India (MNN) — The Red Light District in Pune, India is home to about
3,500 prostitutes and eunuchs, and 30% of children in this area are
HIV-positive. Dr. Lolita Edwards, a partner of Orphan Outreach,
runs the Santvana Home for HIV-positive children in the Shahabad Dairy
Slums of India. Recently she welcomed three more children from the red
light district into her home.
Images of Christianity are mixed and intermingled with images of Hindu gods in the Red Light District. Many women are children of prostitutes, have been sold into the business, or consider themselves servants of the goddess of prostitution; 80% of women are HIV-positive.
An Orphan Outreach clinic in the red light area provides health care for these women. When asked about their children, all of the women visiting the clinic agreed on a desire to see their children escape life in the brothels.
"Our hope is as we partner together, we will be used by our Lord to give hope to children living in the Red Light District of Pune," said Mike Douris, President of Orphan Outreach. "It is the children who can break this cycle of abuse, poverty, injustice and sorrow."
Dr. Edwards runs the Santvana Home, which feeds and supports HIV-positive children taken in from the Red Light District. The life they would otherwise face in nearby slums is bleak. Naked children run through the dusty streets, and the only water supply is a water truck that "hopefully comes once a day," says Douris. People sleep in shelters made of sticks wrapped in tarps or plastic sheeting.
Orphan Outreach praises God for the rescue of innocent children from this impoverished environment. Pray that the children will adjust well to the home and begin to know God's love for them.
