Mission Partner Update - She is Safe, July 2024

Zoya* narrowly escaped being trafficked. 

When her parents were approached with a proposition: a couple was looking to purchase a girl to be their daughter. Traffickers frequently use tactics like these to prey upon desperate families. They trick girls and their parents and then sell those girls into slavery. 

Families like hers who live in tea picker communities in India are on the fringe subsisting on little or no pay - without hope of any options other than putting their daughters to work in the fields. Their managers may also be their landlords who frequently refuse to pay them, essentially making them slaves. Young girls like Zoya are vulnerable to being sexually assaulted while they are working. 

Zoya began working in a tea plantation at 15 years old, so instead of going to school, she would wake up early and work 1 5-hour days harvesting tea leaves. "If we did not work, we did not eat," Zoya said. After working long days in dangerous conditions and brutal heat, she would return home and try to educate herself. 

With your help, we''e been able lo offer Zoya an opportunity. She now works as a paid intern in the She Is Safe-sponsored Girls Hoe. She is in 12th grade and able to save money for herself. She has a safe and loving environment where she can grow and thrive. Zoya is able to attend school and is supported in her education She is discovering her unique talents and abilities, as well as her value in 

God's eyes. Her path to slavery has been prevented, and for the first time, she envisions a lifetime of freedom.