India

Photo: Once trapped in lives of child labor with little hope, now rescued, safe and thriving at our India Girls Home.

Problem: Almost 50% of arranged marriages in India involve girls under the age of 18. Motivated by extreme cultural pressures, relatives of our Indian orphan girls try to claim legal rights to withdraw the girls from the orphanage as early as age 12 or 13 so they can arrange for their marriages.

Photo: These orphan girls recently rescued from child labor situations are now safe, and well on their way to recovery at our India girls home.

For nearly 20 years now, our India orphan care program has been rescuing orphan girls from human trafficking and child labor situations, rehabilitating them in a safe environment provided by a loving staff, and restoring their future to a bright path ahead with a solid education. In response to increasing reports of abductions and missing girls, we launched a recent campaign to find orphan girls in child labor or bonded servitude situations.