In a large city in S. Asia there is a district about a mile square where somewhere in the range of 10,000 women sell their bodies daily. The women aren't there by choice, but through trafficking or poverty. The girls must service a number of customers per day just to make enough money to eat----slavery in the 21st century.
Some friends began a business there to give these women a choice to leave the sex trade by training them to make jute bags for export. The women earn twice the going rate for a similar job elsewhere. They receive health care, a pension plan, and childcare while they are at work. None of the foreigners who work at the factory receive a salary so all of the profits can go towards expanding the business. A new unit making organic cotton T-shirts opened in 2009.
There are 170 women working at the factory now. Just a drop in the bucket, however, compared to the ones still working the lanes outside.....
Our family moved to this district to join the work near the end of 2009. We can't think of anywhere else we'd rather serve!
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