, and placed with House of Light. 

When our team first met her, she had a square jaw from grinding her teeth and rarely smiled. She’d find corners to sleep during the day, after nights filled with nightmares.

After eight months of care and therapy, she greeted our team with joy at our next visit. Now, at age 15, she’s known to our team as the girl who smiles. Here she is – smiling wide – at a birthday party we threw for the girls.

Raji’s father didn’t want a girl, so when she was born, her father threw her out of the window like a piece of trash.

Her mother and sister ran to save her, but now, she would always walk with a limp, and struggle to understand what was happening around her. As she grew, she continued to suffer abuse until she ran away from home and into the arms of an older man. He promised her marriage, but locked her away, abusing her himself.

A social worker rescued her and placed her at House of Light – the first safe home she's ever known. Now, she’s learning to work with her hands and finds pride and joy in what she creates.

Nanda was invited to the house of a family friend for dinner. She woke up in the back of a truck, bound and gagged. 

The United Nations considers India the most dangerous place in the world to be a girl. 150,000 girls disappear into the sex trade each year. Every eight minutes, one girl goes missing. 

Drugged and trafficked by a family friend, Nanda disappeared in the sex trade, lost in darkness where she was stripped of her dignity. But she was not lost forever. 

IJM finds girls like Nanda and gives them a new life filled with hope, dignity and honor. Nanda was found and is now a resident of the House of Light where she is healing and walking forward into her future.

Tishya was tricked by her boyfriend and trafficked into one of India’s largest red light districts.

She was rescued in 2014 by IJM and placed in an aftercare home. She was pregnant at the time, and ran away to find her boyfriend, who simply re-trafficked her. She called the aftercare home for help and they placed her in a different home to deliver her baby. After she decided to give her baby up for adoption, she was transferred to House of Light.

She has run away twice from the House of Light, most recently in July 2016. After the second time, she turned up in another home in poor health, suffering from a rash and small wounds all over her body. She asked to return to the House of Light but was denied a transfer.

On May 4, 2017 she ran away again, returning to the House of Light where she fell at the director’s feet desperate to come back. Considering her severe medical condition and her history of running away, the Sisters consulted with IJM, and then agreed – like the Father accepted the Prodigal Son.

When Alisha’s father died, her brother began to abuse her, and then threatened to sell her into the sex trade. She ran away when she was twelve, and with the help of some nuns in her village, she found a safe home.

At the shelter and aftercare center, she began to heal and plan for her future. She decided to enter a mechanics training program, but for this, she’d need her school records, left behind in her home village. With the help of IJM staff, she traveled to her former school, recovered her papers, and then quietly tried to visit her mother, who she had not seen in years. But just as they met, word spread through her village that her brother was coming for her. They were forced to slip away, leaving her mother behind again.

Now, Alisha has finished her program and is engaged to be married.

When shown this picture, the IJM director involved with Alisha rescue exclaimed, “This is what Christ would do, He clothes us with dignity and honor.”

Banhi lived in a town in Nepal. There, she met an older man who told her he loved her and gave her gifts. He offered her marriage and a better life with him in India, and delighted, she accepted.

In a foreign culture and surrounded by a foreign language, the man she loved locked Banhi in an apartment where she realized he was actually planning to sell her for sex. Refusing to give up and surrender to her fate, she made a plan to escape. A neighbor with connections to IJM helped her get safely away before the man could hurt her.

About 200,000 Nepali girls and women work in Indian brothels, with about 7,000 more arriving each year. Many are kidnapped or tricked by false offers of jobs or marriage. Banhi escaped, but many more will not.

Saloni was walking home from school in the seventh grade when a stranger grabbed her. She was sold that night as a virgin to the highest bidder.

After years being trafficked for sex, she was rescued and palced at House of Light for care and healing. 

Now she creates beauty.

She paints flowers and designs on cards, t-shirts, and canvases. She loves art and history, and is studying to be a teacher, so that she can pass on her passion for beauty to others.

Pranja was in the eight grade when a man tricked her with the promise of a job. But he locked her away in his home and abused her. She became one of India’s “Missing Girls.” 

When the man had to travel for work, Pranja was rescued by a neighbor and was able to get help. She was placed at the House of Light only six months ago. She is now 16 and attending school to continue her studies. 

She was one of the lost ones who has been found.