Day 4 in Jaipur, India with World Vision

Today we visited a village where there were no sex workers working in the community, this is because all of the attractive women within the village had been trafficked to Mumbai to work as bar dancers. This village was unlike all the other villages we had been in, these people lived in gated houses, with a toilet and sometimes even a television. Allen told us that these people were able to afford these houses because they sent their children away in order that they could send money home. The parents of the girls were living in a privileged way while their children were selling themselves to men. This was probably the village which I felt needed the most help, because it felt World Vision had the hardest task in trying to convince these people of the other options to commercial sex work. How was World Vision supposed to go into a village where no one is starving and they all live in relatively nice houses and tell them that they shouldn’t send their girls away, live a poor life and have to give up their house.

We went into the village, where there was room in which nutrition powder was produced by the older women in the village. This powder is made by the women out of materials given to them by World Vision, then made by the women who then sell it back to World
Vision. World Vision then gives it free of charge to those living with HIV and AIDS. The women are also able to give the nutritional powder to their own children as it helps them by boosting their immunity.

In the afternoon we went to watch a cricket match which is arranged by World Vision as a device to get all the children from the different villages together in order to play a game as a team, yet also learn and discuss certain things such as the issues surrounding sex and sexual health. It was such a good idea to incorporate a sport, which is loved within the communities and something as vital as sexual education.

We stayed in the village until late afternoon so that we could attend the youth forum and although I didn’t understand what was going on because none of it was in English I could see that this was another way in which to bring the youth together from all of the surrounding villages. These children were the future and they were being taught that communication and teamwork was key to the rest of their lives. These children were being given hope by World Vision. We were welcomed, and presented with more ‘mala’ (flower necklace), and also a beautiful shawl to put around our heads.