why are we fundraising for girls?
Most funding for street children goes to boys. Boys are seen on the streets much more often and many people find
the prostitution of boys or male child sexual abuse more shocking. We aim to redress the balance.

Girls from disadvantaged areas have been traditionally invisible. They're kept at home doing housework and looking
after younger siblings. They are often married off at puberty and are seen as commercial and expendable commodities.
Massive increases in tourism have brought a huge increase in paedophilia in beach areas such as Goa. Poverty and
abuse at home leads girls to run away to the big cities like Mumbai, where they are easy prey for pimps and
brothel-keepers.

There are 400,000 prostituted girls under the age of 16 in India.

Just think that's:

- seven Wembley Stadiums filled to capacity or
- the equivalent of the populations of Manchester or Miami or Auckland




what happens and why?
Girls are sold into prostitution within their own community because of poverty or Girls are lured
into prostitution by "friendly" tourists offering money or gifts or Girls run away because:

- There may be violence at home
- There may be sexual abuse at home
- Their parents may be trying to force them into an early marriage
- Their parents may have been misled by the offer of a "job" for them
- Girls may have been sold knowingly by their parents
- Girls may have been kidnapped and trafficked from another area
- Girls may have been lost and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time
- Girls mistakenly believe the bright lights of the city offer a new start

A girl arriving at Mumbai Central Station will be identified and approached within minutes. From here she will be sold
into prostitution or taken in by local pavement communities and exploited or she may end up with other street children
begging and stealing to survive. If this happens, she will never be able to return home.