It was one of the most challenging months so far. While in India, I was gone for three of the major holidays. It was sad being away from home and the comforts of your routinely holiday traditions. Though it was tough, it has been a really rewarding month. I was able to meet so many new faces of women and girls who are longing to be loved.
During our time in India, my team stayed with an organization called Rescue Pink. Every day we had opportunities to be welcomed into homes of women living around our village. Our team would get to know them and ask them how Rescue Pink has helped them. The organization focuses on helping young girls stay out of child marriages. Our center at Rescue Pink (one of four locations) has roughly fifty girls ranging from ages 3-12 years old. Everyday they come to the organization (hosted in the house we lived) after school where we helped them with homework and they are given food and milk. If girls stay in school, they are less likely to be sold into a marriage at a young age. Rescue Pink wants to provide these young girls with a good education and a space for them to feel safe to do that.
More than half of the women in India are married before the legal minimum age of 18. Despite the law that now bans child marriages, they still take place. Here are a few reasons why child marriages still exist.
- Girls are considered to be a burden, and traditionally the attitude of the society has been to get her married as early as possible.
- Parents have to pay a dowry to marry off their daughter. If you marry them off early, the dowry payment is usually lower. (Giving or receiving dowry is a crime but it still happens).
- Parents see marriage as a way to secure a girls future socially and economically and to also protect them.
I heard an insane story from a woman (we will call her Mary) who talked to me about the struggles her family went through when she was growing up. She often shares her sisters testimony in order to encourage girls and young Mom’s to avoid child marriages. Mary grew up with a father who was a drunkard, and a Mother who provided the income for the household making $1 a month. Her mother was struggling to provide for her children. In order to protect her daughter, their mother arranged for Mary’s sister to be married off to her brother (Mary’s Uncle). Yes, this is real. Yes, this happens! Giving and receiving dowry is still very real and active today. Some families have to pay thousands of dollars (we were told a high dowry price was $40,000)to the husband and his family to arrange for their daughter to be married.
Rescue Pink has been dedicated to caring for the livelihood of these young girls. They teach them a phrase that they are “Strong, Brave, and Beautiful.” I’m so thankful to have been a part of this ministry, and I know that the Lord has his hand in it completely. I may not get to stick around to see the long term effects of what the organization will do, and how it will grow, but I know that lives are being changed. Spending time with those girls was a unique and special gift. It was better than any present that I would find under my tree.
