Article in National Catholic Reporter about young girls on India

My wife found this article dated November 13, 2009 in NCR that was quite gripping and relates to my story you've been following, specifically how the Dalit's of India are treated.  This article is about Secunderabad, the sister city to Hyderabad.  If you can find a copy at your local library I strongly suggest it.  I will do my best at summarizing here:

This Catholic mission helps kids get off the streets and in to schools.  They also provide shelter, food and clothing and a whole lot of love and care for their spirits!

Their work is to, "...rescue girls of the slums, the beggars, the ragpickers, society's castoffs, the poorest of the poor.  Too many of them have been sexually abused or exploited, some sold as prostitutes as young as Swathi..." (she is now 8)

They help children, "one at a time".  The most vulnerable population in India are these young girls.  This organization, as well as what we are planning on doing, attempts to break this "seemingly unending cycle of poverty."

Some of these girls do not even know their names,  nor how old they are.  They have been effectively orphaned since very early in life, sometimes as newborns just left on the road.

Here's an alarming, yet not uncommon, story among these young girls of India.

"We were taken to Prathyasha Bhavan (Home of Hope), where we found over 60 orphaned children, including Reena, a 6-year-old who had been kidnapped by the beggar mafia.  They wanted to make her an even better and more pitiable beggar.  They held her down and plunged a darning needle into her left eye, blinding her.  It was a scene right out of "Slumdog Millionaire," except this was a real girl standing before us who had been so cruelly maimed.  I looked down in horror.  Reena returned my look with the most beautiful smile I had ever seen."

So, there is hope folks.  Will we be agents of that hope or let days/weeks/months/years go by hearing of these atrocities and remain unaffected?

I am not trying to guilt you into any action or response.  That is not my job.  God might want you to do something with this information and that is between the two of you! :-)   I see my role as simply telling you their stories.  Stories that otherwise might get lost in the forray of business we all experience.