Lina and her sister grew up in a brothel with an all but certain destiny. Just like their mother, their aunt, and the generations before them, prostitution was the unavoidable path. No one really had a choice because there seemed to be no other options. In their world, the daughters are the retirement plan—the only hope of survival for the mothers when they become too old or too sick to sell their bodies. The daughters enter prostitution so their mothers can exit.

That’s what makes Lina’s mother so extraordinary. She risked her future and her livelihood to help her two daughters escape the brothel and enter the care of our Local Partner. She was determined to give her daughters a different life.

Lina is writing a new story that will change every future generation of her family. Instead of inheriting prostitution, her children will inherent a loving family, an empowered mother, an opportunity for an education, and a world of possibility.

And there’s more. At the end of the wedding ceremony, Lina’s aunt (her mother’s sister) who was also in prostitution, and owns a brothel, approached our Local Partner. This aunt had been one of the critics who reprimanded Lina’s mother for letting her children leave the brothel, and giving up the income they would generate for her. But at that wedding, she saw the incredible future awaiting Lina, and the vibrant community surrounding the newly married couple. And for the first time ever, she asked if there was a way out for her daughter as well.

Yes there is. There is always a way out.