Fast-forward to 2013:  A synonymous term has tainted my heart – GENDERCIDE.  The killing, aborting, and abandoning of girls simply because they are girls.  Countries such as India and China are the primary subjects of such practices.  The United Nations estimates that as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of “gendercide.”  Many of these girls end up in sexual slavery.  Many just end up brutally raped and murdered.

As the world sits by and watches (much as it did during the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust), girls’ lives are being taken, one at a time.  A few weeks back, we related the news of 3 young sisters all under the age of 11 sexually assaulted, killed, and dumped in a well in a village near New Delhi.  Days went by before police took the matter seriously.  Two months earlier, a gang-rape and torture of a young girl on a bus captured the attention of the world as thousands of protesters rallied at the Indian capital.  The newest victim — a 5 year old girl who was kidnapped, raped and tortured by two men in their early 20s.

Forgive the gruesome details, but the nausea I am experiencing needs to be felt – police reports suggest that “a bottle almost eight inches long and pieces of candle had been inserted into her private parts.”  In fact, her torture was so ruthless and barbaric that one of the suspects admitted he fled the scene when he believed that the girl had died.  Some reports say the second man involved is also suspected of raping his wife when she was younger.  Village leaders convinced him and the girl’s family that the “best” remedy would be for him to marry her.  Suffering further abuse, she ran away a few months later and is now living with her parents.

Regardless of these reports, protests arose when investigators once again delayed the search and neglected earlier complaints by her parents.  As in the case of the 3 sisters, authorities allegedly made a monetary offer to the parents if they would keep quiet about the case.  Here, they were offered a mere $37.

In addition to this little girl, another unidentified 5 year old victim is also recovering at the same hospital, AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences).  She, too, was brutally raped and brought in for treatment, only to be later abandoned there by her parents.

Child rape in India has increased by 336% since 2001, say human rights campaigners.  And this figure may very well be underestimated because only a minority are reported or even taken seriously by authorities.  The Associated Press reports that 90,000 children go missing every year, and that on average, 18 sex crimes are reported every hour.  Being a child in India, especially a female child, is a dangerous status.

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men” (Abraham Lincoln).  Let us not be cowards.  Voice your protest against gendercide, against sexual slavery and other crimes committed against the most vulnerable and innocent among us.  The pervasiveness of the internet and social media leave us with no excuse to stand against such violent injustice.

BTC courageously continues its fight to protect and elevate the lives of at-risk girls and women trapped in sexual slavery.

 “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King, Jr.).

By Lisa Haleblian

Case in point:  Maharashtra, India

She is a poor widow who lives in the remote village of Lakhni, 600 miles south of New Delhi.  Her daughters, ages 6, 9 and 11, do not come home Thursday after school, February 14th.  Their grandfather notifies the police, but nothing is done for 2 days.  That is, until their bodies are found in a well.  And even then, the incident is written off as “accidental.”

Angry villagers take to the streets and block a major national highway.  This protest sparks a wake-up call to authorities, as well as the media, to bring some sort of “justice” to these children.  A “more thorough” investigation reveals that these girls were brutally raped prior to being murdered.   One police officer is suspended for failure to timely investigate the matter.  The government even offers $18,300 to their mother.  She refuses their token “apology,” and instead pleads with authorities to find the murderer/rapist who has stolen something more precious than rupees or gold, the lives of her precious little girls.

3 months earlier, it was a 23 year old woman who was gang raped on a bus and left to die.
4 weeks ago, 3 girls under the age of 11.

“There was no nationwide outrage in response to the latest heinous incident of rape,” said a CNN-IBN news anchor. “Why is the nation silent? Or have we become numb?” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/india-violence-rape-murder-girls)

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”  (Albert Einstein)

Lisa Haleblian

I look back up to the second floor – she is still standing there.  Across from her – on the same side as the BTC clinic is a tire store; customers mull around; conversations take place – seemingly oblivious to the fact that above them and around them is the buying and selling of human beings, or maybe it has come to a point that the buying and selling of humans is nothing more or less than the buying and selling of bicycle and motorcycle tires. Farther down the narrow lane, a group of boys play cricket.  These boys yell, laugh,  bowl, bat, and catch with the same enthusiasm as they would if they were in a school yard or an open field; they are in neither; they are in one of the 14 crowded lanes of Asia’s largest red light district.   They are playing on a filthy street between filthy buildings while their mothers “work.”  Most of the boys will have to continue to play as long as their mothers “work.”

I look up again at the bars on the second floor.  She is gone.   Whether she went of her own accord or because her beauty caught the eye of one with enough rupees to press into the palms of her owner is unknown.  She will come back to stand again and again; and each time she comes, she will do so having been violated once again, despair increased, dignity diminished.   She will stand behind that cage convinced a little more that in this crowded lane she is very alone.   Her childhood dreams will rise only to mock her as she accepts this to be her destiny.   And unless someone dares to enter her hell, she will be right.

Jooly Philip

Dickey recently returned from Mumbai, India, where he continued his work with the charity Bombay Teen Challenge, which aims to save women and children from the scourge of human sex trafficking. Dickey brought his two young daughters with him. Dickey, 38, now a Toronto Blue Jay, agreed to write an exclusive story for the Daily News about his trip. It was prepared with the assistance of sportswriter Wayne Coffey. Read More

R.A. Dickey said the pictures and literature couldn’t have prepared him for the young boy who approached him last week on one of the squalid streets of Mumbai’s red-light district. Read More

By His grace, I was able to travel to Mumbai annually for the past four years to provide volunteer dental services with Bombay Teen Challenge (BTC), both in the Red Light District of Kamithapura as well as at their rescue homes, the Jubilee Homes and Ashagram, a couple of hours drive outside the city.

What a study of contrasts! Seeing the women in the Red Light District who are seemingly trapped in the complex snares of human trafficking at one end of the spectrum, and then spending time at BTC’s Jubilee Homes and at Ashagram where men and women, boys and girls live in a loving, nurturing, healing community.

On my first trip to Mumbai in November 2009, I treated one victim of sex slavery whom I will call “Lady”. Lady was my dental patient earlier in my visit there. We cleaned her teeth. I gathered from the BTC staff that she was 22 years of age. Her father lost his vision six years prior and then he and her step-mother sold Lady into sex slavery to provide for the family.

On my last night sleeping in Mumbai I woke up in the middle of the night. My mind raced with many thoughts. I began to pray. In my prayers I sensed God that gave me a clear command, “Tell Lady that faith precedes understanding.”

I was shocked. This was certainly no ordinary occurrence for me. But seeing the horrors of the Red Light District in Mumbai was far outside my definition of normal.

I told God that I would obey, but that He would have to make a way. I had no idea how this was to take place or even how I would adequately communicate such a concept to this young woman.

The next day was a very busy one. After attending BTC’s staff prayer meeting, I rather casually mentioned to BTC’s employee, Stella, that if it were possible I would like to talk with Lady before I left for the airport … that I thought I had a message from the Lord for her. I then headed off to evaluate another of BTC’s facilities in the area. On returning Stella and another female staff person were waiting for me. “Follow me,” Stella said as she walked toward the brothel doorway Lady usually stood alongside.

Frankly, I had not given much more thought to the whole idea and was surprised to see Stella chatting with Lady at the doorway a moment later. Suddenly, Lady ran up the stairs and Stella waved for me to follow them up into the brothel.

I was shocked and a bit fearful also. Would this be safe? Was I endangering this young woman? Had God really directed me to share with her or in my emotional and physical exhaustion did I unwittingly fabricate this?

I stood in the middle of the narrow lane for a few seconds. Then I decided to follow Stella and Lady, just do my best, and trust God.

By the time I reached the top floor of the brothel, I was out of breath. Stella closed the narrow door to Lady’s squalid room and said abruptly “Tell her what you need to say.”

I held up my hand and said, “Give me a minute please.” I closed my eyes and told God that I was desperate for His help. I had no idea what to say. As I was trying to think and discern, I heard Stella and Lady chattering away.

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Lady talking with great enthusiasm to Stella. A broad smile was gracing Lady’s face. I thought how wrong this all seemed. This beautiful 22 year old young woman lived in a hot, humid, dirty place where the rats come out at night. She is forced to have sex with countless men each day, most of the time without even the modest protection of a condom. Yet as I watched her talk with animation and excitement, it reminded me of my own 22 year old daughter back home. She and several college girlfriends would spend a long weekend at our home each year. Those young ladies, in tremendously different life circumstances, would also talk with similar excitement.

It seemed so very wrong. I thought to myself, “You should be crying, begging to get out of this pit of Hell! How can you stand to be here even one more minute?”

Stella looked over at me, as I was observing them converse. I suspected that Stella saw a look of utter confusion on my face. She asked calmly, “Do you want to know what Lady just told me?”

“Of course,” I replied. I had no idea what else to say.

Stella responded, “Lady just told me that she is so happy that you wanted to talk with her. She knows that you are leaving to go back to the US today. She knew that she had to talk with you one more time before you left Mumbai. And yesterday she waited for the dental clinic to open up. But all day it stayed locked up. It never opened. She was so sad as she wanted to talk to you again.”

I was amazed. Lady wanted to talk to me! “Praise the Lord.” I thought to myself. “Maybe I am not making this whole thing up after all!”.

I then asked Stella, “Ask Lady what she wanted to talk to me about?” I thought this might be really easy after all!

Lady answered that she had no idea. She just knew that she had to talk to me again.

With that confirmation and encouragement from the Lord, and with Stella’s excellent assistance, we shared with Lady the good news about Jesus, how He loved her, how He had a plan for her life. We probably spent a half hour in that little room with the door closed. I could see in Lady’s eyes that she was tracking with us.

Lady asked if she could become a follower of Jesus that afternoon in the top floor of the brothel. After a thorough explanation (Romans 1-8 in summary form), Lady acknowledged her sin before God and her need for a Savior.

That was in November of 2009. In October of 2010 Lady was working in Calcutta’s brothels. In October of 2011 and 2012, Lady was working out of the same brothel in the Red Light District of Kamithapura again.

The story does not yet have a happy ending. But the story is not yet over.

Many people are praying for Lady and those like her across the globe. The BTC staff has been diligent and wise in their dealings with Lady. She was even taken to the BTC’s rescue home, a veritable oasis, but Lady insisted on returning to the Red Light District. She is still on the street.

This breaks my heart. I am crying as I type these words.

Yet I know that it breaks the heart of God more than I can ever imagine.

We live in a fallen, sin-sick world. A world with much darkness and depravity.

Yet BTC is a light in a very dark corner of the globe. BTC has experienced many successes. I have met and count as friends many of these trophies of God’s grace.

Yet there is still much work to be done. When I think of BTC, the Scripture passage that most often comes to my mind is Colossians 1:13-14, which reads this way:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (ESV)

That is what I see BTC and their supporters doing, plucking victims out of the domain of darkness and transferring them into the kingdom of God.

Much progress has been made. Lives have been saved, both mortally and eternally. But there is much work to be done. I close with these words from Galatians 6:9:

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (ESV)

by Michael O’Callaghan D.D.S.

Delhi gang-rape victim dies in hospital in Singapore
“When one dies, it is a tragedy, when thousands die, it is a statistic.”

In the smiles of our children and women in the children’s homes and in Ashagram, in their dances, in their prayers, in hands lifted high and in tears streaming down jubilant faces during worship, we see the message of Christmas revealed and realized again and again. Their lives serve as testimony that the hope of Jesus is alive and real 2000 years after it first entered the universe through the cries of an infant.

BTC wishes you and your family a wonderful Christmas, and we pray that you too will be reminded that you are not alone, that God is with you and that you are deeply loved by the King of Kings. We thank you for all that you have done to help us in sharing the hope of Christmas throughout the year.

Bombay Teen Challenge