“Chantou,” in the business to save her grandchildren

Dear Friends,

Chantou (not her real name) is a grandmother working to save her youngest daughter, age 14, and her grandchildren by another daughter from the high-risk jobs in the city’s karaoke bars. These relatively good-paying jobs seem like the only answer to desperate young women who have cultural obligations to care for their parents and younger siblings—and don’t have any marketable skills. But this work is as dangerous as it is lucrative: In return for sex with the bar’s customers they receive not only money, but frequent abuse and diseases like HIV.

Chantou is a Christian, however, and wants to do anything she can to protect her youngest daughter and her grandchildren (their mother, Chantou’s older daughter, already works the bars).

That’s why Heaven’s Family stepped in to help. By providing a $450 grant from the Human Trafficking/Slavery Fund, Chantou could purchase a vending cart and enough stock to run her own cold-drinks business.

I really enjoyed the cold Coke I bought from Chantou that hot, steamy morning. But infinitely more I enjoyed the knowledge that Chantou’s grandchildren, whom I also met that day, have a grandmother who now has the financial means to save them from a life of abuse and heartache. Many of you are making that possible. Thanks to your love and compassion.

Because of Him,

Jeff Trotter
Director, Human Trafficking/Slavery Fund