Global organization raises awareness about the sex trade, tours U.S.


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SALT LAKE CITY — A group of girls from the other side of the globe could help a Utah nonprofit group in its goal to rescue kids from sex slavery.

Despite Operation Underground Railroad's incredible success rescuing kids, they need the advice of these experts.

“All of our girls are either born and raised in that red light area, they are mostly daughters of sex workers, a couple of our girls have been trafficked,” Robin Chaurasiya, co-founder of Kranti, said.

Girls with the Kranti organization are touring America and raising awareness about the sex trade and marginalized girls in India.

“What if a girl wants to be an astronaut or a journalist or a painter? We want to provide these girls any opportunity to fulfill their human potential,” Chaurasiya said.

In Utah they met with Timothy Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit organization that rescues children from slavery.

“These victims, the hardest thing for them is their self confidence is just at zero,” Ballard said.

The girls shared their stories — describing the discrimination and abuse they've endured because of their background.

“In school I have faced a lot of discrimination. They don't used to make me sit with them. I had a separate bench at the last row in the corner of the classroom,” Sandhya Nair, daughter of a sex worker, said.

Nair says she suffered severe depression after she was raped by multiple men at age 11.

“At the age of 11, you don't know what is happening to you,” Nair said.

Kranti now provides a safe place for her to live, and it’s helping her deal with her past and gain self-confidence.

“We know that what we need to do is partner with the experts. They need us and we need them,” Ballard said.

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Kathryn May

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