Child Impact International
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is an
organization that gives hope
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and fosters permanent,
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positive change in the lives
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of disadvantaged children
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and their communities.
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Countries include Zambia,
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India, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.
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Child Impact's investment
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in the lives of
more than 3,500 children
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continues to
yield infinite returns.
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Outreach spans from
child rescue operations
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to providing an education
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and a home for deaf and
blind children and orphans.
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Above all, Child
Impact's sponsors
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give hope to the
ones who need it the most.
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A couple of years ago,
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Jean Boonstra associate speaker
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of Voice of
Prophecy visited India
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with Child Impact International.
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During her trip to India,
Jean met some amazing people
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who are the driving force
behind Child Impact's mission
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to reach out to those in need.
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She met with
Anita, who was in charge
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of Child Impact's Operation
Child Rescue program in India.
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Operation Child Rescue
is a program that rescues
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and rehabilitates
girls who are trafficked
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and sold as
prostitutes in the sex industry.
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Jean got to talk to Anita.
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And she shared
with her the challenges
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and the dangers that
she and her team face
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in rescuing these girls.
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So, Anita, after you
go in, you and your team,
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and you actually go in
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on these rides
yourself personally,
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these girls you work
with them for a little while,
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then what's the next step?
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How do they
transition from that life back
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to somewhat a regular life?
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Once we finish the
rescues, we take them
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to the police
station for a little bit,
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where their stories are taken,
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their photos are taken,
and then we have to take them
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to a government
shelter according to the law.
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The first place
after their rescue
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has to be the
government shelter.
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And these are basically
sets of buildings with staff.
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But they're not
specific to trafficked victims.
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So you can have
abandoned girls there,
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you can have a
pregnant mother there, you know,
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premarital, you can have
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someone who has
lost their family,
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you can have
somebody who's lost,
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got off a train
at the wrong stop.
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So just a mixed group
of people inside that place
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and these girls are
taken to that place.
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Usually, we do the
rescues quite late at night.
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So... For that surprise factor.
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Yes. Yeah.
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And so between about 2 or
3am, we end up in this place.
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So the girls as, you know,
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that there are about three gates
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before you get inside the place.
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It's almost like a jail.
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It looks like that at some...
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Sounds intimidating. It is.
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And then, once there,
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the girl's case has
to come up for hearing.
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And we have to find
out their backgrounds.
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Okay.
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Many times, because it's
a government-run shelter,
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the traffickers can
end up coming right there.
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Really?
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Yeah, they pose as an aunt,
a mother, a sister, a brother,
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the only relative in that place.
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And because they
have so many cases
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and so many people turning up,
they don't check credentials.
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And so they can come
turn up with, you know,
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a false document.
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And we have had many such ones,
and they can release the girl,
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or they get to see the
girl intimidate her more,
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or promise to get
them out of that place
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because by then the
girls really want to
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get out of the place.
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They don't speak
the local language,
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the food is not
something that they like.
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Government-issued
food, essentially.
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Yeah. Yes.
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And then, many
times they have told us
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there are lice in the food
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or lice in the coffee, you know?
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Oh, my!
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Yeah, and the others
are really mean to them
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because they find out that
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they have been
involved in sex, commercial sex,
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and they label them the
stigma of being in that place.
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You know, you just
want to get out there,
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desperate to get out.
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Many times these girls
have tried to cut their wrists.
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And we get a call to say,
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"Please come and take the girls,
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you rescued out of this place
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because they
disturbing everybody else."
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And you go there, and they say,
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"We just want to
go out of this place.
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The brothel was better."
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You know, so harsh, so
harsh. Sounds horrible.
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How many days or how much time
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are they're in
this place, generally?
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Well, it can be anything
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between two months to two years.
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Wow!
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Are they cared for
their physical needs?
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I mean... Oh, yes.
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I mean, I hate to be very...
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I hate to talk about it.
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But the life they
were living in the brothel,
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they had a lot of
physical injuries, I assume.
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Yes.
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Obviously, emotional, mental
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are those things addressed
at all in the government home?
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The government does provide
a shelter so there is food.
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There is a sense of...
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They have water and
clothes and people talk to them,
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but the abuse
sometimes is in different ways.
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There's a lot of sexual abuse
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that happens
within those shelters,
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especially to
the younger children.
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We did a rescue of
boys who had been trafficked
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from Bihar to
Bangalore for labor,
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and some of these
boys were aged 9 to 12.
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And when we visited
them about a week later,
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a couple of them
said they didn't like
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what older boys
were doing to them,
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which is implying sexual abuse
inside a government shelter
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that is meant to
be a protective place.
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It sounds like it's taking them
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from a bad
situation and putting them
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in a so-so situation
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and in that specific
case, a worse situation.
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It's true.
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So it doesn't sound
like it's an answer.
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But you also
don't have a choice.
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Yes.
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So, Anita, you are a Christian,
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what difference would it make
to be able to take these girls
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and put them in a
Christian facility
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where they were nurtured
and cared for specifically?
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Now, Jean, you're talking about
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a vision that I
have for these girls,
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every girl who's rescued.
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You know, the
sense of hopelessness
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inside that place
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when we walk into those brothels
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or when we go into those places
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where they're
being forced to hide
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or to overwork.
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There is just a
deep sense of despair
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and a darkness that
is so obvious to us.
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And when we get
them out of that place,
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what we want to
give them to replace
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that is the sense of
hope that God cares about them
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that there is a
future that He can build
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and that He can restore
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and that no matter
what has happened to them,
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they are still
made in the image of God
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and nobody can destroy that.
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And nothing can mar that.
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But you see,
they've never been told that
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they've been so
abused inside that place
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that they couldn't
care about themselves.
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So we in our home,
we'll have that opportunity
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right from the start
to just love on them,
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to be able to give
them that sense of hope
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that they need not fear anymore,
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they're not in a place
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that anyone's
going to abuse them.
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In fact, they're going
to receive the opposite
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that there will
be a sense of freedom
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within that place
where they can make choices.
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And those choices will be guided
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by good counseling and
that they will have options
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whether they learn a new
trade or whether they go back
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to visit family, it will
all be under careful observation
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and supervision to ensure that
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the best
happens for these girls.
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I think part of the
story that you tell that
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really breaks my
heart is when you share
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how these girls,
once they're rescued,
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some of them,
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a certain
percentage of them do go back
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to that way of life
because of the shame
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because they
don't feel an option.
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Have you seen the difference
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that Christ makes for the girls?
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Is that the
difference that keeps them
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from going back
to their lifestyle?
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I think it is the
main difference, Jean.
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I mean, to be able
to pray with the girls,
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and we do pray with the girls.
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You know, that I told
you we get some private time
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either at the police station
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or at the brothel
before we take them
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to the government shelter.
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We almost always talk to them
about God and pray with them.
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Because that's
the only private time
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we'll get before we
are under supervised visits
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in the government shelter.
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But if you had a home,
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we can pray with them every day,
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we can pray with
them and counsel them,
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and tell them about
a God who loves them,
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and help them to
come to terms with that.
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I mean, many of them ask us,
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"Why do you want
to do this for us?"
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You know, "Why
would you be here?"
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Because I always tell
them, "I'm a mother, myself.
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And I have two daughters,
I know what it feels like
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to be inside this place,
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wondering what's
going to happen next."
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And they always say,
"Why do you take this risk?"
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And I tell them, it's
because God has called
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some of us to these things
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and because it's the
God who took a risk for us.
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I mean, that He came for us that
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we might have a
life that is free.
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And, you know, they are so open
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to listening to
the gospel, to knowing,
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but the most important thing,
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Jean, is for them to
see the gospel in action.
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And that's what we
manage to do there.
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Okay.
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But what drives you each
and every day to continue,
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to put your own
personal life in danger?
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You're on the
front lines doing this,
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and I imagine
your husband worries.
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What keeps you going to do this?
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I think this the call
that God had on my life
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and which I
realized about 10 years ago
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when I went out on
my first rescue mission,
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just the thought of these
girls out there and that...
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You know, something
might happen to them,
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that they may never hear
about a God who loves them.
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Being an Indian woman,
myself, a mother of daughters,
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just wanting to do the best
that we can for these girls.
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It's funny, I never was a brave
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or courageous person growing up.
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In fact, I was very timid...
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I can't believe it.
Very timid, very shy.
00:10:47.31\00:10:49.61
Yeah.
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I hated standing up
in front of anything.
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And I still am very
afraid before we go on a rescue.
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Everybody knows that
I have my private time.
00:10:57.12\00:11:00.09
But when we finish the prayer
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before the raiding
team is out of the door,
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I know that God
has gone before us,
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and He's already there.
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I mean, there are times,
Jean, that we've searched
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the building for the girls,
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and we just don't know
where they've hidden them.
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And somehow God shows us
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where that hidden
place is, you know,
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whether it's a hole in the
wall that has been sealed up,
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and we have to
break through that
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or whether it's a
hotel reception desk,
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and you open the
drawer and it's a staircase...
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Really? Wow.
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Into a seller where
the girls have been pushed.
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It is God because, you
know, none of us have had
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any kind of
investigative training.
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And when God shows up there,
we know that we keep going on.
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He's going before you. Yes.
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And you're trusting in Him. Yes.
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Well, I have a hard time
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imagining you as
a timid young girl.
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You're a great
inspiration to myself
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and many who have
met you, I know you are.
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Well, I just praise God that you
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and Operation
Child Rescue are doing,
00:12:05.05\00:12:07.79
what you're doing,
Anita, that you are facing
00:12:07.82\00:12:09.82
these problems,
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that you're
there dealing with it.
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You know, it's
really hard for those of us
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who don't see it
with our own eyes
00:12:16.67\00:12:19.07
to really
comprehend the level of danger,
00:12:19.10\00:12:24.67
the horrors that
these children go through.
00:12:24.71\00:12:27.41
But I just thank you
for what you're doing
00:12:27.44\00:12:29.44
for the ministry that you have.
00:12:29.48\00:12:32.21
Anita, it's always a
pleasure visiting with you.
00:12:32.25\00:12:34.72
Thank you. Thank you, Jean.
00:12:34.75\00:12:36.42
Current estimates tell us that
more than 1.2 million children
00:12:42.12\00:12:45.93
are caught up in
human trafficking
00:12:45.96\00:12:47.46
in India alone.
00:12:47.50\00:12:48.93
The numbers are
truly staggering.
00:12:48.96\00:12:51.07
But thanks to people like Anita
00:12:51.10\00:12:52.80
and programs like
Operation Child Rescue,
00:12:52.83\00:12:55.57
these young girls and boys
00:12:55.60\00:12:57.27
can be rescued
and rehabilitated.
00:12:57.31\00:12:59.67
You can play a
vital role in helping
00:12:59.71\00:13:01.71
Child Impact International
in its rescue efforts.
00:13:01.74\00:13:04.85
Voice of Prophecy has partnered
00:13:04.88\00:13:06.61
with Child Impact to
build a rehabilitation home
00:13:06.65\00:13:09.52
in Bangalore, India
to provide a safe place
00:13:09.55\00:13:12.35
where young girls
can be given hope,
00:13:12.39\00:13:14.22
healing, and to learn new skills
00:13:14.26\00:13:16.46
all in a Christian environment.
00:13:16.49\00:13:18.33
Please pray for Anita
and her team in India.
00:13:18.36\00:13:21.06
And if you would like to
help or get more information
00:13:21.10\00:13:23.47
on Operation Child Rescue,
00:13:23.50\00:13:25.43
please contact Child
Impact International.
00:13:25.47\00:13:27.90