Girls at an HIV support meeting organised by SANLAAP where they can share their feelings. photo: Christian Aid / network / Jackie Murray
‘What I have been through has been painful and traumatic. I wouldn’t wish any girl to suffer as I did.’

I am HIV positive and I came back from the jaws of death… I want people to hear and know of the abuse that girls like me have been subjected to…’ says Tanu Khantin who was only eleven years old when she was abducted and taken to the red light district in Mumbai, India.

For two years Tanu was moved from brothel to brothel. She often tried to run away but she was always brought back and tortured.

Finally, having been held in a remand centre by the authorities, she was referred to Christian Aid’s partner, Sanlaap, a women’s rights centre that helps young female sex workers escape from the sex trade and resume normal lives.

‘Since I came to Sanlaap, I have received treatment and have eaten properly, unlike in the remand centre where I was treated badly. I thought I was in such a bad condition that no-one wanted to touch me.’

Tanu now lives in one of Sanlaap’s shelters for young women where she receives counselling to cope with her ordeal and the knowledge that she is HIV-positive.

‘What I have been through has been painful and traumatic. I wouldn’t wish any girl to suffer as I did.’

She has also learned new skills and can at last envisage a more hopeful future for herself.

‘What I have learned will help me to generate an income for myself. By learning a skill I won’t be dependent on anyone. Having learned a number of skills gives me some measure of choice.’

Tanu’s experience is shared by thousands of children who every year in Asia are trafficked, often across poorly policed borders, into the sex industry.

It is a growing problem caused mainly by poverty, but fuelled in some countries by sex tourism. Families struggling to support their children are often tricked into handing children over to unscrupulous operators who promise children a ‘good job’.

Girls are particularly vulnerable because they have fewer education and job opportunities and so may be regarded by their families as a financial burden. Some may choose to take up sex work as a profession because of a lack of alternative choices.

Christian Aid supports a Youth Partnership Project (YPP), run by a network of agencies called ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), which includes Sanlaap.

They lobby governments for political agreements and legislation to prevent trafficking. They also campaign for more child-friendly services, as police forces often treat child sex workers as criminals.

Through the YPP, caregivers in India, Nepal and Bangladesh are being trained to offer specialist counselling and therapy for affected children; and 36 school-based schemes will enable affected children to give advice and support to their peers.

Christian Aid also supports projects that raise awareness of child-trafficking among communities, encourage education for girls and offer vocational training to give young women more choice in how they earn a living.

Partner websites
End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT)
• www.ecpat.net