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Shared Hope International
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Posted by: akabezalel
There is an Organization called "Shared Hope International". The sole purpose of this organization is to go into the ugly places of the world (this includes in the USA) and remove women and children from the slave and sex market.
Some girls are sold when they turn 5-6 years old to be "sex dolls" in brothels.
Some women choose to enter prostitution when they are given no choice but death or slavery.
I am asking the Prayer Warriors to pray for Shared Hope as they endeavor to remove these women and children by buying their freedom and placing them in 'safe houses' where they are taught how to support themselves and their children. They are also introduced to Jesus and lead to Salvation and Hope for their futures.
Shared Hope International... sharedhope . org/homepage... remove the spaces from around the (.) I have JG's permission to place this link in the thread.
Here is one of their stories...
A New Life for Sunita
A life. A precious human life. That's what Sunita is. A life made all the more precious because Sunita's story is the story of a life restored. A life begun in the care and comfort of a mother's arms. A life threatened by the loss of her mother, and at times a loss of hope itself. And now, a new life, risen from the ashes of slavery and despair. A life restored by you and others like you, who have come together to support the life-giving outreach of Shared Hope International.
Here is the story of Sunita.
Sunita was born many thousands of miles from our homes, in the country of Nepal. Vast as that distance is, there is an even greater cultural difference separating a girl born in Nepal from one born in our community.
Do you have a daughter? When she was born, did you rejoice or did you weep?
In Nepal, the birth of a daughter seldom brings joy, but usually, weeping. Male children are revered and valued. The lives of female children, and females in general, are too often fraught with peril. Women, depending on their social status, are frequently bought, sold and treated like animals rejected, enslaved, abused.
Despite that cultural background, the first years of Sunita's life were secure. She enjoyed the comfort and care of her mother, Kamla, who loved her deeply.
When Sunita reached the age of three, however, storm clouds appeared on the family horizon. Kamla's mother-in-law was dissatisfied with Kamla. Not only had Kamla not produced a male child (in Nepal this is blamed on the wife), but the dowry she brought to the marriage was not large. To make matters worse, the mother-in-law wanted a wife of a higher caste, or social status, for her son. She found her and Kamla's and Sunita's world turned upside-down.
Kamla had two options: Stay, have her face scarred with acid, and be a slave to the new wife or leave and survive on her own. She loved her daughter, but taking Sunita with her was not possible. In Nepal, all children belong to the father.
Just like that, a snap of the fingers...and two lives, the lives of a little girl and her mother, were quite lawfully, quite casually, thrown away.
Sunita was left with the despair of separation from the one person who truly loved her...the confusion and fear of living with a stepmother who did not care for her...and the ever-present, terrifying question: What if...? What if the same thing happens to me as happened to my mother? Sunita had no way of knowing, but her mother was out on the street literally. Kamla, with no education, no marketable skills, and no future, was picked up and sold by a human broker and soon found herself 1,000 miles away on the streets of Bombay, India, working in a brothel. Sleeping on a single dirty mattress in a room infested with filth and disease, forced to have sex with up to 45 clients a day, facing 10 years of work as a prostitute to repay her debt to the brothel, Kamla had lost all hope.
Then, out of the ashes of degradation and separation, came new life. Through some of her sisters in the brothel, Kamla learned about the Teen Challenge Worship Center in Bombay. She began attending the Worship Center, and soon dedicated her life to God.
Teen Challenge and Shared Hope teamed up to pay Kamla's debt and buy her out of the brothel. She was given a place to live at one of Shared Hope's Home of Hope -a safe house in Bombay. But one piece was still missing from Kamla's life: Sunita.
In February 2000, Linda Smith, founder of Shared Hope International, met Kamla. She spoke with Kamla about her daughter. Linda returned home with a heart broken for this mother and daughter. What could be done? Was it even possible to reunite them?
It was discovered that Sunita was still living with her father and stepmother in Nepal as a housemaid and was nearing the age when many Nepali girls are sold into lives of prostitution and slavery.
It seemed it would take a miracle. That miracle came through Shared Hope, an arrangement was made to permanently place Sunita under her mother's care.
Two years after last seeing each other...two years filled with longing, fear, and despair...Kamla and Sunita embraced each other at the Shared Hope safe house in Nepal.
And that's where they are today. Protected from the slavery of the streets, and from the whims of a society that assigns them no value.
Besides food, clothing, and shelter for both, Kamla is getting the education and training she needs to be able to support herself and her daughter.
Sunita has received...new life. Yes, nothing less than new life. A new life for Sunita.
Please Pray for Shared Hope and the Women and Children they are helping.
Posted by: KingdomWarrior
Praying for these people. I will send this message out to those on my list. I have a dear friend who travels to India every year to do medical missions. She tells of stories like this often.
Posted by: akabezalel
SUZANNA'S STORY
How?
How could a stepfather rape the precious little girl entrusted in his care before she was even 10 years old?
How could a brother sell his young sister’s delicate body to the highest bidder over and over again?
How could a family hand over their daughter to violent gang members -- to become their sex slave and be sold as a prostitute?
You and I cannot comprehend such acts. If you’re like me, your first response was: “How could anyone be so cruel?” Such barbarism and hate are beyond our comprehension. But my disbelief ... your disbelief ... doesn’t stop it from happening.
It happened to Suzanna.
Born into a poverty-stricken area of Cape Town, South Africa, she was raped twice by her stepfather before she turned 10. She was gang-raped repeatedly, introduced to drugs, sold for sex by her brother, and became the “possession” of a vicious local gang.
The now 13-year-old tells a story of physical pain and horror that no child should endure.
The first time Suzanna was gang-raped, she recalls that the gang leader pulled out a gun, stuck it in her friend’s mouth, and shot her friend dead. “He said the same thing would happen to me if I resisted,” she said.
“It made me hard and very, very numb. Sometimes I would blackout ... other times I would crack up. I burned myself with cigarettes just to feel something.”
Suzanna is not alone. More and more women and children are turned into sex slaves across the nation. Some even prostitute themselves to buy food for their families. Fear has consumed Cape Town, South Africa, because gang members boldly knock on doors and demand daughters. Families sacrifice one to preserve the rest.
But now Hope has also entered Cape Town. On June 18, 2004, a new Home of Hope was dedicated in Cape Town, South Africa. The residence will house Suzanna and several other girls. All of these girls have been freed from a life of human slavery and sexual bondage. They now have a new life, and have risen from the ashes of slavery and despair. A life restored by you and others like you.
Now Suzanna doesn’t have to burn herself to feel something. She can experience joy, happiness and hope. Friends and loving, supportive staff surround her. Suzanna has a future filled with Hope and Restoration.
Please Prayer for the Women and Children and Shared Hope International.
Posted by: akabezalel
Inez's Story
Inez came to America from her home in Latin America when a woman offered to help her get work in a restaurant, so she could make money to send home to her family. "I told my mother about the offer, and she was skeptical," Inez recalls. "To help my family, I accepted."
Inez was smuggled into the U.S., then left in a trailer with other young women, and there was no restaurant work. "I met a woman ... She told me that I was actually going to be selling my body to men," Inez says. She immediately tried to find some way out.
"The girls in the trailer warned me that if I tried to escape, the men would find me and abuse me," she says. "I had no place to run. I was completely isolated." Monday through Friday 10-12 brothel customers abused her. Often, Inez was forced to service 40+ men a week.
Each day when the last customer was mercifully gone, she would fall limply into a bathtub - trying to get "clean", weeping despondently. Her life had become a nightmare from which she could not wake.
"The bosses had no mercy," she reports. "I felt terrible pains inside, and I asked repeatedly to be taken to a doctor, but no one took me." The only girls who were ever allowed to go to a doctor were those who became pregnant. They were taken to an abortionist and forced to submit to abortions.
In a way, Inez was one of the lucky ones. The Justice Department busted this crime ring and Inez was set free.
But where will Inez go? Her family and home are far away. She has been humiliated and abused so badly that she has lost all hope and self-esteem. She wants to bathe or shower all the time because she feels like she can never be clean again....
PLEASE PRAY for INEZ!
Posted by: Christian Commando
akabezalel, I don't know how accurate the stories about this I've heard before, but from those program hosts, it sounds like it's a world wide enterprise for getting these kids pretty much anywhere thru that "slave trade" deal. I'll definitely keep praying about this. Thanks. God Bless!
Posted by: Mrembo
Oh My goodness! This is so sad, unfair and devastating just to think about such acts. What is this world coming to i ask myself. People have become heartless and will do just about anything these days. Thanks Carol. I am praying for Shared Hope that they may succeed in saving this women and children from these experiences and bring them to safety and salvation in Jesus' mighty name, Amen.
Posted by: akabezalel
Up dated Address:
http://www . sharedhope . org/
This is another place where the Granny Commandos can put their prayer time to work!!!
Posted by: guardianangel
Father, I come to You in prayer for these women and children. Bring safety and a place to belong to them. Shelter them in Your wings. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.